Revisiting highly top viewed photo - Visibility Victories and Variables

[abermans]

As a dedicated Google Local Guide, I’ve devoted considerable time over the past two years to documenting mainly my city of London through photo contributions on Google Maps. The journey so far has been fascinating, from achieving early guide milestones to learning the ever-shifting nuances of the maps platform’s algorithms.

Throughout this experience, I’ve strived to capture locations from a variety of unique perspectives and angles to best showcase what makes each place noteworthy. Capturing the essence of a destination in a single, impactful photo is a constant challenge yet greatly rewarding when an upload resonates and finds an engaged audience.

Of course, as contributions increase exponentially, it’s natural to reflect on tactics and wonder how strategies could evolve. To gain fresh insights, I decided to conduct an evaluation of my highest performing photos. Specifically, I wanted to understand patterns affecting long term visibility and placements over time on Maps.

With over 35,000 photos now uploaded showcasing diverse neighborhoods, attractions, cuisine and culture, the dataset provided a decent opportunity for comprehensive self-analysis.

The objective was to determine several key performance indicators for photos amassing over 1 million views, including: current ranked placement, total views accrued to date, and date of initial contribution.

As there are no easy tools, I exported a list directly from Google Maps containing all photos uploaded by my Local Guide profile that had accrued over 1 million total views. Basically I sorted my photos by views, scrolled all the way photos above 1m views, copied all the text into a file and used ChatGPT to sort into nicer file…

From there, I developed a simple tracking spreadsheet to capture key fields for analysis: venue name, address, total views to date, current placement rank, and some place for comment. This allowed sorting and filtering data in useful ways.

I was surprised to see I got now 331 such photos - more than expected.

So something of this style:

Name	Address	Views	#1
Burrell St Sexual Health Clinic	4-5 Burrell St, London SE1 0UN	10,363,363	Yes
Beijing Dumpling	23 Lisle St, London WC2H 7BA	8,044,209	No
Zafferano	16-18 Lowndes St, London SW1X 9EY	7,233,110	Yes
Dozo Soho	32 Old Compton St, London W1D 4TP	7,181,068	Yes
Imperial China	25a White Bear Yard, Lisle St, London WC2H 7BA	7,013,534	No
Patty&Bun - Liverpool Street	22-24 Liverpool St, London EC2M 7PD	6,612,689	Yes
G-A-Y Bar	30 Old Compton St, London W1D 4UR	6,416,979	No
Soletrader	264 Oxford St, London W1C 1DP	6,206,725	Yes
New China	48 Gerrard St, London W1D 5QL	5,867,946	No

The auditing portion proved quite time intensive, requiring manually verifying placement details for each photo directly within Maps.
For every photo, I would zoom on the location and “Photos” to note its current ranked placement. If no longer in the top spot, I recorded which guide’s photo or media type had replaced it.
Photos do change position naturally all the time as views are added (to some of them) so finishing this check needs to be quick or you will need to keep searching for photo on the sheet.

After about 200, I realized the conclusions were quite clear and I could stop the check and focus on this sample.

Some insights:
Almost all the photos are external and not inside location.
While I typically photo mostly as I walk around locations, I also have plenty of photos contributions from visiting inside location and reviews including food and products. Still, none of these was in the top featured photos.

I found that 51% remained in the top ranked #1 media slot for their respective venues.
As gaining over 1m viewed takes time (most of these been there over a year), seems that knocking off a successful top featured photo does not happen quickly or easily - once the algorithm picks a favorite, it tends to stick by it for a while.
While I’m happy to get the photo views, I wonder what it means - places do change (parks with seasons, shop window displays with seasons and fashion) etc.
However, checking similar exercise I did a year ago, it was notable that some photos had achieved the top spot back after being replaced temporarily by others’ higher rated content. This suggested placement is dynamic based on continual uploads.

Among photos no longer ranked #1, approximately 25% fell into recurring patterns:

• I had uploaded a better performing photo myself, nudging the original from primacy
• An immersive view or video uploaded had surpassed photos (not another photo)
  In some of these cases, my photo was still there just not placed in #1 place.

