Visual marketing is an integral part of reaching customers today. For brands concerned with SEO, however, it brings a wide variety of challenges. Search engine algorithms look for specific words, which makes it difficult to challenge competitors by coming up with better photos and videos to dominate search rankings.
You can use text to boost your rankings, as long as the photo is
posted on your blog or as part of an article. However, if you’re posting
pictures or videos on your social networks, you’ll be limited in the
amount of text you can add. In addition to filling your descriptions and
updates with powerful verbiage, you can also use tags to improve your
rankings and connect with more customers. Here are a few tips for using
image tagging to improve your social media reach.
Research Tags
Before you get started, you should take time to research the best keywords for your brand. Use these keywords both in your image file name and your alt and description tags on your website. For sites like social media, make sure those keywords are in your status updates and any hashtags you use.
Note What’s Trending
One way to reach more customers is through utilizing the most popular hashtags on Twitter and Instagram. You can find the 30 most popular hashtags in a variety of languages on Hashtagify.me catalogs the most popular hashtags on Instagram. When you use a trending hashtag, you’re more likely to catch people who are scrolling through those hashtags for interesting content.
Join the Conversation
During a special event, hashtags related to that event will inevitably trend. Be prepared for social media-friendly events like the Super Bowl and Academy Awards by snapping photos ahead of time that you can post with the hashtag. Snap a picture of your product and suggest it would make a great companion to any Super Bowl party or upload a picture of your team preparing to ship items for an upcoming big event.
Be Unique
Realizing the popularity of visual marketing, several services have emerged to help businesses stand out. One of those services is Fyuse, which creates images that are a mix between still photos and video. The effect is a 3D effect that provides a panoramic view of scenes or objects. One of Fyuse’s features is image tagging, which means that users can tag an item in a photo and have that tag stay on the item regardless of the view. This takes tagging to an all-new level. Brands could even post price tags on items in a photo or promote a link to a website. I started to use this on my invoice site to make the photos look better to our customer. We noticed a 1.2% lift in our site
Be Location-Friendly
Location-based searches are more relevant than ever. Using tagging, you can mark your image by its location to improve the number of local people who are delivered your picture in search results. Geo imaging is a great way to mark coordinates on each of your photos to link it to a specific location.
Tools like GeoImgr can provide this service for you. Just upload your photo, check to make sure its coordinates are correct, and download the photo to your computer for use. Search engines may pull your location from the information on the page around the photo, but geo imaging will make sure even if the customer is searching images, yours comes up by location.
Tagging is a great way to boost your images in search rankings. However, it also provides opportunities to reach users on social media and add data such as price tags and names of items. You don’t have to be an expert, but by starting to tag your photos gradually, you’ll eventually become a pro.
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