Google is now indexing SVG files. SVG, which stands for scalable vector graphics, is a widely-deployed, royalty-free,  XML-based format for vector graphics and support for interactivity. The format was developed and is maintained by the W3C SVG Working Group.

"We're big fans of open standards, and our mission is to organize the world’s information, so indexing SVG is a natural step," a joint post from software engineers Bogdan Stanescu and John Sarapata on the Google Webmaster Central Blog says.

"We index SVG content whether it is in a standalone file or embedded directly in HTML," the pair add. "The web is big, so it may take some time before we crawl and index most SVG files, but as of today you may start seeing them in your search results."



Google says that if you host SVG files and you wish to exclude them from search results, you can use the "X-Robots-Tag: noindex" directive in the HTTP header. More info about robots exclusion protocol can be found here.

Google has a full list of the file-types it indexes here.