GBP Photos: Exactly What to Upload and How to Do It

Photos Are Not Optional

If your Google Business Profile has no photos, you are invisible in all the ways that matter. Google's own data shows that businesses with photos receive 42% more requests for directions and 35% more click-throughs to their website. For tradespeople, where trust is everything, photos are one of the fastest ways to stand out from competitors who cannot be bothered.

Yet when we run a free audit for a tradesperson in North Wales, the photos section is almost always the weakest part of their profile. Either there are no photos at all, or there are two blurry pictures taken in poor light that do more harm than good.

This guide covers exactly what to upload, the technical requirements Google expects, how to take decent photos with just your phone, and how often you should be adding new ones.

The Photo Categories Google Gives You

Google organises your business photos into several categories. Understanding these helps you fill each one strategically rather than dumping random images and hoping for the best.

Logo. Your business logo. This appears as the small circular image next to your business name in search results and on Google Maps. Upload a clean, square version of your logo with no text cut off at the edges. If you do not have a professional logo, even a clean text-based version works. This is the first visual impression many customers get.

Cover photo, The large banner image at the top of your profile. Google sometimes overrides this with their own selection from your uploaded photos, but setting a strong cover image gives you the best chance of controlling what people see first. Choose your single best piece of work, a completed kitchen, a beautifully finished bathroom, a pristine roof.

Exterior photos. For tradespeople with a physical premises, this shows the outside of your building. If you are a service area business working from a van, you can skip this or upload a photo of your branded vehicle instead. A clean, well-signed van is a perfectly good exterior photo for a mobile trade.

Interior photos. Again, more relevant if you have a showroom or workshop. A kitchen fitter with a showroom should absolutely photograph it. A locksmith working from a home office can skip this category.

Team photos, Photos of you and anyone who works with you. These build trust because they put a face to the business name. Homeowners are letting you into their home, they want to know what you look like before you knock on the door. A friendly, professional headshot or a photo of you on site does the job perfectly.

At work photos. This is where most tradespeople should focus the bulk of their uploads. Before and after shots of completed jobs. Progress photos showing work underway. Close-ups of quality finishes. These are the images that convince a homeowner sitting in Rhyl or Wrexham that you know what you are doing.

Technical Requirements

Google has specific requirements for photos, and uploads that do not meet them will be rejected or display poorly.

Format: JPG or PNG. Stick with JPG for photos as the file sizes are smaller. PNG works better for logos with transparent backgrounds.

Size: Between 10KB and 5MB. Most phone photos fall within this range naturally. If your photo is over 5MB, which can happen with newer phones shooting at very high resolutions, resize it down slightly before uploading.

Resolution: Minimum 250 x 250 pixels. Recommended is 720 x 720 pixels or higher. Again, any modern phone camera exceeds this comfortably.

Aspect ratio: Google prefers photos that are wider than they are tall. a 4:3 or 16:9 ratio works best. Portrait-oriented photos can get cropped awkwardly in search results.

No text overlays, no watermarks, no heavy filters. Google wants authentic photos. Adding your business name as a watermark across the image or applying strong Instagram-style filters can cause photos to be rejected or flagged. Keep them natural.

How to Take Good Job Photos With Your Phone

You do not need a professional camera. Every tradesperson has a phone in their pocket that is more than capable of taking excellent photos. The difference between a good photo and a bad one is not the equipment. it is a few simple habits.

Clean the lens. Your phone lives in a dusty, sometimes dirty pocket or van. A quick wipe with your shirt before you take a photo makes a noticeable difference. Smudges show up as haze across the image.

Use natural light. Open curtains, turn on all the room lights, or step outside if you can. Avoid using the flash if possible. it creates harsh shadows and washes out colours. The best time to photograph exterior work is on an overcast day when the light is even and there are no strong shadows.

Step back. The most common mistake is standing too close. Step back and capture the whole room, the whole wall, the whole job. You can always crop later, but you cannot add context that is not in the frame. Show the full picture so the viewer understands the scale and quality of what you have done.

Take before and after pairs. Stand in the same spot for both shots. Same angle, same framing. The comparison tells a story that a single "after" photo never can. A bathroom fitter showing a tired avocado suite transformed into a modern walk-in shower creates instant impact.

Shoot in landscape mode. Hold your phone horizontally. This matches the aspect ratio Google prefers and gives your photos more context. Portrait photos of completed work often look cramped.

How Often Should You Upload?

Consistency matters more than volume. Google tracks profile activity, and regular photo uploads signal that your business is active and engaged. This feeds into the broader set of ranking factors that determine your position in local search results.

A good target is one to three new photos per week. That sounds like a lot, but if you are doing two or three jobs a week, it means taking a quick photo of each completed job and uploading it when you get home. It becomes habit very quickly.

Some tradespeople we work with in Chester and Bangor batch their uploads. they take photos throughout the week and upload them all on a Friday afternoon. That works fine. The key is regularity.

What you want to avoid is uploading thirty photos in one go and then nothing for three months. Google values consistency, not bursts.

Photos and Reviews Working Together

Here is something most tradespeople do not realise: customers can add photos to their Google reviews. When a happy customer leaves a five-star review and attaches a photo of the work you did, that is gold. It is third-party visual proof that backs up what your profile already claims.

You can encourage this. When you ask for a review, and you should be asking after every job, as we explain in our guide on how to get more reviews, mention that adding a photo would be really helpful. Most people are happy to snap a quick picture.

Between your own uploads and customer-contributed photos, your profile builds a visual portfolio that competitors with bare profiles simply cannot match. For a plasterer or tiler, where the quality of the finish is everything, this visual evidence is worth more than any written description.

What Not to Upload

A few things to avoid. Stock photos. Google's systems can detect them and they undermine trust. Blurry or dark photos that make your work look worse than it is. Photos with visible customer personal information like addresses or number plates. Screenshots or collages stitched together from multiple images. And anything that misrepresents the quality or nature of your work.

Keep it real, keep it consistent, and let your work speak for itself. Your Google Business Profile is your shop window. Make sure the view is worth stopping for.

If you are not sure where your profile stands right now, our free profile audit will tell you exactly what is missing and what to fix first. It takes two minutes and it is completely free.