Those days are gone, at least for now, which means that when you publish a post on Google My Business you’ve got to manually upload your optimized image into your “Additional Photos” section.

To follow is a step-by-step process on how to do just that. It’s not hard once you know what to do. And if you’re wondering why you need to upload these photos into your Google My Business listing, it’s because it adds a little more optimization to your listing, which can give it more authority — helping it rank higher when someone searches for what you do.

If you need help optimizing your photos, check out Part 4 of this series, Optimizing Your Images, for more info.

Step 1

To begin, you’ll first need to sign into your Google My Business listing. Your Google user name and password should be the same for all your business-related Google accounts (Gmail, Google+, Google Docs, etc.)

Step 2

Once you’re logged in, you should see a page that looks like this …

Click on the “Photos” tab, and then scroll all the way down to the bottom until you see the “Additional Photos” region.

While you’re scrolling down to the bottom of the page, you’ll see other regions — like “Interior” and “Exterior” photos, and “Team” photos. If any of these additional regions are relevant to the photo you’re uploading, it’s totally OK to upload your optimized photo there. Otherwise, go with the “Additional Photos” section.

Step 3

Click on the “Add a Photo” link. If there are no photos in a section yet, you may find a “Add One Now” button to click so you can add your photo.

Next, you’ll see this …

As you can see, you can now simply drag your optimized photo into this region, or click on the blue button to import it from a folder.

Once you’ve dragged the photo in, or selected it from a folder, Google will upload and save it automatically. It should now appear in the photos section you chose to place it in.

And now you’re done!

Remember, every time you publish a post on your Google My Business listing, take an extra minute to manually post the image in your photos library too. 

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Additional installments of the series:

• Google My Business Tip #1: The Keyword Report
• Google My Business Tip #2: Optimizing Your About Section
• Google My Business Tip #3: Optimizing Your Info Fields
• Google My Business Tip #4: Optimizing Your Images
• Google My Business Tip #5: How to Publish a Post

The post Google My Business Tip #6: Manually Uploading Photos appeared first on Cuppa SEO.

That’s why Tip #4 in this series is all about how to optimize your images before implementing them into your Google My Business page.

If you missed them, Tip #1 focused on creating your keyword report, Tip #2 focused on utilizing the keyword report to optimize your About section, and Tip #3 was all about optimizing your Info fields.

Optimizing Photos in Your Google My Business Listing

Let’s start by getting you to the right place in Google My Business. Once you login, you will see a screen that looks like this:

To get to your photos section, you can either click on “Photos” in the blue nav bar at the top, or click on “Manage Photos,” toward the bottom left area as shown above.

Once you’ve accessed your photos section, there are different regions where you can implement optimized images. But before we get into discussing each of these regions, let’s first review how to actually optimize your Google My Business listing photos.

• Take out your keyword report. It’s the foundation for optimizing every image you upload into Google My Business.
• Assess what your image is about. For this example, let’s say you own a dental office and the image is about a root canal.
  • The original image name is: “IMG_28651.jpg” which has no SEO value, or value to the human eye, whatsoever.
  • You look at your keyword report and determine, “Root Canal Madison” is a good keyword phrase for this image.
  • So, you change the image name to, “Root-Canal-Madison.jpeg” or maybe you include your business name, too, “Caffeinated-Dentist-Root-Canal-Madison.jpeg” (fictitious, of course)
  • Notice how I’ve structured the hierarchy of these image names, with each word being separated by a dash. There are NO spaces, and NO underscores — both of which would hurt the SEO value of the image.
• You’ll have to optimize your image BEFORE you upload it to your Google My Business listing.
• When naming images, keep the length of the name at around 50 characters or less, including dashes, as names that run too long can appear spammy.

Once all is said and done, you’ll want to have at least 20-24 images (or more) optimized and uploaded into your listing. Here’s a quick breakdown of the different regions you can populate in your photos section:

1. Profile Photo: this is a must. Be sure to put an image here that clearly identifies your brand. This can be a photo of you.
2. Logo: If you have a professional logo, upload it here.
3. Cover: This is the large, rectangular photo that sits in the background of your Google My Business listing. Again, it should represent your brand identity well.
4. Interior Photos: If you have an establishment like a retail shop, art gallery, coffee shop or any type of business where you might want to show off what’s inside, the Interior Photos section is the place to do it.
5. Exterior Photos: These help potential visitors know what your establishment looks like from the outside.
6. Photos at Work: These can be of your people working on a project, or otherwise detailing the services or products you offer.
7. Team Photos: This section is dedicated to your coworkers! Make sure you get their permission before posting their photo here.
8. Additional Photos: This is typically the place where most images go. This is because it’s a general image area, and it’s also where you can send images when you post on the Google+ page associated with your Google My Business listing (a topic for another day).

I hope I’ve helped paint a clear picture (pun intended) on how to optimize the images you implement into your Google My Business listing!

Need help with Google My Business?
Contact Cuppa SEO to set up a complimentary consultation, very possibly over a cup of coffee!

Other installments in the series:
Google My Business Tip #1: The Keyword Report
Google My Business Tip #2: Optimizing Your About Section
Google My Business Tip #3: Optimizing Your Info Fields

The post Google My Business Tip #4: Optimizing Your Images appeared first on Cuppa SEO.