In the ever changing world of SEO (search engine optimization) and Google what worked well for you as a business owner yesterday may not work today.

Case in point is Image Search. Google has again changed their algorithms (you’ve heard of Penguin and Panda, right?) and while they pull your images if you have tagged them correctly, they have made it harder for the user to get to YOUR site–which is generally what you want to achieve.

If you want to read more about this, here is a great article with lots of examples and pictures: http://www.definemg.com/how-googles-image-search-update-killed-image-seo/

Taking the time to properly tag your images used to be worth it. Is it still? Well, I hate to say it, but it depends.

You can still get some “juice” from the tagged photos and you may even have people click to your site, but it appears that fewer will than before. We all know that the more clicks it takes to get anywhere the fewer people will follow through.

Rather than taking all that time to SEO every image on your site, tag the ones that are the most useful and the most likely that someone will actually get the information you want. Remember, when tagging your local business images don’t follow traditional “SEO” guidelines–they are for national and international search. You want people in your town or region to come to your business, so tag using LOCAL criteria.

When choosing images, just as in choosing content, for your site, select items that are interesting and relevant to your customers and your area. That is the BEST way to have your site work for you locally.

For example, if you run a local golf course posting a photo about a golfer may not provide much interest, nor be locally relevant. Celebrity golfers on your course perhaps, but they are going to have their photos in many places, so the “juice” you get will be limited. However, posting a photo of  the local elk herd enjoying the view may actually get you more attention. So maybe if you can get the celebrity WITH the elk…