Add real, recent photos taken at your business: your logo, a cover photo, the outside of your building, the inside, your work or products, and your team. Google suggests at least three photos in each category that fits your business, shot in focus and in good light, with no stock images or heavy filters.
That is the short answer. The longer one is about which photos matter for your kind of business, how to take them without hiring anyone, and the small rules that get photos rejected. I run a wellness center here in Charlottesville, so I have stood in my own parking lot with a phone trying to get this right. Here is what I have learned, checked against Google's own help pages.
Which photo types does Google actually ask for?
Google asks for a logo, a cover photo and business photos, and it publishes tips for business-specific photos broken into categories. Each category has a suggested minimum.
- Logo: helps people recognize you at a glance.
- Cover photo: the one image that best represents your business. Google notes it may not always show first.
- Exterior: at least three, taken from each direction a customer might approach, at different times of day.
- Interior: at least three that show what it feels like to stand inside as a customer.
- Product: at least three of your most popular items, evenly lit.
- At work: at least three showing the services you offer, ideally with your team serving customers.
- Food and drink: at least three of popular menu items, for restaurants, cafés and bars.
- Team: at least three of owners and staff, in a relaxed style that shows personality.
You do not need every category. Pick the ones a customer would actually want to see before they call or visit.
What should my photos show for my type of business?
Show the thing a customer is nervous about or curious about before they choose you. That is different for a roofer than for a bakery.
- Trades and home services: work photos carry the most weight. Finished decks, clean panel installs, a tidy job site, your truck in a driveway. Add team photos so people know who will knock on the door.
- Shops and boutiques: the storefront so people can find you, the inside so they know the vibe, and a handful of best sellers.
- Restaurants and cafés: your popular dishes, the dining room at a busy hour, and the front door. If parking is tricky, a photo that shows where to park helps more than you would think.
- Studios and clinics: the waiting area, a treatment room or studio space, and the people who work there. A calm, honest interior shot answers the what-will-this-feel-like question.
If you serve customers at their location, like a plumber in Crozet or a landscaper working out toward Waynesboro, your work photos and team photos do the heavy lifting since there is no storefront to show.
What are the size and quality requirements?
Use JPG or PNG files between 10 KB and 5 MB, ideally 720 by 720 pixels and never smaller than 250 by 250. Those specs come straight from Google's page on managing your Business Profile photos and videos.
The same page says photos should be in focus, well lit, and free of significant alterations or heavy filters, because the image should represent reality. Videos can be up to 30 seconds, up to 75 MB, at 720p or higher. Any modern phone camera clears these bars easily.
What gets photos rejected or removed?
Stock images, screenshots, collages, text overlays and heavily edited shots are the usual problems. Google's tips for posting media to Maps say to upload photos you captured with a camera at the location, and to avoid stock photos, GIFs, borders and text.
That same guidance says the place should be the main subject, and that low-quality media may be removed without appeal. So skip the blurry, dark or sideways shots, and do not upload your flyer or a promo graphic as a photo. Those belong in a Google Business Profile post instead.
One more point on people. Google's prohibited and restricted content policy lists someone's face in a photo as personal information that should not be posted without consent. Ask your staff before you post team shots, and keep customers out of frame unless they have said yes.
How do I add photos, and how long until they show up?
Search your business name and city on Google or Maps, click Photos, then Add photos, and pick one or several files. Google reviews each upload first, and its help page says it can take 24 to 48 hours before photos appear.
Uploads show as Pending, Not approved or Live. Photos only appear publicly once your profile is verified, so if everything sits at Pending for days, check verification before anything else. If your profile is not showing at all, start with why a business does not show up on Google Maps.
A 30-minute photo plan you can do this week
- Pick a bright, overcast morning. Soft light hides a lot.
- Shoot the outside from the street, from the parking area, and from the direction most people arrive.
- Walk in the front door and take three shots as a customer would see the space.
- Photograph three of your best products, dishes or recent jobs. For trades, save a few good before-and-after pairs every month.
- Ask two or three team members if they are happy to be in a photo, then take relaxed shots of them working.
- Delete anything blurry, dark or crooked. Upload the rest and set your best one as the cover.
- Put a reminder on your calendar to add a few fresh photos every month or so, so your profile looks current.
Should I use the same photos on my website?
Yes, real photos work well on your website too, with a little extra care. Google's image SEO best practices recommend short descriptive file names, useful alt text that describes the image, and placing images near related text.
So rename IMG_4471.jpg to something like deck-build-ivy-va.jpg, write alt text that plainly says what is in the picture, and do not stuff it with keywords. Google says keyword-stuffed alt text can make a site look like spam. If your site is due for a refresh, we cover how real photos fit into a build on our website builds page.
Common questions
Can customers add photos to my profile?
Yes. Customer photos can appear on your profile, and Google may even pick one as your cover or logo if yours is low quality. You can request removal of customer photos that break the rules, but the best defense is uploading strong photos of your own.
Do photos help me rank higher on Google?
Google does not promise a ranking boost from photos. What its help pages say is that photos help customers recognize your business, see what you offer, and get a feel for the place, which is often what turns a search into a call.
Can I use AI or edited images?
Keep it minimal. Google's guidance asks for photos that represent reality, with no significant alterations or heavy filters. Brightening a dark shot is fine; inventing a showroom you do not have is not.
If you would rather someone else handle the photo plan, the uploads and the rest of your profile, that is part of what we do in our local SEO work for Charlottesville businesses, and you can see what it costs on our pricing page. Not sure where your profile stands? The local business growth scorecard is a quick place to start.
Or just talk it through with me. Book a free 15-minute call and we will look at your profile together and pick the first few photos worth adding.