latest news
Geotagging – what it is and why it matters
To grow your local business, you need local results from web searches. You need to stand out to customers in your local area, and get information to them when they need it.
Ideally, you want your business to feature prominently in Google Maps. But it’s hard to make your business stand out from the others, and there are only three spots available in the main search results.
Great imagery can make your listing stand out, but if your photos and images aren’t geotagged, they are basically invisible in search engines.
Geotagging is essential for helping your listing rank better and appear in the top choices of map listings within the search engine results.
What is geotagging?
Your business listing needs to have as many positive signals being sent to Google as possible.
Geotagging is the process of adding information to a photo. In this context, we are adding GPS coordinates and keywords to an image.
This information is stored as metadata – which means it’s attached to the image, the information is read by Google, but it’s not shown on the image when viewed.
All this data sends a signal to Google that your business is local, and it helps to make a connection between your business and the location. In doing so, it helps your business to rank in the maps section of search.
Why are maps so important?
Map listings feature prominently in search engine results (after Google Ads). This indicates that this data is viewed as more valuable than the organic listings below.
If your business can be listed in the maps section, your information can be viewed first in the hierarchy, and thus has an increased chance of being clicked on and driving more traffic to your site.
This also helps your organic ranking, as the act of having more people view your website from the maps listing sends further signals to Google that your site is useful.
How do I geotag my images?
At My Wellness Prōject, we use GeoImgr. It’s easy, low cost, and it works!
We simply upload our image, enter the address of our business, add relevant keywords to the photo, and then add the metadata to the image. We then download the updated image to be used in Google My Business and our website.
Like many things with search engine optimisation, it’s a small act that adds up to a big result over time.
