While there isn't a guaranteed way to force Google to use a specific image for your website, you can influence it through some steps:
1. Use Open Graph meta tags to specify which image you want to appear in search results. Add the following meta tags to the <head> section of your HTML:
<meta property="og:image" content="image.jpg" />
<meta property="og:image:width" content="1200" />
<meta property="og:image:height" content="630" />
2. Add structured data using Schema.org to provide more information about your webpage. Here’s an example of how to specify an image in the structured data:
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Organization",
"url": "https://www.website.com",
"logo": "logo.png",
"image": "image.jpg"
}
</script>
3. Make sure that your XML sitemap is up-to-date and includes the URL of the preferred image. This can help search engines find and index your image correctly.
4. Use Google Search Console to request indexing of your page after making the changes. This can help speed up the process of updating the search results.
By doing this, you can indicate to Google which image you'd prefer to display in search results, even if your logo remains at the top of your page.