Photos are a conversion lever, not a ranking lever. That distinction matters, because it tells you how much effort to put in and what to put in it.
Someone comparing three businesses in the map pack is making a gut call in about fifteen seconds. Photos are most of what they are looking at.
What to post
- Finished work. The single most useful category. Real jobs, your own phone, no filter.
- Before and after pairs. They do more than either photo alone.
- You and your team. People ring people. A face beats a logo.
- The van or ute, signwritten. Signals a real business rather than someone with a toolbox.
- The premises, if customers come to you.
- Work in progress. Shows the job being done properly rather than just the end result.
What hurts you
- Stock photos of someone else's work.
- Blurry or badly lit shots. One bad photo at the top of the stack undoes the rest.
- Photos with another business's branding visible.
- Nothing added for two years. It reads as a business that may not be operating.
- Only logos and no actual work.
How often
A handful a month is plenty. The goal is that the most recent one is never more than a month or two old, not that you post constantly.
The easiest version: take two photos on every job you finish. One wide, one close on the detail. Upload them when you are sitting in the ute afterwards. Thirty seconds and you never have to think about it again.
A note on geotagging
You will find advice about adding location data to your photos before uploading. Google strips most of it, and there is no good evidence it affects ranking. Do not pay anyone for it.
Take more real photos instead. That is the part that actually works.
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