6 Photo Tips To Win On Google My Business

What is Google My Business?

Google My Business is a free directory tool that allows businesses to manage their online listing with Google.

The Google My Business listing may show up when a company or service is searched on a Google platform. In this digital directory, a company can describe their services, manage reviews, share photos, and add contact information.

Having a thorough and up to date listing on Google My Business allows users to get to know your company before visiting your website or making a phone call.

Why Do Photos Matter For Google My Business?

Google My Business photos give web users a look inside your business.

Internet users do extensive internet research before making decisions, and a Google My Business listing with a strong set of photos shows an intimate look of the inside of your company, your physical location, your team, your products, and your services.

Photos build trust as they build familiarity with your company.

They allow you to make sure that users see the most accurate and authentic display of your company.

Having a great photo showcase on your Google My Business profile helps you put your best foot forward exactly when users are looking for your company or services.

How Many Photos Should I Post to Google My Business?

Relevance and freshness of photos matters more than the number of photos, but you need to stay on top of adding photos if you want to stay fresh and relevant.

Start by adding 3-6 photos that represent the core of your business, product, team, and services.

Then get in the routine of adding new photos weekly, monthly, or as often as you’re able.

Adding new photos to Google My Business tells Google that you’re relevant and extremely up to date. If your competitors aren’t updating their listing, your SEO will be improved by showing Google that you are more current than them.

Who Can Add Photos To My Google My Business Listing?

Photos can be added to your Google My Business listing in two ways.

First you, the owner, and anyone you add as a Manager to your listing can add photos. You can add, delete, or modify photo settings.

If you have a marketing team, you may all want to have Manager access or you may want to designate one person who is the ‘gatekeeper’ for your photo list.

The second way for photos to be added to your listing is via User Generated Content (UGC).

UGC is great because it allows your listing to be somewhat crowd sourced.

These are the most authentic photos because they aren’t ‘doctored’ by the marketing team.

On the downside, these photos also can’t be deleted from your Google My Business listing. You can report an image to Google and request that they approve a deletion but you can’t just remove a photo you don’t like.

Photo Dimensions For Google My Business

Images may be in .jpg or .png format.

Dimensions for Google My Business Photos are as follows:

Profile Photo: 250 x 250 pixels (or from 120 x 120 to 5200 x 5300)
Cover Photo: 1080 x 680 pixels (or from 480 x 270 to 2120 x 1192)
Shared Images: 497 x 373 pixels (or minimum width of 497 up to 2048 x 2048)

Tips For Google My Business Photos

1. Use high quality photos that represent your business

Don’t post low quality or outdated photos.

You’re better off having no photos than you are having photos that don’t reflect the professionalism and relevance of your business.

Make sure your photos are high resolution and up to date.

Choose photos that best reflect your brand.

In many cases the photos you post to Google My Business are making the first impression that your audience has.

(NOTE: Before you start sending organic traffic to your website, take a look at the 10 biggest website mistakes we see every day. Download our FREE 10 Biggest Website Mistakes guide and we’ll show you simple ways to fix those mistakes.)

2. Don’t use stock photos

With the low cost and high accessibility of stock photos, they may be enticing.

But photo branding is successful when it’s authentic.

Stock photos are usually instantly recognizable and convey a lack of authenticity in your brand.

While you want your photos to look nice, that doesn’t mean you need to hire a professional photographer. High quality mobile phone photos can do a great job of showing what your company culture and environment is like.

3. Crop your photos to perform well on mobile and desktop

Even if you upload photos that are correctly sized to the specifications above, you’ll need to make sure your photos are cropped correctly.

Google will display your photo as a square in some placements and as a rectangle in other placements.

It depends on whether your photos are viewed on desktop or mobile.

Make sure that the most important part of your image is in the middle, rather than the top or bottom. That way your photo will look right on any device.

For example:

Photos viewed on desktop:

Photos viewed on mobile:

4. Add photos routinely

Google favors businesses that are highly relevant.

Adding photos regularly is a very important way to show users the most updated view of your company.

Google photos are NOT a ‘set it and forget it’ kind of thing.

Outdated photos are a poor reflection of your company and Google’s algorithm takes into account how well you keep up your Google My Business profile.

Consider putting someone on your team in charge of your profile and have them update photos on a monthly basis.

Fresh photos give a good user experience and good search engine signals.

5. Optimize your photos for SEO

Properly setting up your photos in Google My Business can help your SEO rank when your services are being searched online.

First, make sure to set your photos to the appropriate photo categories.

• Your best photo that represents your company is set to “Cover”
• Your interior photos are set to “Interior”
• Your exterior photos are set to “Exterior”
• Your team photos are set to “Team”
• Your at-work photos are set to “At Work”

Next, set your photo titles BEFORE uploading to Google My Business.

Change images from “IMG_4762” to “Metal fabrication equipment”. Use your product or service keywords for your image titles in order to optimize your Google My Business photos for SEO.

6. Set your preferred images

Your Cover Photo is the only photo that most of your audience will ever see.

This photo needs to be a crystal clear representation of exactly what your brand stands for.

When going through your photos, pick the one that differentiates your business, gives an inside view of who you are, and creates the feeling you want your visitors to have when they work with you.

For many businesses, this will show your team in action, or it will be a beautiful and high quality pictures of your product or business.

Put Your Best Photo-Foot Forward on Google My Business

The #1 trait of great marketing is authenticity.

Put your best foot forward, but be authentic and accurately represent your business, products, and services.

Consider this to be the first question you get asked in an interview, “so, tell me about yourself”.

Be confident and inspiring with your photo selection on Google My Business and you’ll make a great first impression with your audience.

(NOTE: Before you start sending organic traffic to your website, take a look at the 10 biggest website mistakes we see every day. Download our FREE 10 Biggest Website Mistakes guide and we’ll show you simple ways to fix those mistakes.)