New tactics have to be employed to remain successful in internet marketing. Geotagging is one such tactic, which is also a demand by the latest updates to Google’s algorithms.
Internet marketing depends on search engine optimization whose main component is optimizing image data or EXIF data.
Geotagging means linking geographical coordinates to your images, videos, social media content, and websites. Doing so helps users as well as search engines to be aware of the geographical location of your website.
It assigns latitude, longitude, or geographical metadata to optimize your specific web pages on local search engine results pages (SERPs). With the constantly changing analytics and algorithms of major search engines, it is crucial you geotag all your web data along with optimal keyword use to boost your target traffic.
This technology is an integral part of image optimization and will help you form a digital presence with images thus creating a sense of trust among visitors. Learn to geotag photos online here.
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How to Geotag Images for SEO: Steps
Before continuing with some general issues, here are the specific steps to take. We will list them below:
- Take advantage of the many online tools to help you geotag your images
- Find your Business Coordinates on Google My Business (simply right-click on the marker of your map).
- You can then upload your image and if the image already features a location, then it will show on the map.
- An optional but recommended tip is to amplify your SEO by adding additional EXIF (Exchangeable Image File Format) tags
- Once you have tagged EXIF, your geotagged photo is ready for download and use on your website.
An important tip you need to keep in your mind is to use geotagged images when signing up for suitable directories for your business, social media sites (like YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, etc.), Google My Business, press-release distribution, blog sites, etc.
Some General Tips
- Ensure you enable GPS to your images
Companies that manufacture internet-enabled devices and related gadgets are trying as much as possible to keep up with technologies. Today, it is hard to find any modern smartphone that is not enabled with GPS.
Therefore, you must ensure every time you take any photos all of them are GPS enabled. Doing this automatically adds location and geographical coordinates to your image. This makes it very easy for you to geotag.
- Ensure the right size, right format, and right compression
Google analytics and algorithms have recommendations on image specifications. Accordingly, the right format is mpg, jpg, jpeg, etc. There is also a size restriction. So, if you have to deal with large-sized images then you will be forced to compress them to the specified size.
Large-size images may look nice but they have the effect of slowing down your website. Always aim for pictures less than 100kbs but only if possible. A good image compressor that is also free is the compressor.oi but there are premium ones too.
Videos too can be compressed. High-quality videos may be very heavy and thus may slow down your website. You should aim at compressing each large video to at most 3mbs. Several free websites exist to help you with video compression. A good example is Freeconvert. Check it out.
- Upload On Which Websites?
Is it a good idea to geotag all your websites? We’ll say no, it is not necessary. It will make a lot of sense if you upload your geotagged photos only to the most important pages such as the homepage, testimonial page, contacts page as well as other pages you wish your audience to connect with you.
- Mind Where You Place The Image
This may sound mundane but it is a major determinant of how visitors will interact with your webpage. Experts say human eyes are designed to psychologically and physically read from the left to the right.
Therefore, placing an image on the left side of your page will most likely attract readers’ attention and ensure they are kept engaged on your site. Although not mandatory, add captions to help the user understand the image.
- Include Alt-Text
This is the short form of alternate text on your image. It greatly assists search engines to locate your image. The alt-text adds up in HTML format to your image. This crucial SEO tool can make a huge difference in geotagging.
Just to exemplify, an image you take with your smartphone or digital camera may be stored with a random name such as 0.23242.jpg. Uploading such an image in that condition or without alt-text will through off the search engines and so won’t be identified.
You must also write a relevant alt-text because that’s what the search engine will work with. Also, when the website is slow, the text can be read to help the viewer know what the image is all about.
Wrapping It Up
Geotagging photos is crucial to the performance of any website. Knowing how to geotag photos will help boost sales tremendously. Google is the king of search engines and therefore optimizing according to their algorithms and analytics will give you a head start. Doing your part is very important if you must succeed and it starts with geotagging.