If we have a geo-tagged photo that we upload to our REW site, does that strip out the EXIF data?
It seems that current opinion on geo-tagging photos, is either it doesn’t matter, or at best there is some anecdotal evidence it might have a slight effect on organic results.
If EXIF data is stripped when we upload then the issue is moot anyway. Thanks for answering!
That’s a darn good (and never before asked) question. I don’t know the answer.
I think the best way to verify this would down enable an EXIF extension on either firefox or chrome, upload an image you know has EXIF data, and then inspect that uploaded version of the image using the extension.
Let us know what their answer is will ya? It’s uber photonerdy, but now I’m curious 
BTW on the annecdotal evidence of it being a ranking factor, I am pretty sure that is exclusively reserve for comments on Google image search which is generally not useful in trying to rank organically for real estate terms.
Of course Google has not confirmed or denied this, they do say they reserve the right to use it as a ranking factor (emphasis on Google images).
I would not attempt to add it if it was not there, but would not do any harm for it to end up getting uploaded either.
I did the experiment. The TLDR is it appears EXIF data is stripped from an image when uploaded. I’m posting the a screenshot of before and after EXIF data.
Chrome extensions did’t work well, so I uploaded an stock photo from iStock with EXIF and GEO data to my REW site. Right Click, View in New Tab, Save As to Download the image back to my Mac.
The EXIF data and Geo Coordinates were gone, which was my guess going in. It also reduced file size to a more reasonable level with little visible difference. That’s a good thing in case we forget to run an image through Squoosh app before uploading!
That makes sense - if REW is processing images (resizing / scaling them) then it’s not the same image any more anyways, so the EXIF Data would not be accurate / apply - thanks for running the test / confirming for us Victor.
