We just reached 1 million views on Google Maps! Just like that – well, not quite. The all-important pop-up that delivered the good news came in at about 8:30 pm. If you do not know what I am talking about, Google Maps allows anyone to post reviews and photos of places, answer questions, make map revisions, and more. Doing so makes you a local guide. But getting 1 million views on Google Maps does not just happen but with a mix of strategy and consistency, you can get there. Here are some strategies we used to increase our visibility and attract more views.

We Upload High-quality Photos

We (always) make sure our photos are of excellent quality and visually appealing. We have discovered when we use clear, well-composed images, we increase the likelihood of attracting attention which encourages users to view and engage with our photos. Would you believe we only used slightly over 200 photos to get to this mark?

We Focus on Unique and Interesting Locations

Our mantra has always been to travel off the beaten path. That helps us to focus on capturing unique and lesser-known places or attractions not commonly seen on Google Maps. We highlight the beauty, architecture, or special features of these locations to make our photos stand out. In fact, we have noticed Google loves it when you infuse uniqueness into your content. They particularly love it when you add new locations or roads. Making edits to existing places also earns you some premium points. So do that whenever you can.

We Geotag Our Photos – Accurately

We normally use our mobile phones for most of our photography. This makes it easier to geotag our photos by enabling the location feature. By the way, we have that permanently on – lest we forget and an exciting photo op presents itself. Ensure you properly geotag all your photos with the correct location information. This will help users searching for specific areas or landmarks to find your photos more easily.

We Go all out on Descriptive Captions

We do not spare anything when weaving narratives of locations we have visited. We provide detailed and interesting captions – always – turning our reviews into captivating and informative stories. Have you come across those long National Geographic photo captions on Instagram? We do something similar. Throw in some relevant keywords as well – the old game of SEO comes into play here as well. Some local guides suggest also using tags. We do not use those but give them a try and see if it adds value. Detailed SEO descriptions help users discover your photos when searching for specific places or themes.

Remember, like the journey of a thousand steps, building a significant number of photo views takes time and persistence. Consistently uploading high-quality photos, engaging with the community, and promoting your work will help increase your chances of reaching one million photo views on Google Maps. Give it a go and let us know how it goes in the comment section below.