Most people haven’t integrated geotagging information into their websites, but in the future it may make sense to add location-based information to a variety of online materials. For example, if you have different geographic locations for store branches, or want to help people find things with fixed locations (like ATMs) then geotagging may make more sense in the long term.
Frequent users of search engines will have noticed the evolution of search results from a set of links to images, maps, and video data. As search engines become better at understanding your exact location (especially for mobile web devices) then geotagged sites and pages are going to become much more relevant for presenting information. Using the ATM example, imagine that someone with a smartphone does a location-based search for an automated teller machine. If one bank’s machines have pages that are geotagged, then they are going to be visible on the device while others are not. Likewise, restaurants, dry cleaners, and specialty shops that may not be visible from the street would benefit from geotagging.
As a next step, geotagging also may feed into augmented reality searches. In one example, pages that are geotagged may show up in visual searches of streets and landmarks using a smartphone camera. In another, geotagged images could be referenced by augmented reality searches, so people could see pictures that are historic or promotional that deal with a given building or landmark.
Should you geotag your web pages? Obviously, it depends on your sales objective. An online store that ships nationwide probably would not geotag its pages or images. A contractor with a limited service area may get better results, especially as local search gets smarter and understands the radius in which your company operates.
How do you geotag? There are a couple of metatas you can add to your site which will associate you with GPS coordinates, and there are ways of tagging images with GPS information as well.
The following geotags (as seen on this Wikipedia page) show how to add geographic coordinates into web pages and other media like vCards.
(click on images to magnify)
These tags use latitude and longitude information, or regions, in order to help nail down the location of the content.
Geotagging JPEG images involves altering the metadata of the image itself. Depending on the application, you may need to use software to add geotags to images. Applications like Picasa will even help you do it by using a map in case you don’t have a GPS receiver handy.
From a competitive standpoint, it makes sense to upgrade your site with as much information as you can. When you consider that search engines are getting smarter every year, and are creating mobile apps that reach beyond what people normally think of in search technology, you owe it to yourself to capture as many potential customers as possible. The person who finds your store or restaurant through search can provide just as much “word of mouth” value as the people who come to your shop by way of standard advertising. Better yet, location based search and geotagging is ideal for getting people in your door when they’re already in the neighborhood. If you can get in on the ground floor of location based search technology, you can be building a presence that less technologically savvy customers are unwittingly passing up.
Tags: geotag, geotagging, geotags
