Do you optimise your images for your Google+Local sites?

[Greg]

Hi there everyone,

Hope this year is going to be really prosperous for all of you.......

When I first started with Google Places for my clients, I read that you needed to optomise (name) all the 10 images with the business name and the location.

In other words - an image could be names as follows:
optometrists-johannesburg-eyecare

Just curious to find out whether any of you do this?
Does it make any difference at all?

Best regards

Greg

 

[Linda Buquet]

Re: Do you optomise your images for your Google+Local sites?

I'm not certain it helps but I do it. I believe it helps though because I had a client that I had NOT done that for. His ranking dropped - just normal ranking shuffle. So I deleted all his images and re-did them with city+KW names. He popped from #6 back up to #2.

In my training I teach 3 levels of image optimization and that's just number one. I would always do that one basic one, because it's easy.

Then going a step further you can also geo optimize the images and beyond that you can fully optimize the image with tags (KWs), description and lat/long. One of these days when I get time I'll try to do a post explaining how to do all the various options.

 

[David Deering]

Re: Do you optomise your images for your Google+Local sites?

I think that anytime that you add alt tags and titles to your images helps in terms of SEO. In my opinion, every little thing like that helps. And Linda, I think that would be a great topic for a thread, when you get a chance.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Re: Do you optomise your images for your Google+Local sites?

Yes ON-SITE that helps a lot. Very important!

But I think he was talking about the G+L page. FYI I was talking about optimizing images with tags and description in the properties of the image right on your computer before you upload. Just realized maybe that was not clear.

 

[David Deering]

Re: Do you optomise your images for your Google+Local sites?

Ah. Sorry, I should have noticed that; thanks for clarifying, Linda. But I agree that both are very important. And I'd love to learn your tips and those of others on image optimization for G+.

 

[Keenan Glass]

Re: Do you optomise your images for your Google+Local sites?

Definitely, also note that images uploaded in G+ can show up in image search.

 

[Greg]

Thanks Linda,

You confirmed my thoughts.

Please do the post that you referred to....appreciate it.

Regards

Greg

---------- Post Merged at 10:49 AM ---------- Previous Post was at 10:40 AM ----------

Yes ON-SITE that helps a lot. Very important!

But I think he was talking about the G+L page. FYI I was talking about optimizing images with tags and description in the properties of the image right on your computer before you upload. Just realized maybe that was not clear.

Yip that is exactly what I was referring to Linda - renaming the image on my computer BEFORE uploading it to G+L.

As a matter of interest:
- do you upload the images to Flickr and Panoramio and geo-optimise them there?

I read somewhere that on one or both of those sites they didn't allow posting images for business - do you know if that is the case?

Regards

Greg

 

[Greg]

Re: Do you optomise your images for your Google+Local sites?

Definitely, also note that images uploaded in G+ can show up in image search.

Thanks Keenan,

Thats an interesting point to consider....However, I'm just wondering how that would work?

If someone was searching for images for "physiotherapy" and your images were named "new york-physiotherapy" surely G wouldn't show yours???

I'm not sure but perhaps if your images are named without the location then they would show in the image search? What do you think?


Regards

Greg

 

[JoshuaMackens]

Re: Do you optomise your images for your Google+Local sites?

Thanks Keenan,

Thats an interesting point to consider....However, I'm just wondering how that would work?

If someone was searching for images for "physiotherapy" and your images were named "new york-physiotherapy" surely G wouldn't show yours???

I'm not sure but perhaps if your images are named without the location then they would show in the image search? What do you think?


Regards

Greg

G will show them if there is enough weight to justify it. However, an image search isn't going to really produce a client more than likely.

I have a chiropractor in a city and when you do an image search for chiropractor, all his images show up first due to the keyword image title optimization that I did. They were taken from our G+L page, not our website. So, yes, G does use those photos.

When you said "I'm not sure but perhaps if your images are named without the location then they would show in the image search? What do you think?" are you talking about a global search for "physiotherapy"? If so, I highly doubt it would show up. That's a very competitive term but you also have to realize ranking for that term wouldn't do any good for your local client. They need traffic that is localized, not global, right? I might be missing something here.

 

[Marie Ysais]

I have named my images with keyword plus city but I have not been able to test that factor to see if it does or doesn't help. Linda, thanks for sharing your experience! I have only recently started to read about geotaging.
Linda, you said in your training you talk about images ? does that mean in the G+ training?

 

[Linda Buquet]

Linda, you said in your training you talk about images ? does that mean in the G+ training?