This revealed the fluid, competitive environment for gaining exposure on popular locations.Placement evolves as all contributors strive to engage users.

Perhaps most interesting was the recurring trend of immersive views and videos displacing static photographs over time.

This aligns with platform shifts favoring interactive and long formats, impacting long-term photo visibility regardless of view counts accumulated.

Going forward, successfully innovating content types will be key to maintaining relevance and engagement on Maps. While photos remain valuable, diversifying format is now essential strategy for guided visibility.

Constant re-evaluation of performance metrics provides opportunity to evolve our practices in step with changing algorithms and consumer preferences.

[MortenCopenhagen]

Interesting read, @abermans

Thanks for writing and sharing.

I know the ambivalent feeling you get from knocking out your cover photo with another photo of yours!

And thanks for emphasizing the fact that immersive videos/animations can also take the lead position as cover image.

Did you see any hidden images on your list of most viewed photos? When I see one in my date-sorted list I often see no reasons why it should be take down. It would be great to hear your views on this.

Here is one such example.

The above version is my second try. Here is the first version:

Here is how it looks in my photo contribution list:

As you can see there is a warning triangle and the image is dimmed.

Do you see the same in the UK? Or is this an EU-only thing? I did try to appeal it to no avail.

Cheers

Morten

[abermans]

@MortenCopenhagen
yes, I had such cases in the past with maps beloved algorithms deciding that the photo is not according to policy.
Of course there is never an exact why and you are directed to the entire policy book which does not help.
I tried many times to guestimate what could be the reason (maybe people in photo, maybe car licence is present) but have to admit I failed miserably.
I tried once or twice to protest but let’s say the process could be “somewhat” improved as the way it stands now, I rather delete my contribution and leave it at that.

[MortenCopenhagen]

@abermans

Agree. I eventually will also delete it and save it to my album of unjustified rejected images.

Cheers

Morten

[DshottDennis]

@abermans

absolutely fascinating your marvelous tests, research learning as go

equates to a passionate and dedicated local guide

[BudiFXW]

Cool recapitulation @abermans .

Its surprising me that most viewed are outdoor view.

thank you

[Rednewt74]

@abermans ,

Thank you for sharing your detailed and thoughtful analysis of your most successful photos.

I only have 7 million plus images. 6 of them are storefronts. They range from 8 months to 5 years. Of the older ones, only one remains at #1, although for a few months it was displaced.

My next million plus image (in about 2 months) will be my star video.

Thank you again for your post.

[abermans]

@BudiFXW
You raised an interesting question - how many outdoors vs. indoors photos tend to be our most featured?
I assume it relates to the way Local Guides spend much of their time collecting media and uploading on local places.

Like everything I do these days - a bit of data research was required.
I took a peek into the top ranked local guides by views and checked what do they do.

23/01/2024 10:00
Local Guide	Photos	Views	Indoor %	Other
@Herve_Andrieu	208,869	14,091,042,180	N/A
@TorM *	86,239	5,400,881,930	N/A
@Briggs	11,023	2,592,523,884	50%
@Timgür	71,947	2,326,730,303	N/A
@jayasimha78	50,712	2,100,387,111	N/A
@StevenBerlin	16,831	1,969,979,833	1%
@JordanSB *	16,830	1,823,436,246	1%
@JonBekkevoll	37,659	1,781,325,205	1%
@abermans	39,114	1,824,793,842	0%
@MattGatlin	23,807	1,544,793,872	1%	Signage
@TerryPG	7,834	1,495,086,856	1%
@DshottDennis	37,151	1,198,618,549	1%
@Mikeinthefalls	717	1,032,185,294	30%	1 Food
@photoslinger	7,861	1,035,059,355	1%
@DougSTL	10,627	981,753,098	2%	1 Food
@xmen123wood	18,111	847,193,108	20%
@CiaranC	15,393	792,763,699	1%	Signage
@SamanthaSheehy	15,744	785,650,270	1%	Signage
@BeeCee	20,055	716,292,930	1%	Signage
@ThatJimRyan	24,154	704,480,369	3%	Signage
@zbjas	30,052	683,619,919	0%	Towns
@Kurt2day	18,220	686,987,165	1%	Signage
@MaxPlusFood	4,467	627,784,373	5%	Signage
@Quin1963	16,661	541,812,047	1%
@GYours	9,130	534,832,232	50%
@Jomo	17,256	533,506,479	50%
@AdamGT *	14,258	532,957,004	1%
@A-Kwon-Fang	43,160	526,824,470	50%
@PaulAtherton	102,037	527,469,723	N/A

