Google My Business Action Plan

Photo Opmimization

Listings with photos are 2x as likely to be considered reputable and get 42% more clicks.” – Google

A big part of optimizing your Google My Business listing is in the photos that you choose. Photos are critical for establishing a first impression with new customers,  it is important that your photo choices convey the things you want them to convey.

 

Choosing Images

Notes:

Try to add at least one for each type of image:

  • Business logo (Profile Photos)  is the photo that will show up next to your business name whenever you upload new photos, respond to a review or share a new post. Most companies  use their logo for their GMB profile photo.
  • The cover photo will be the largest photo that shows up in your listing and is the most visible to customers who are checking out your business.
  • An external (street) view of the building (if you have signage on the front.)
  • An internal (office) view
  • Photos of  the team or the owner.
  • Photos showing your product or service

Conditions:

  • Don’t use a professional photographer – customers like real life shots.

Google says:

“Businesses with photos receive 35% more clicks through to their websites than businesses that don’t have photos.”

File Names

Notes:

While adding keyword and location to the image title names will not effect the ranking of Google My Business, it IS a good habit to do this for all images you create, especially your website images. 

Each image should follow this taxonomy:

AKeywordRelevant-City-State.jpg

  • personal-injury-lawyers-miami-florida.jpg
  • accident-lawyer-miami-florida.jpg

Additional Examples: ‍

It would be a good idea to also add images with the primary and secondary categories in the file name:

Business name: JonLaw in Miami Florida

  • Divorce Lawyer
  • Family Law Firm

Then two of your image names would be:

  • JonLaw-Miami-Florida-Divorce-Lawyer.jpg
  • JonLaw-Miami-Florida-Family-Law-Firm.jpg

Specifications

Google’s guidlines for Photos:

  • Size requirements: Between 10KB and 5MB
  • Minimum resolution: 720 x 720 pixels (see guide for variations)
  • Quality: The most effective photography reflects the actual space, as well as being focused and well lit.
  • Format: JPG or PNG

Google’s guidelines for Video:

    • Duration: Up to 30 seconds long
    • File size: Up to 100MB
    • Resolution: 720 pixels or higher

Meta/Geo-Tagging Photos

Notes:

Currently, GEO Tagging has not been proven to affect ranking in GMB. 

However, it will help on images for your website, so I have included the method below:

GEO Tagging images is simply embedding the image with your businesses location coordinates and keywords. 

If you have a physical location (office, store, warehouse, etc.), then use that address for the coordinates below. 

If you don’t have a physical location and want to rank closer to the center of the city, simply pick a spot on the street map and grab the coordinates from there.

Getting Coordinates:

  • Go to Google Maps and put in the location of your business or street in the center of your city.
  • In a new browser tab open https://tool.geoimgr.com/
  • In Google Maps, search for your business or pick a spot in the center of your city.
  • Right click on the Pin icon and select “Whats Here”.
  • Copy the Latitude (Lat) and Longitude (Lon) coordinates in the box at the bottom of the page.
  • Open GEOImgr tool and drag and drop your image into the upload panel.
  • Paste the coordinates in the left panel.
  • Add your keywords into the “Image Description” field.
  • Click “Write EXIF Tags” .
  • Download to your computer, then upload to GMB.

Video below covers these steps:

 
 
 
 
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By following the process above, you will have a fully optimized image with location and business category data added to the image.

Uploading Photos to Google My Business

Notes:

You can manually upload photos to your listing. To do so, follow the process below:

  • Sign in to Google My Business and visit the Photos section (available from the left menu).
  • Click the Choose Photo button in the Logo box. Upload your logo.
  • Click the Choose Photo button in the Cover box. Upload your cover photo.
  • Click the At Work tab on top of the page to upload the internal and external business photos.
  • If you have any high-quality videos which showcase your business, you can upload those within the videos tab.

Removing Photos from Google My Business

Notes:

  • Visit the Photos section of your account.
  • Click on the photo you wish to remove.
  • Click the trash icon in the top right corner.

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