Yes the Advanced G+ L Training.

I have 2 courses. Advanced G+ L Training is all about the G+ L page and stuff you deal with right in the Places dashboard. Time saving tips, ranking techniques, bypassing common problems, shortcuts, troubleshooting, etc. Optimizing images for the G+ L page is part of that and I give you info about a FREE program that does lots of the work for you.

The 2nd course is all about ON-SITE Local SEO, local hooks and includes the local SEO template.

So #1 deals with everything on the G+L page and #2 deals with everything right on the clients site. But it all ties together to help boost ranking in blended where both listings combine into one.

 

[Linda Buquet]

As a matter of interest:
- do you upload the images to Flickr and Panoramio and geo-optimise them there?

I read somewhere that on one or both of those sites they didn't allow posting images for business - do you know if that is the case?

Not sure about their respective TOS, should always check before using.

But I know lots of people that used to geotag images online on those sites before, then upload the online image to G+ L.

Thing is the online image upload feature has not worked for ages. Maybe it's working now??? Has anyone tried it??? For ages it didn't work at all.

IF online uploads are working again another thing to try. Back when it DID work I would always upload one or 2 images from the client site. Thinking it would boost trust that yes this site and this Place page belong together. IF you are working on the client site and could get the image renamed from logo.jpg to citydentist.jpg before you upload then I think that's really idea.

BUT not sure the online upload feature ever got fixed. I can't test on my listing cuz I merged so can't edit in Places dash any more.

 

[Kristen]

I have always geotagged and named images city + keyword on Picasa, Flickr and Panoramio without any problems. One of those photos was actually the logo with phone number and business slogan - no problems so far.

In my experience when I did this before claiming a Google Plus local page for a local business that had nearly zero citations online, I was able to verify by phone rather than postcard. I also went ahead and set up citations several of the larger directories as well to try and add some legitimacy around the business for Google.

This was back in June of 2012, but it may still have some validity today - you never know!

 

[Colan Nielsen]

I have always geotagged and named images city + keyword on Picasa, Flickr and Panoramio without any problems. One of those photos was actually the logo with phone number and business slogan - no problems so far.

Hi Kristen,

Can you expand a little on what exactly your process looked like for doing this? Thnx!

 

[Kristen]

Hi Kristen,

Can you expand a little on what exactly your process looked like for doing this? Thnx!

Absolutely. I created an image for the 5 categories and 5 main keywords.

Then my process was as follows:
- Name each image keyword+city+state
- Optimize the image itself (Properties > Details > In the title I put the keyword+city+state and in the comments I put the NAP and website)
- Then I would upload all images to Panoramio, Flickr and Picasa and Geotag each image. In Panoramio I used their code that lets you make your keyword a link in the comment section, so the NAP and website were also added into the comment section for each image with a link back to the site.

It may seem a little spammy and not necessarily what these image sharing sites are looking for, but I've never had any problems with it and this has always seemed to give new campaigns a bit of a boost.

Hope that helps.

 

[Greg]

Absolutely. I created an image for the 5 categories and 5 main keywords.

Then my process was as follows:
- Name each image keyword+city+state
- Optimize the image itself (Properties > Details > In the title I put the keyword+city+state and in the comments I put the NAP and website)
- Then I would upload all images to Panoramio, Flickr and Picasa and Geotag each image. In Panoramio I used their code that lets you make your keyword a link in the comment section, so the NAP and website were also added into the comment section for each image with a link back to the site.

It may seem a little spammy and not necessarily what these image sharing sites are looking for, but I've never had any problems with it and this has always seemed to give new campaigns a bit of a boost.

Hope that helps.

Hi Kristen,

Brilliant information....thanks.

The million dollar question is - can all this be done after the listing has been completed and gone live?

If so, what is the best way to do it without causing Google any problems?

Also, for the G+L listing, did you upload the optomised images from your computer or the geotagged ones from Picasa or one of those?

Regards

Greg

 

[Kristen]

Hi Kristen,

Brilliant information....thanks.

The million dollar question is - can all this be done after the listing has been completed and gone live?

If so, what is the best way to do it without causing Google any problems?

Also, for the G+L listing, did you upload the optomised images from your computer or the geotagged ones from Picasa or one of those?

Regards

Greg

Hi Greg,

I have done this after a listing has been claimed and I have never seen any problems. I more or less see this as part of the citation process.

I use the images that were created to upload to Google and every other site where I'm getting a citation. One thing I've never done is put these photos on the website, but that might be an interesting thing to test.

Thanks,
Kristen