5/29 Guides are marked as N/A as after some volume of photos, you cannot view their photos and sort by views (at least on a browser).
Majority of the guides 18/29) are indeed having very few indoor featured photos (myself included).
The interesting cases are @Briggs @Mikeinthefalls @xmen123wood @Jomo and @A-Kwon-Fang which do have a decent amount of internal photos with large views.I assume they review more and take internal shots or maybe they have more confidence stepping into places and taking photos.
Interestingly, seems most of these internal photo views are without people in shot (empty shop/restaurant etc.).

As I was browsing I noted some other interesting points:
Food - as much as we LOVE sharing our these - only 1-2 cases were visible in the 1000s of photos that I checked.
It may be different on videos where entertainment and restaurants are the explore focus.
Signage - I was surprised that relatively large percentage of photos for some of the guides where of shop signage.
Seems that at least at some point these were popular by the algorithm as featured photos.

[BudiFXW]

Hai @abermans .

Thank you for your detailed answer.

It will help me when taking photos for Google Maps .

[rosanabtl]

Você é realmendte dedicado. Parabéns @abermans ! É sempre um aprendizado quando alguem compartilha seus conhecimentos e me fez repensar sobre minhas fotos e postagens.

[TerryPG]

Wow fantastic insightful post @abermans I say that because I was literally going to write a similar post, I had even written down some notes, but I am glad you wrote such an articulate post. I had checked my top 100 photos with over a million views and the results coincide and supplement your findings. I do have a couple more million view photos than you.

Let me share, of my top 100 photos: (all with a Million views or more)

95 are exterior photos,

4 are secondary photo (photos of Featured of top 100 but interior as inside a Walmart or Home depot)

1 is an interior Restaurant photo.

All 95 exterior and the 1 Interior photos are or were the #1 featured photo for the POI.

Of the 95 Exterior photos, 54 %, (remarkably close to your numbers), are still the #1 featured photo.

I have seen and it makes me happy when one of my photos regains the #1 featured photo.( sometimes I wonder what Google is thinking when they replace #1 Photos.) I have no videos and have only seen one video take the featured spot in a small town near me.

It’s much harder today to achieve the featured photo. in my area all the chains are adding the same photo to every listing and I am seeing so many owner’s adding their own photos as the featured.

I did have a foodie photo that was my #1,It reached 1Million photo views. It happened way back was @AdamGT was starting the leaderboards, unfortunately the Irish pub closed down.

I realize you live in a major market with thousands of other guides ,travellers and tourists.

Again Abermans great post , thanks for writing what I was thinking. Videos are the future.

[tony_b]

Good going @Rednewt74 , but it is clear we’re not in the same league as @abermans and @TerryPG

I only have three million-view photos, and they’re NOT food

1. Four years old - Storefront - 2,137,426 (my red star)

2. Two years old - Storefront - 1,286,932

3. Four years old - Building - 1,257,240

Then it drops right down to half - a menu board (4 years old) at 651,755, followed by a fast food restaurant building (8 months old) at 508,990 views.

My first food photo is #16 with 199,598 views after 4 years, followed by #23 with 156,086 views after 4 years.

My Star Video is #21 in my contributions list with 168,004 views after 7 months (it is NOT food).

BUT amazingly, my #2 video is a food video at #32 in the contributions list, with 118,063 views after only one month.

[Rednewt74]

@tony_b ,

So maybe we have a league of our own? .

I find nothing surprising about the vast majority of big hitting photos being of storefronts. It still surprises me how often you find a POI that has no exterior photo, and it is almost a sure thing that your exterior shot will go into #1. I’ve said before, As of now, there’s no video that is going to perform like a #1 storefront photo. That may change some day, but I think that day is still a long way off.

Take care