Which image requirements apply to a movie carousel poster?

Definition: For a movie carousel, Google requires the image property to identify a crawlable, indexable image that represents the movie. The image must use .jpg, .png, or .gif, have a high resolution, and use a 6:9 aspect ratio.

Key facts

• Google's Movie structured data documentation lists image as a required property and accepts a URL or an ImageObject.
• The same documentation says the image URL must be crawlable and indexable, and the image must represent the marked up content.
• The movie-specific formats are .jpg, .png, and .gif.
• Google asks for a high-resolution image with a 6:9 aspect ratio. It can crop an image close to that ratio, while an image that deviates substantially is not eligible for the feature.
• Google's image SEO guidance says standard HTML image elements help crawlers find and process images, and that Google does not index CSS images.

What ratio and formats does Google document?

The movie page defines the poster requirement in the image property table. Google specifies a high-resolution image with a 6:9 aspect ratio. This is a width-to-height ratio, so a poster is taller than it is wide. The page allows cropping when an image is close to 6:9, but says that images largely deviating from the ratio are not eligible for the feature.

For this movie carousel requirement, the supported file extensions named by Google are .jpg, .png, and .gif. The page does not list WebP, SVG, or AVIF in this movie-specific format requirement. The image must also represent the movie described by the markup. Google lists image as a URL or ImageObject, followed by the separate required name property for the movie title.

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Movie",
  "name": "A Star Is Born",
  "image": "https://example.com/photos/6x9/photo.jpg"
}

The example uses the same movie type, title, and 6:9-style image URL shown in Google's documentation. The shortened form omits other properties from the full list example.

How should the poster URL be exposed?

The image URL in structured data must be crawlable and indexable. Google's image guidance adds a page-level implementation detail: standard HTML image elements help crawlers find and process images. Google can find an image in the src attribute of an img element, including an element inside picture, and the guidance says CSS images are not indexed.

If a page uses responsive images, Google recommends a fallback URL in src because some browsers and crawlers do not understand picture or srcset. A minimal pattern is:

<picture>
  <img
    src="https://example.com/photos/6x9/photo.jpg"
    alt="A Star Is Born movie poster"
  >
</picture>

Google's image documentation also says an image sitemap can provide image URLs that Google might not otherwise find. It allows image sitemap image:loc entries to use URLs from other domains, and recommends verifying ownership of a CDN domain in Search Console when a CDN hosts the images.

Does the carousel change the image rule?

The movie documentation says a movie carousel lets users explore movies in Google Search and is available only on mobile devices. Its image rule remains attached to each Movie item: the image value represents that movie, and the name value supplies the movie name.

Google's general image guidance covers several Search features and products and says the general recommendations for getting images to appear in them are the same. It also recommends consistently referencing an image with the same URL when it appears on multiple pages, so Google can cache and reuse it without requesting it repeatedly.

Related terms

• Structured data
• JSON-LD
• Image alternative text
• Must images referenced in structured data be indexable?

FAQ

What aspect ratio should you use for a movie poster?

Use a high-resolution image with a 6:9 aspect ratio. Google can crop an image that is close to 6:9, while a large deviation makes it ineligible for the movie carousel feature.

Which file formats can you use?

For the movie image property, use .jpg, .png, or .gif. Google’s movie documentation names these three formats in its image guidelines.

Can you use a responsive image?

Yes. Google recommends a fallback URL in the HTML src attribute when you use picture or srcset, because some crawlers do not understand those responsive image attributes.

Sources

1. Google Search Central, "Movie carousel (Movie) structured data", updated 8 September 2026
2. Google Search Central, "Image SEO Best Practices", updated 2 March 2026

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