Competing with other local businesses is a real challenge when boosting your website to the top of search engine results pages (SERPs). It is common practice to include images on a business website to spice up the design, but these images are rarely optimized for search engines. This is crucial because locally optimized photos can boost a website’s search engine rankings with just a little bit of work.
One way to achieve that is with geotagging. Doing this will greatly increase your chances of appearing higher in local searches where you’ll be much more likely to receive the clicks, leads, and conversions you’re looking for. Learn the basics of geotagging, its importance, and how to geotag photos for better search engine rankings.
Table of Contents
What Is Geotagging and Why Does It Matter?
Geotagging refers to the practice of including geographical coordinates (such as latitude and longitude) in an online resource. Adding geolocation information to images is the most popular method of incorporating such data into a website. Invisible to human visitors, this data is read, cataloged, and analyzed by search engines as they trawl the web in search of information.
Using geotagging, you can tell search engines where your photo was taken. By incorporating them into your site, you can identify the location you are trying to promote, helping rank better in local search results.
How to Use Google My Business (GMB) Geotagging
Many entrepreneurs are unfamiliar with EXIF data and the process of geotagging images to improve their visibility in local search engine results. Changing this one thing can greatly impact how high you appear in search results.
Geotagging Images with EXIF Data
Finding the EXIF, or the Exchangeable Image File Format, data is the first step in geotagging an image. File formats for any photos stored on your Google My Business profile are recorded here, along with other details like GPS coordinates and camera settings.
You’ll see many other details, and you can modify some of them in the properties section to improve your Google Maps SEO. But to add or modify your geotags, you’ll need a special tool to edit the location information.
A Step-by-Step Guide to Adding Geotags
When someone is searching for something in the area, you want search engines deliver results to those nearby. Adding geotags to your firm’s images is as simple as using web-based tools. Just follow these steps:
- Go to latlong.net to find the latitude and longitude geographic coordinates for the company address you want to attach to the image.
- Go to tool.geoimgr.com to add the latitude and longitude coordinates to the image.
- Click the light blue box in the upper right portion of the screen to select the image you want to modify.
- Enter the latitude and longitude you recorded from the previous step. The map should update to the correct location.
- To have the program insert geotag data, click on “Write EXIF Tags.”
- Save the updated image with geotags by clicking “Download.”
You need to do this for all the images already on your GMB profile and any that you want to add in the future. You may have to wait for Google to index these images, but once they do, your business profile should rise in local search results almost immediately.
The Bottom Line
Including geotags in your photos is crucial for local search engine optimization. By helping potential customers find your business through your location, you can boost your sales tremendously.