Changes to Pictures next to listings

[Margaret Ornsby]

Has anyone else noticed a change in the pictures in the search results?

I've noticed a marked decrease in the number of photos showing next to listings and was wondering what was behind it. Of the sites I can recall that used to have the image and now don't, for the most part it seems the common denominator is incorrect use of rel=author instead of rel=publisher.

Sites that use rel=publisher still seem to have their images. And I love,love,love that G isn't putting a logo next to the image, they're putting the face of the page that's the author.

Can anyone else verify this?

 

[ARKlady ARKtechCo]

Thanks for bringing this up. I noticed a change yesterday but have not done any sleuthing yet.

We've been using rel=author for a while because the face is what people respond to best.

Sadly, there still is a lag on photo updates, we found a bunch of odd ones listed as uploaded by owner but did not upload them nor are they in the back end.

Glitch? Anyone else?

 

[Linda Buquet]

Sadly, there still is a lag on photo updates, we found a bunch of odd ones listed as uploaded by owner but did not upload them nor are they in the back end.

Glitch? Anyone else?

That usually is a pretty strong indication there is a hidden merged dupe. Meaning it's dual claimed and the listing is also claimed in someone else's dashboard which is a violation and can cause lots of other problems. Have you explored that?

 

[ARKlady ARKtechCo]

Yes, so far no luck. They was a shady seo company working on the G+ prior to our fixing things, so you may in fact be right, but we have not yet been able to identify it yet if it does exist.

Thoughts?

 

[Linda Buquet]

How many categories on the live listing when you view edit details?

Does description in dash match what's live?

 

[ARKlady ARKtechCo]

Five categories that we had entered and at this point it is hard to say since we worked with the Google team to get the listings live and verified and that was only August 7th.

Even though they were claimed and verified, both only show the About & Photos tab and no verified check mark yet. I've been sitting waiting basically before messing with too much moving forward since it takes a while for the dust to settle.

However, I just emailed the support guy this week. Recent changes from Google aside, it has taken a while to get them live. I figured we might have to sit a bit longer.

BTW they are still in the old dashboard as well.

 

[Margaret Ornsby]

We've been using rel=author for a while because the face is what people respond to best.

Interesting you bring that up face issue up. What I've observed is if people set up publisher and author correctly, Google seems to follow the trail and post a persons photo - even if the publisher page image is a logo.

Maybe I've just been lucky in what I've investigated, but I can honestly say I've never seen a logo in the picture beside a listing.

Does anyone know, is this my good luck or....

 

[Linda Buquet]

Maybe I've just been lucky in what I've investigated, but I can honestly say I've never seen a logo in the picture beside a listing.

Does anyone know, is this my good luck or....

I reported they were showing for a brief time. Not necessarily just logos, but non headshot images. But they are gone now.

Google+ Business Images in the Local SERPs - New and HOT for Local!