Google Business Profiles have been around for a few years now, and Google is rapidly shifting towards more image-based content, moving away from text-heavy information. How to optimise Google Business Profile images for local SEO? And is this important.

optimise Google Business Profile images for local SEO

In a 2022 study by Mike Blumenthal, it was noted that photos occupied around 2% of the screen space in 2016, rising to 30% by 2022 for local searches on mobile. As the digital world has evolved, this figure is likely even higher now. We used to say, “content is king”, but for local SEO, it seems “visuals may be king”.

So, what are the changes?

  1. Videos and photos now take prime position when you open a Google Business Profile (GBP).
  2. These images are switched out by Google based on the search term. Google uses AI to identify the content of your GBP photos and can even collate them into a slideshow.
  3. Search-by-image technology has been a significant focus for Google, and these images are also pulled into AI overviews for users.
  4. Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) often feature “people also searched for”, and images are widely used in this section too.

As has been said for a while, visuals are important, and for your GBP this is absolutely the case.We all aim to:

  1. Be trusted and chosen by potential clients or customers.
  2. Improve and increase our ranking signals.
  3. Be visible for search results that precisely match the user’s intent.
  4. Always appear professional, trustworthy, and competent to searchers.
  5. Earn trust in a world where there are so many fake sites—showing that we truly are who we say we are.
  6. Focus on GBP image optimisation.  Ensuring you are naming images correctly and completing all the meta data possible to ensure the intent behind the image is clear. 

If you have any questions about how you are seen, heard, or found online, or if you’d like to have your Local SEO checked with our free local search visibility checker, click here:
https://netbranding.co.nz/blog/reputation-management-and-local-seo/

The above is a great way to kickstart and enhance local rankings.