Getting the Most out of Google Maps and Local SEO with your Camera
It was only last week when I decided to stroll into the Surrey countryside with my other half for a walk. While we were walking I decided to take some photos of the beauty spots we encountered along the way. Included were two pubs, one called The Anchor Pub Restaurant in Pyrford, right by the lock and the other The Seven Stars. Upon arriving home I decided to geographically tag them on Google Maps.
If you have a Flickr account it has always been very easy to geo tag your images and plot them onto Google Maps. Another piece of software or website that offers this service is Panoramio. Up until recently this did not have much impact on local search when looking on Google for a pub in Surrey. However this has now changed and one of the main reasons is the rise and rise of the smartphone.
GEO Tag Images
If you own an iPhone or an Android smartphone your images will automatically be geo tagged. Those fortunate enough to own an iPhone currently store their images all on iPhoto, and a recent upgrade to its systems now allows geo tagging as soon as images have been taken from your iPad, iPod Touch or iPhone. What this means is Google Maps is now becoming awash with tagged images which actually helps searching for local business become an SEO-orientated feature.
Create Citations
Another way of getting your business on the front page of the search engine locally is to find citations and create citations across the web. You do not even have to have a back link simply a mention of your company, preferably along with your business address and phone number. Now when Google does its spider crawling across the net, it will see a citation and actually mark you up by one point. This in turn will see your local business work its way towards that all important front page.
There is something even better than having a simple citation or two and that is having one on a site that is trustworthy. Google ranks every site for its trustworthiness and a citation present on one of these sites will gain even more gold stars for your business to move it slowly towards the all elusive front page.
It is vital in local SEO to get a mention of the best sites and they don’t come much bigger than Google Maps.