SEO for Explicit / Medical Pictures - Will It Hurt Rankings?

[itrogers]

I have a client with page 1 rankings for several keywords. He wants to make some updates to his website.

He is offering a new service and wants to show before and after photos of the procedure. He is an OB/GYN, so the before/after pictures are very explicit and have full nudity.

How will this affect his rankings? Is there something that I can do to tell Google and other SE's that these photos are medical and not pornographic? Should I host them on another domain? Just looking for thoughts and insight. Thank you in advance!

[PH292]

HI

This is off the cuff - but may help your approach to this.  (I too have a medical client)

We know Google can't see the image (yet!!)

It can read the jpg file name and alt tag

Two ideas:

If it is a new service why not password protect the area with sensitive photos

or

Create a link which takes them to a gallery.  Explain the link is to a gallery with photos that may be distressing.

that they click agree to continue and could always have a data capture to prevent children finding it

You could then have the gallery pages with a no follow robot so the page is not cached and they aren't found through any search, and that way you can still optimise the rest of the site / or hold onto your existing rankings

Further to this if there were any 'before' and 'after' photos that could be displayed - they could be done in page and the link for more case studies underneath.

Also

If you were concerned about any language you may have to use embed it in a graphic button.

Just a few thoughts.

Let me know what you do, I will be interested

PH

[itrogers]

Thanks for your response. A few weeks ago we actually posted the pictures right on the page. This page is indexed / followed- everything. Google hasn't penalized the site or anything like that. If anything, it is helping his visitors by showing his work. So I guess until Google can "see" the image, keeping them on the page will be the best option. Thanks!