Google Business Profile Photos: What to Upload and How Often

Photos are the part of the Business Profile customers look at first and owners update last. Google's own figures have long said profiles with photos get more direction requests and website clicks than those without; our experience is that recent photos matter more than the count, and that a profile relying on customer uploads of half-eaten meals and car parks is leaving money on the table. This is what to upload, how, and a routine that keeps it going.

What Google shows and where

• Cover photo: the large image at the top of the profile on Maps. Google chooses it algorithmically from your uploads and customers'; you can set a preference but not force it.
• Logo: shown next to the name in responses and posts. Square, simple.
• Photo carousel: the row of images under the name in Search and Maps, mixing owner and customer photos.
• "Photos" tab: categorised — by owner, by customer, interior, exterior, product, team, at work, food & drink, menu, rooms, and so on. The categories are set when you upload.
• Product and service images: attached to specific items, shown in the products/services sections.

The photos every profile needs

Type	What	Why
Exterior, from the street	Building with signage, in daylight; one at night for hospitality	Recognition when the customer arrives; verification evidence
Interior	Reception, treatment rooms, dining room, workshop, showroom	Sets expectations; drives the "is this place for me" decision
Team	Real staff, at work, named if you like	Trust. Customers choose people
At work	Jobs in progress, finished work, before/after	Proof of what you do, especially for trades
Products / dishes	Individual items with prices where relevant	Appear in product listings and food searches
Vehicles	Branded vans (SABs)	Verification and recognition
Certificates and awards	Gas Safe, NICEIC, CQC rating, trade awards	Trust signals in a category buyers worry about

Fifteen to twenty owner photos at launch, then a few every month. Delete stock imagery: it is recognisable, Google can identify it, and it makes the real photos look worse by comparison.

Technical requirements

• JPG or PNG, minimum 720×720 pixels, under 5 MB. Larger is fine; Google resizes.
• Well lit, in focus, not heavily filtered. Phone photos in daylight beat studio shots with heavy processing.
• No text overlays, borders, collages or promotional graphics — Google may reject them, and they look like ads.
• Name the file descriptively before uploading (emergency-plumber-croydon-boiler-repair.jpg). It is unproven as a ranking signal and costs nothing.
• Geotagging is likewise unproven; do not pay for tools that promise it.

Video

Short clips — under 30 seconds, under 75 MB — are supported and rarely used by competitors. A walk-through of the premises, a job being finished, a dish being plated. Upload from the app; keep it steady and unedited.

Customer photos

You cannot remove them unless they breach policy (off-topic, offensive, wrong business). You can outnumber them. A profile with 60 good owner photos and 15 mediocre customer ones looks fine; one with 4 owner photos and 15 customer ones is defined by the customers. If a customer photo is clearly of a different business, flag it.

A twenty-minute monthly routine

1. Take five to eight photos during the month: a job, a new product, a team moment, the premises in a different season.
2. Pick the best three to five. Discard anything blurry or dark.
3. Rename the files. Upload via the Business Profile app, choosing the category for each.
4. Check the cover photo Google is currently showing. If it is a bad customer shot, upload a strong candidate and mark it as preferred cover.
5. Once a quarter, remove photos that no longer represent the business: old signage, departed staff, discontinued products.

Sector notes

• Restaurants and cafés: dishes, dishes, dishes. Then the room full. Update seasonal menus with photos.
• Trades: before/after pairs of real jobs, the van, certificates. Customers want to see work, not a logo.
• Clinics and salons: reception and rooms, the team, equipment. Before/after with written consent only; never identifiable patient images without it.
• Professional services: the office, the team, the meeting room. Hard to make interesting; that is fine — the aim is "real and reassuring", not "beautiful".

Photo cadence is part of every monthly plan. The routine above is what our clients' teams follow; we handle the uploads, naming and cover-photo housekeeping.

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