Image license metadata are ImageObject declarations that publishers use to tell Google who holds the rights to an image and how it can be licensed. Alongside the mandatory contentUrl, Google requires at least one of the properties creator, creditText, copyrightNotice or license; for the Licensable badge in Google Images, license is obligatory, and Google additionally recommends acquireLicensePage as the page for acquiring a licence. Google also reads IPTC photo metadata embedded directly in the image, such as Copyright Notice, Credit Line or Licensor URL, though structured data on the page takes precedence where the two conflict. As a complement to the existing VideoObject entry, this markup covers the machine-readable declaration of licence information for still images in Google Images.
In practice
Agencies and editorial teams that use their own photography or graphics should give every image individual license, creditText and creator declarations, instead of mentioning licensing information only in general terms in the footer – Google requires this per image instance. Where the markup is set correctly, the "Licensable" badge can appear in Google Images, so that users see straight away that the image can be licensed and find their way to the licence page. For websites with stock photos or client photos, embedding IPTC data directly in the image file is also advisable as a fallback layer. Check the implementation with the Rich Results Test and by spot checks in Google Search before rollout. For the photography and graphic design services of Austrian agencies in particular, this markup is a simple lever for making attribution and licensing routes visible while improving discoverability in Google Images.