How can I stop google indexing an image
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I have put a map of cornwall on my site on the Corwnall Page, and for some reason Google.de has picked it up and shows it up in the top 4 images for a search for cornwall?
The result is I am getting about 80% of the traffic coming to my site for the search Cornwall (I get about 50 unique visits per day, over 40 a day are landing on the Cornwall page.
Is this a problem for my normal SEO as a Close up Magician?
Will google start to think my site is about Cornwall?
Should I noindex the image (I say that like I know how! - How do I noindex that image? )
Or is any traffic to a site good traffic, I imagine they will be clicking on the link landing on the page and then leaving, which I suspect is not good for google reputation.
Any thoughts anyone
Thanks
Roger
Where they land
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Davinia is correct In my opinion. There is no reason to not want the image indexed.
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Hi Roger,
I’m a believer in quality over quantity, so having a website indexed for a relevant search query is important.
You could deindex this image, or you could use this as an opportunity to ‘fix’ the current placement and increase your visibility on search engine result pages to those specifically looking for a magician in Cornwall and those looking for event ideas in Cornwall.
I’d recommend changing your image name from “map-of-cornwall.jpg” to something more in line with what you do e.g. “magician-in-cornwall.jpg” and also change your alt tag from “Map of Cornwall” to “Magician hire in Cornwall” – or something similar. You could also add a call-to-action link for “Booking events in Cornwall” and don’t forget to update the heading of the map image as well. This will help search engines to better understand your websites relationship with Cornwall.
If you want to deindex you can use the robots.txt file (just add to the one you already have http://www.rogerlapin.co.uk/robots.txt) – Here is Googles instructions on how to remove images from Google image search https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/35308?hl=en
Good luck,
Davinia -
Google may well see an association between your site and Cornwall because of the image (and other factors, the mentions you make of Cornwall on your site for example) but that's a good thing, as it's an area that you cover/target. Your site is first and foremost about you being a magician so I don't think you have anything negative to worry about with the map - if Google has made an association with your site and Cornwall, it should help you rank better in the local Cornwall search results.
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You can deindex the image using a robots.txt rule, however, any extra traffic you can get from it is better than nothing right? Why bother?
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