What to photograph for your Google profile

Google reads photos as both a completeness signal (more photos = more complete profile = higher rank weight) and an engagement signal (customers spend longer on photo-rich profiles, which Google measures via Maps session length).

For UK trades and high-street shops, the data point most-cited is from BrightLocal: profiles with 10+ recent photos get roughly 2.7× more direction-request clicks than profiles with no photos. The same study showed measurable lift in calls and website clicks.

The good news: this is the easiest signal to fix. Spend an hour taking photos with your phone, upload them, refresh quarterly. That's it.

Google sorts your photos into buckets internally. Each bucket has its own visibility on the listing — and customers click through each one. Cover all five.

1. Logo

Square crop, high-contrast, your brand mark on a clean background. Minimum 250×250 px. Use the same logo as your website and signage so Google can verify the brand match.

2. Cover image

Wide landscape (1080×608 px works). The hero photo Google often uses on the profile carousel. Pick the single shot that best represents your business — interior wide-angle, hero product, or team photo all work.

3. Storefront / exterior

Critical for “find me” navigation. The photo Google shows when a customer is walking up to your address. Take it from the street, level eye-line, daylight, business sign visible.

4. Interior

Wide-angle, lights all on, no people in shot. Customers want to see what they're walking into before they commit. For services without a visitable interior (mobile trades), substitute with a clean photo of your van or kit.

5. Team / work-in-progress / products

The trust-building bucket. Trade businesses benefit hugely from work-in-progress shots — boiler installs, bathroom rebuilds, van-side-of-job. Hospitality benefits from team-and-food shots. Retail benefits from product close-ups.

• Resolution: at least 720 px on the shortest side. Don't upload thumbnails.
• Format: JPG or PNG. Google strips EXIF metadata.
• Lighting: natural light beats artificial. Take photos between 10 am and 3 pm where possible.
• Orientation: mix landscape + portrait. Google uses different orientations for different surfaces.
• No watermarks: Google will reject or downrank photos with stamped watermarks, logos overlaid in corners, or borders.
• No stock photos: Google's vision API detects them and removes. Use real photos of your real business.

Plumber / electrician / trade

• Branded van outside a customer's house (consent first)
• Tool kit laid out clean — proves competence
• Before/after of a recent install (boiler, fuse box, bathroom)
• Headshot in branded uniform (Gas Safe / NICEIC patches visible)
• The certifications themselves

Café / restaurant

• Storefront from the street
• Wide interior, lights on, no diners
• Top 3 dishes, plated nicely, natural light
• Team behind the counter, smiling, no faces blurred
• Outdoor seating if you have it — lifts “outdoor seating” attribute

Hair salon / beauty

• Storefront with clear signage
• Interior — chairs, mirrors, decor
• 3–5 portfolio shots of finished work (with client consent)
• Team in working uniform
• Product shelf if you sell aftercare

Dentist / clinic

• Reception desk, clean and uncluttered
• Treatment room (bright, modern, without patient)
• Team photo in scrubs/uniform
• Specialist equipment if you have it (CBCT, intraoral scanner)
• Building exterior with parking visible

1. 1Sign in at business.google.com
2. 2Open your profile → Photos
3. 3Upload to the right tab — Logo, Cover, Inside, Outside, At work, Team, etc. Wrong tab = Google guesses, sometimes badly.
4. 4Don't upload more than ~10 in one batch. Spread uploads across days — keeps the “recent activity” signal steady.

Recent uploads tell Google your business is active. A profile whose last photo upload was 18 months ago looks dormant — even if the business is thriving.

Google lets you delete photos you uploaded — but not photos uploaded by customers or the public. For those, you can “flag for review” if they misrepresent your business (wrong business, offensive content, outdated information).

If a customer photo shows your old branding from a refurb 5 years ago, you can't remove it — but you can flood the recent stream with up-to-date photos so the old one drops down the carousel.

If your scan flagged photos as a weak signal, the fastest fix is an hour's phone photography work. If you want it done for you — hero shoot, all 5 categories optimised, plus the first quarter of refresh content — the New Business Setup pack (£119) and Profile Rebuild pack (£71) both include photo work.