Difference between UK and US lead image in business knowledge panel

[Claire Carlile]

I've been struggling with this for a while - while trying to influence the lead image shown in the business knowledge panel in the UK I've noticed that 'see photos' on *some* businesses links to aGoogle image search - rather than images on maps, examples are attached below.

When a client isn't happy about the image showing in the knowledge panel we usually say 'optimise your images in GMB and choose your cover photo carefully.'. This advice sadly doesn't work for a business that has its primary image in the knowledge panel populated by a third party site, and 'see photos' popolated by image search. I've advised these businesses to make sure they nest image schema into whatever organisational schema they are using on their site to see if this works for them, as well as having well optimised relevant images on their site - but so far as per this example Google is still usig a crappy out of date image from a third party site.

I just thought this was interesting to note - because in the US this doesn't appear to be an issue at all - regardless of the entity size or type the business knowledge panel links through to images on maps, rather than through to image search as per the UK.

Does anyone have any experience of this or thoughts on this? Thought it might be an interesting topic for agencies and practitioners servicing clients in different countries. I made this little video to show the different type of 'see photos' functionality - link here:

2019-05-02_16-10-15.mp4

Looking forward to your thoughts and insights! Thanks, Claire

 

[JoyHawkins]

This is intriguing. I'm going to ask some others in the UK to see if they've noticed this before and see if they can chime in.

 

[stankolev]

I think it is European. From Bulgaria is the same as UK. Also you can tweak it with gl parameter in the url:

chester zoo - Google Search

chester zoo - Google Search

chester zoo - Google Search

 

[JoyHawkins]

I wanted to add that I asked Google about it and they said it's been like this for some time and is working as intended.

 

[Claire Carlile]

That's great and really handy with the gl parameter - thank you! Do you reckon this is some European Google anti trust thing? When Google links to maps photos they are exclusively offering results that 'belong' to them (if you know what I mean) and with an image search they open up the results to third parties.

 

[Claire Carlile]

I wanted to add that I asked Google about it and they said it's been like this for some time and is working as intended.

In place since they got fined 1.7 billion in March 2019?