Google Business Profile photos: what to upload and why it matters

When someone finds you on Google Maps, the photos are usually the first thing they look at, before the rating and long before the description. A listing with a blurry logo and one stock image looks closed, even if you are busy seven days a week.

What Google asks for

Google splits Business Profile photos into three groups: your logo, a cover photo that sits at the top of the profile, and business photos that show what you actually offer.

The technical rules are simple. Files should be JPG or PNG, between 10 KB and 5 MB, with a recommended size of 720 by 720 pixels and a minimum of 250 by 250. Google also asks that photos are in focus, well lit, and without heavy alteration or filters, because they should represent reality. New photos can take a day or two to appear, and nothing shows publicly until the profile is verified.

The shot list

The outside, from the street. The single most useful photo you can add. People use it to recognise you when they pull up.
The entrance and the parking, if either is not obvious.
The inside, taken during normal trading, not at 6am with the chairs up.
The work. Plates, haircuts, finished jobs, products on the shelf. This is what people are actually buying.
The team. Real faces make a business feel real. Ask first, and only use people who are happy to be online.
For mobile businesses, the van, the gear, and finished jobs, since there is no shopfront to show.

Phone photos are fine

You do not need a photographer for this. A recent phone, daylight, and a wipe of the lens beat a professional shoot from five years ago. What matters most is that the photos are current and honest. A customer who arrives to find the place looks nothing like the pictures starts the visit disappointed.

Keep adding

A profile whose newest photo is years old reads as neglected, the same way a listing with no recent reviews does. A few new photos a month, of new stock, a seasonal menu, a recent job, keeps the listing looking alive. Your customers will add photos too, and you cannot control those, which is one more reason to make sure your own are good.

What photos do for ranking

Google says complete and accurate information helps it match your profile to searches, and photos are part of a complete profile. We are not going to pretend they are a ranking trick, because Google publishes no such thing. Their real job is converting the person who has already found you. The ranking factors Google does name are covered in why your business does not show up in Google Maps.

Photos and reviews work together

Photos show what you do. Reviews prove other people liked it. A strong listing needs both, and the description ties them together, which we cover in how to write a Google Business Profile description that works.