The essentials
- The fact: Google strips EXIF metadata (GPS included) from photos uploaded to the listing and has never confirmed using it for local ranking.
- What counts: the photo's context (the page, the caption, the filename, the alt attribute), its freshness, its quality and a genuinely recognisable place.
- The method: photos taken on site, named and captioned with the place, published on the listing and on the site's local page, with structured data.
- The real benefit: conversion (a listing with recent photos gets more direction requests) and the relevance of the site's local pages.
"Geotag your images" is a recurring piece of local SEO advice: inject GPS coordinates into photos' EXIF metadata before publishing them, to signal the business's location to Google. The practice is widespread, sold by tools, and its effect has never been demonstrated. Here is what Google actually does with images, what influences local visibility, and the method that produces a result.
What Google does with EXIF data
- On the Google Business Profile listing: photos are recompressed and their metadata stripped on upload. The GPS coordinates never reach the index. Google has said repeatedly that EXIF isn't a local ranking factor.
- On the site: Google can read EXIF (it has confirmed this for Google Images, particularly licence and description information). There is no evidence it uses images' GPS to rank a page locally.
- Independent tests (Sterling Sky, Whitespark, the local SEO communities) run since 2018 have measured no effect of GPS EXIF on local pack ranking.
Geotagging EXIF does no harm, but spending time or budget on it is a poor investment. The levers that follow do have an observable effect.
The six image signals that count locally
| Signal | Where | Best practice |
|---|---|---|
| Textual context | Site | The photo sits in a page about the place (a location page, a job completed in Nantes), with a caption naming the place |
| Filename | Site | renovation-cuisine-nantes-chantenay.jpg rather than IMG_4821.jpg |
| Alt attribute | Site | A factual description including the place: "Kitchen renovated in a flat in the Chantenay district of Nantes" |
| Structured data | Site | Property image for the LocalBusiness and each completed job; see local Schema.org |
| Freshness and volume | Listing | Five new photos a month; listings with recent photos get more directions and calls |
| A recognisable place | Listing + site | The shop front, the street, the real interior, the team; Google recognises places visually (Street View, users' photos) and detects stock images |
The method in five steps
- Take the photos on site, with a recent smartphone: exterior (front, street, car park), interior, team, completed jobs, products. Daylight, landscape format, no heavy filters. Leave GPS on: no proven effect, but no cost.
- Rename each file before publishing: service + place, in lower case, with hyphens.
- Publish on the listing in the right categories (exterior, interior, team, products), regularly rather than in bulk; the listing's rules are in optimising your listing.
- Publish on the site in the matching local page or completed job, with localised alt text and caption, as compressed WebP (under 200 KB) so as not to penalise speed.
- Mark up the page with LocalBusiness (image, address, geo) and check image indexing in Search Console; see image indexing.
What photos really bring
The clearest effect of photos is on conversion: Google has published that listings with photos receive more direction requests and clicks to the site than listings without. On the site, localised photos in local pages strengthen those pages' relevance on "service + town" queries, and feed Google Images, which sends modest but qualified traffic for visual trades (crafts, interiors, restaurants, property). Measure both: directions and clicks in the listing's statistics, Google Images impressions in Search Console (the "Image" filter). The metrics are brought together in the local SEO KPIs.
Mistakes to avoid
- Publishing stock photos: Google recognises them, they add nothing and they undermine trust.
- Uploading 200 photos at once then nothing for a year: freshness beats volume.
- Stuffing the filename or the alt text with keywords: "cheap-plumber-lyon-plumber-lyon.jpg" is useless and reads as spam.
- Paying for an image "geotagging" service: no proven effect, and that budget is better spent on reviews or on local citations.
How GreenRed helps
Rather than juggling several tools, GreenRed's Google Business Profile module brings these metrics together in a single dashboard, compares them over time and tells you which actions come first. You can try it free, with no card, from the Pricing.
Frequently asked questions
Does photos' GPS data help ranking on Google Maps?
No, according to Google's statements and the independent tests run since 2018. Google strips the metadata from photos uploaded to the listing. Local ranking depends on the category, reviews, distance and consistency of information, not on EXIF.
Should you still leave GPS on on your phone?
You can: it costs nothing and makes sorting photos by place easier. But don't pay to add coordinates after the fact, and don't count on it for visibility.
What format and size for the Google listing's photos?
JPG or PNG, between 10 KB and 5 MB, minimum resolution 720 × 720 pixels; in practice 1,200 × 900 in landscape renders well. On the site, prefer compressed WebP under 200 KB with dimensions suited to the display.
How many photos should you publish on the listing?
A base of 20 to 30 photos covering exterior, interior, team and services, then 3 to 5 new ones a month. Regularity matters more than the number: Google and users both read photo dates.