A photo checklist for Google Business Profiles across New Zealand

Short answer: upload a genuine cover photo, a logo, a handful of interior or team-at-work shots, and photos of finished jobs or dishes — taken on a phone, in good daylight, without filters — and refresh the set roughly monthly so the profile still looks current.

Photos are one of the few parts of a Business Profile a searcher checks before deciding to call, and stale or missing photos on Google Maps read as a business that's stopped paying attention, even if that's not true.

The core set every profile needs

• Cover photo: a clear, current shot of the storefront or van, not a stock image.
• Logo: used across search and maps as your icon.
• Team or interior shots: a café's counter in Wellington, a builder's crew on site in Hamilton, a clinic's reception in Christchurch — real people and real spaces, not staged ones.
• Work in progress or finished results: a completed deck, a haircut, a finished dental clean — whatever a customer would want reassurance about before booking.

Shooting on a phone

Shoot in daylight near a window or outdoors rather than under indoor lighting, hold the phone level, and take more shots than you need so you can pick the best one later. Skip filters — Google's photo policy is about accuracy, and an over-edited photo can look worse for trust than a slightly plain one.

A monthly routine

Once a month, add two or three new photos and remove anything genuinely outdated — old signage, a since-renovated space, or a team member who's left. Businesses covering multiple regions, say Auckland and Wellington, should treat each profile's photos separately, since a Wellington customer has no interest in an Auckland storefront.

What not to upload

Avoid stock photography, photos of competitors, or anything unrelated to the business — Google's content policy allows removal of photos that violate this, and a flagged photo can also draw scrutiny to the rest of the listing.

Keeping this up without it becoming a chore

Local SEO AI's AI content feature prompts you for a fresh photo on a regular schedule and helps organise what's already uploaded — it's software that reminds and drafts, and nothing changes on your live listing until you approve it, ahead of Google connection approval. Pair this with the post ideas guide to turn a new photo into a short weekly post, and see pricing, billed in GBP (£).

A handful of genuine, current photos, refreshed monthly, does more for a Business Profile than an occasional big batch upload followed by months of nothing.