30 Links in 30 Days Linkbuilding Campaign - Day 18 - Panoramio

Panoramio is Image Sharing Integrated into Google Maps and Google Earth

Enough said. It is a free photo sharing site. Ok, maybe not enough. As of July, 2009 Panoramio photos are being included in certain Google searches.

A Different kind of Link

Panoramio is a different kind of link-building process. It consists of links that are essentially geographical and visual as the link is between an image (and more importantly, it's metadata) and the image (and more importantly, it's metadata) in the map interface.

It's All About the Metadata

Consider maps as merely an interface. In some cultures they are much less prevalent, such as Thailand where maps are not taught and rarely used, even by those with university degrees. Regardless, it is the metadata, starting with the geographic coordinates, which is valuable. Just with any link from a conceptual perspective it is the thing linked from (generally text but also in the case of images, binary data) and its connection to the to, namely the presentation of those coordinates and the interface in another context.

One aspect of Metadata is language. The suggested use of two languages in the metadata cannot be emphasized enough.

Objects on a Map are the Reverse of Links

In this sense, what is of interest and value is the objects doing the linking, and not the object linked-to. After all, the value of a map is not the two-dimensional surface, but the features displayed on it, the roads, buildings, etc.

In this sense we need to be very clear on the value we are providing (namely the incentive to click on the link which is an image, as well as the accompanying metadata (title, description, keywords and most importantly the links to our sites).

Early Days and First Mover

When it becomes easier for the thousands of images at a given map location to be made available, the some of the same metrics Google uses for PageRank and SERP ranking will likely apply to which images will be displayed in the Google Maps, Google Earth and other Google and non-Google mapping interfaces:

• Age of image (older is better)
• Metadata (title, description, keywords)
• Links to the image
• Social behavior (favoriting, ratings, etc.)

It is incumbent in this environment to begin deploying the most important images to sites such as Panoramio.

Panoramio Profile and Link

A nice follow link is available on Panoramio Profiles, for exampel this one for SEO Indochina.

Related posts:

1. 30 Links in 30 Days Linkbuilding Campaign - Day 17 - Wikimapia
2. SEO for Maps - Get found on Google Local, Google Maps and Google Earth
3. Linking Guidelines - Links to Images, Content