What Kind of Cover Photo Should Your Google My Business Listing Have?

If you’re wondering how to use your Google my Business account best and what photos do the most for your local business for getting more customers, we’re here to help you with this quick guide.

The other day, I was searching for a bakery that does delivery to surprise my boyfriend with a birthday cake. Due to the fact that he lives on the other side of Europe, I needed a thorough combing of local businesses. Guess what I ended up choosing? The one business that had the best-looking and authentic photos of cakes. Sure, I read the customer reviews and compared the service area with the address I needed, but the first impression was already made from that first image of a good cake I saw.

Using high-quality photos in your Google my Business page will greatly improve your online presence, bring you new potential customers and as a result, help you with local SEO. Keep reading to learn how.

What’s a Google my business account again?

Basically, Google my business is the small snippet that shows up when a searcher looks for a local business on Google Maps. As a business owner, you can open a GMB account for free, and add photos, contact information such as phone number, social media and website, your business category, and allow customers to leave online reviews for your business. Seeing that no one uses the Yellow Pages anymore, this is a great (and free) way to make your business name stick out, and help customers reach your small business simply and quickly, especially if they are in the area.

Keep in mind that it is not a website, and you’d still need a website to share more information than possible on GMB. At the same time, it does entail a lot of details. Here’s what you can include on your Google my business page:

It is basically a great tool that will enable you to show up in local search results and share your business information with people that are already halfway into the marketing funnel.

• Customer reviews
• Online review responses
• Business information and business category
• Company news
• Free website
• Insights and analytics

Having a GMB page is very important, because it will help you rank better locally thanks to the way search engine algorithms work, and it’s a great free digital marketing tool. Once you connect all your social media accounts and website to it, people will click and discover your business and learn more about it.

How to upload photos to your GMB listing

Before starting to upload photos to your listing, you need to set up your free GMB page. Presumably, you’re still starting up, and the first setup step is to go to business.google.com and click “Manage my business”. From there on, you need to add a name, business category, add a physical address (address and pin on the Google Map), and add all additional details such as if you do delivery, takeout, working hours; if you’re pet friendly, if you’re an LGBTQ+ establishment, what areas you cover, etc. After that you will be asked to verify your business by phone, email (available to select business), or by getting a verification code through the post.

From there on out, you can customize and edit your profile photo (we suggest the preferred photo for this should be your company logo), cover photo, and update recent changes in working hours, address, delivery, etc.

Guidelines for Google my business photos

As any other platform, GMB also has preferred formats, ratios, photo sizes and types of photos you should consider uploading.

• The format should be JPG or PNG.
• Make sure the file size is between 10 KB and 5 MB. Smaller than 10 KB will make the photo pixelated, where bigger than 5 MB will load slowly and affect your bounce rate negatively.
• The recommended resolution of the photos is 720 x 720 px, however, you can upload photos up to 5,200 x 5,300 px
• The minimum resolution is 250 x 250 px

What types of photos work for your Google my business profile

Depending on what your business is producing or selling, your new photos should be descriptive and catch the attention of potential customers. For example, if you’re running a restaurant, people want to see the dishes you make, the interior, and if you have a terrace, the exterior as well. This will show people not only what product they get from your business, but also the atmosphere, sense of location and the general vibe.

If you are selling something, make sure the products themselves are the star of the show. The way your storefront looks might matter, but even if the shop itself isn’t that fancy, people might still buy the product.

In any case, make sure you upload authentic, recent and high-quality photos. Stock photography is very easy to search on Google, and if someone sees you use unauthentic photos might get a wrong impression and skip on visiting your business. Same goes for really old, outdated photos with bad quality.

How to get the most click-throughs with the Google my business app

Finally, an important trick that will significantly raise your chances of getting more visibility on GMB is using the Google my business app. From there, you can reply to reviews, share business news and easily manage your page using the Google my business dashboard. It’s available for Android mobile devices, as well as on the Apple Play store.