Do Photographs Influence Rating on Google? [Case Study]

We’ve got been doing lots of testing round photographs within the final yr at Sterling Sky.  You’ll be able to learn concerning the checks we did on geotagging pictures and the cowl photograph you choose in Google My Enterprise.  For this check, we needed to measure how the pictures you employ in your web site affect your natural rating on Google.

TLDR;

In response to this case examine:

1. Bigger/higher high quality pictures are higher for rating
2. Having a photograph that matches what Google is searching for can have a optimistic affect on rating.  Having a photograph that doesn’t match can have a detrimental affect.
3. How a lot photographs contribute to rating probably varies primarily based on the question or trade.

The Case Examine

There was a web page a few widespread garden care drawback that received an honest quantity of visitors however had a picture that was very small (150×150) and pixelated.

For the reason that web page was about lawns that had been being torn up attributable to skunks and raccoons, I believed it will be a good suggestion to replace the photograph to an image of a skunk.  I up to date the picture on the web page to the one listed beneath.

A few weeks later, we really noticed the rating drop from place 2 to place 3.

Once I went to have a look at what precipitated the rating drop, it turned obvious that Google didn’t desire a image of a skunk.  Once you searched in Google Photographs for that phrase, nearly all of the pictures confirmed a garden with filth holes throughout it.

I used to be capable of get a bigger photograph from the enterprise proprietor and up to date the photograph on the web page once more. Inside a few week we noticed the rating of the web page enhance and this time it went to place 1 and took over the featured snippet.
After we seemed on Google, the featured snippet was additionally that includes the photograph we had simply added:

It’s vital to notice that this affect appears to fluctuate primarily based on the trade.  We initially examined this on a lawyer and noticed no affect.  If Google is exhibiting photographs within the search outcomes (on desktop), there’s a good likelihood they care about photographs extra for that trade.

This examine together with a number of others about photographs was introduced on the LocalU occasion in August 2021.  Movies of the presentation can be found for buy right here.