The famous saying is, “a picture tells a thousand words” but whoever wrote that must not have known that to Google 95% of all images are of absolutely no value to Google’s algorithm. If your image is of no value to Google then they will not affect your rankings in any way. But if you can add value to your images, now those graphics and photos that make people want to share your article, also make Google want more people to see your content. That’s why this is your 5 step solution to make your images as valuable to Google as they are to the visitors to your site.
Creating this value is performed through a very simple process – geo-tagging. Geo-tagging labels your image with a location. In terms of Local SEO purposes, this is a HUGE deal! It allows a business to reinforce to Google that they are exactly where their Google My Business (formerly known as Google Places), which in turn will help move you up in the Google Map Pack and for location based searches (e.g. carpenters brisbane, house cleaners sydney). This can be a massive source of traffic you can direct towards your site and, hopefully convert into leads.
The map pack is responsible for a significant portion of traffic for sites and according to Google users, is the most trusted and relevant result they can receive. With that in mind, we want to do anything possible to improve where we appear, especially when you consider only the top 3 businesses get the opportunity to appear in the map pack.
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So you know what geotagging is and why it is important to you, so how do you do it!?
Step 1: Compress the Image
Compressing your image is an important part of the process when it comes to managing your site’s speed. Uploading large images to your site will significantly slow down site speed. This not only will impact users once they arrive on your website, but site speed is also a ranking factor for Google and due to that all businesses need to follow best practices. Compressing your images is just another piece of the puzzle.
Compressing must be done before you geotag as it will remove any pre-existing geotags on the file already. It is also important to, if needed, change your file into a .jpeg or .jpg file type. I recommend this free site to do it, just upload your file, choose your file quality and click convert.
From there, head to the site TinyJPG and upload your files for compression. Once that’s done, download your compressed files.
Step 2: Geo-Tag Your Image
To actually tag your image you first need your business’s GPS coordinates as they appear on your Google My Business or Google Places Listing. If you haven’t yet recorded these, watch this simple 30 second walkthrough.
Once you have your coordinates, you can take them to The Xifer to geo-tag your image.
Select Drop Files Here to Upload and select all of the images you just compressed
Next, click on the eXif all the images button at the bottom of your screen
Click across to the geo-tag tab and enter your coordinates as you took them from maps (the page does not accept ‘-’ signs for south and west so when you enter your coordinates – use the drop down menus to select the compass direction
Next hit set map button when you are done, wait for the site to process this and then you will be prompted at the top of the page to re-download your geo-tagged images.
Step 3: Check the Tag
As a form of best practice, I find it best to add in a checking process. All this involves is: head to GeoImgr, upload one of your newly geo-tagged images and confirm the coordinates which appear are correct. If not go back and repeat Step 2 above.
Step 4: Name the Image
Now that your images are geo-tagged correctly, naming them properly is very important:
- Open Finder for OSX or File Explorer for Windows computers
- Right click on an image and select rename.
- From there you want to name your image with your targeted keywords in mind. If I wanted to rank for “Brisbane plumber” then I would incorporate that into my title.
Remember, instead of spaces in between words, use a hyphen between each word like the example below:
Step 5: Add Some Alt-Text
Alt-text is the final step for your image and can only be done when you upload the image to a page on your website. With WordPress sites this is a feature that is easily accessible and for other backends, this will still be possible.
When uploading the image, some kind of box like below should appear. Here is where you would enter your alt-text as shown. This alt-text should also contain targeted keywords of a similar vein to the image name. However, it should also read as a sentence as I have demonstrated.
And voila! Your images are ready to make Google fall in love with your business. Although one geo-tagged image is unlikely to cause an overnight change, ensuring this process is always followed will slowly but surely give your business the edge over all of your competitors. After repeatedly using over and over again we have gotten it down to roughly minutes. Although it might seem like a significant time investment to learn at the beginning, it is one well worth its weight in gold!
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