The Clinic Marketing Podcast - Local SEO & Healthcare Digital Marketing Tips for Clinic Owners & Wellness Providers

How to Optimize Photos for Your Google Business Profile [Propel Playback]

• Darcy Sullivan

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How to Optimize Photos for Your Google Business Profile:  Google Maps Local SEO Strategy for Chiropractors, Physical Therapists, & Clinics Google Business Listings


Today, we’re diving deep into a crucial strategy for local SEO that can easily get overlooked. Optimizing the images in your Google Business Profile is a massive win for your local SEO campaign.

Episode Webpage: https://propelyourcompany.com/photos-google-business-profile/

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Speaker 1:

Hey, there, it's Darcy Sullivan from Propel Marketing and Design and the Clinic Marketing Podcast. Thank you so much for listening here. I think you're going to enjoy this clip. It's from a popular episode in our archives, don't forget. You can leave a review on iTunes. It would mean the world. It helps spread the word about this podcast. All right, let's get into the episode.

Speaker 1:

Today we are talking about one specific strategy for local SEO and this is for your Google business profile listing. Your Google business profile listing is what controls your Google Maps listing and what used to be called your Google my Business listing. For this listing you have an opportunity to add images profile listing. You can add images to your listing and these images help enhance your Google business profile listing. So today we're going over a couple strategies involved specifically with the photos that you upload to your Google business profile listing. We have tons of additional resources over on our website, propilyourcompanycom, for how to optimize your Google Business Profile listing. You can also do a search for past episodes about your Google Business Profile listing on the Propile your Practice podcast. We've created some specifically on creating Google posts and overall Google business strategies for that listing.

Speaker 1:

But today we're talking specifically about the photo strategy. And why is this so important? Well, according to Google themselves, listings that include photos get 42% more requests for directions on Google Maps and 35% more website visitations. That's important. So is the user experience. When somebody sees the photos of your business, it's going to help them associate better with your business. It's going to help you build trust. It's going to help you showcase your offerings and help you engage better with your audience. It's also going to help you with your Google business profile rankings.

Speaker 1:

So currently at the time of recording this. So under the general images, which is one of the images sections, there's multiple image sections that we're going to talk about, but under the general image section, you're currently allowed to have 25 images. So what does that mean? If you want to add a 26th image, well, that means one of your images is going to get replaced with the newly added image. So when you are uploading these images, there's a number of things to consider. We're going to go over what types of photos you should take, the quality of photos. When it comes to dimensions for any of these photos, I am going to suggest that you Google current Google business profile image sizes, because I want this podcast to be a little bit more evergreen, and I don't want to give you specific sizes and then that they could change, so be sure to Google the sizes before you upload anything.

Speaker 1:

We are finding that there's a direct correlation between images and searchability. If you're a clinic owner, listening to this, most likely you offer more than one type of service, and using these photos is just another way that you can communicate with your target audience that you offer more than just one service. So, tip number one do not I repeat, do not use stock photos in your images. We want to make sure that your images truly match the services that you offer and your organization. You can use your phone you can totally use your phone to take these photos, but we want to make sure that your photos are of high quality.

Speaker 1:

When it comes to what photos to use, we suggest that you take three to four exterior shots. Now, this helps for a number of different reasons. One we want these to be from three to four different angles, different directions. If you ever come into an issue with your Google listing and you're going to have to contact them about anything, having these exterior photos helps with the legitimacy of your business and it makes submitting a ticket with Google easier. Plus, we want to make sure that when somebody is coming to your location, that they're able to find you with ease. So take a look at what is and what isn't in the photos that you're taking. Meaning, I do the water bottle check. If you're taking a photo inside, make sure that there aren't random water bottles sitting out. If you're taking a photo inside, make sure that there aren't random water bottles sitting out. If you're taking a photo outside, you know, maybe crop it so that you're not seeing a garbage can if there's one of those. So just make sure that it's a great representation of the outside of your building for your exterior shots and that it's going to help somebody find you with ease.

Speaker 1:

Next up, we have those interior shots. These are welcoming. They show that the atmosphere in your clinic is inviting. We want to make sure that they're, again, high quality and that they highlight the unique interior design of your establishment. Maybe they showcase specific rooms that you have available. Then we want to move to the products, the services that you offer, even if these are staged. Staged images are okay, but stock photos are not. So if you're a chiropractor, that you have a staged photo of you giving an adjustment or doing a specific technique that you offer. You want to include those as well. So we talked about exterior photos. We've talked about interior photos. We've talked about photos that reflect the services and the products that you offer. There's also staff photos that you can add to make sure that everybody feels warm and welcome when they're meeting your team.

Speaker 1:

Again, I mentioned that you are allowed 25 images currently. This could change directly after me recording this, but currently in the general photo section, you are allowed 25 images. So we've talked a little bit about the general images, but let's talk about some other images. First up, you have your logo. When you go to upload your logo, currently the recommendation is to use a square image for your logo, so keep that in mind as you are uploading your logo. Next, you have your cover. This is your cover image. Then we have the general images that we already talked about and lastly and I would have to say this is almost even more important than some of the other photos is that we have user generated photos.

Speaker 1:

This is user generated content, meaning somebody else uploads it on your behalf, and I like to give the Amazon example, where, if I go to Amazon and I search for a product. Example where, if I go to Amazon and I search for a product, if you're like me, I not only go to look at the reviews, but then I go to look at the pictures that the people who left reviews have uploaded, because I tend to relate better to those images than to the general images that the owner of the product uploaded to Amazon. Well, it's the same thing when it comes to your Google business profile listing. So Google loves user generated content. Now let's talk about this. How do you get user generated content? Well, one strategy that you can use for user-generated photos is to have a QR code, maybe listed at your office, that encourages people to take these user-generated images. Or maybe they're from community involvement. Maybe you participated in a health fair or something like that. Again, adding images, the user-generated photos. Google loves those and they truly do build trust.

Speaker 1:

Now, when it comes to these user-generated content, it's really important to know that, as a business, you cannot remove these images. You can suggest an edit, but you do not have control over those images the way you have control over your general images. That's something you really want to keep in mind. Okay, I wanted to keep this episode nice and short, so I'm just going to give you a couple more tips and then we're going to wrap things up. If you feel like you do not have enough photos, one thing you can do is go to Canva and create a graphic that showcases a testimonial. And if you go to Canva, you can also use Canva to resize your images to make sure they are the correct size. If you don't have Canva, it's a free graphics tool. It's fantastic, love it, but you can create a pretty graphic that highlights a testimonial. That is one option if you don't have enough images.

Speaker 1:

Now, something people always ask is well, how often should I be uploading images? Is this something I should upload once a week? Is this something I should upload once a month, once a quarter? The cadence on which you upload photos is totally up to what you have the capacity to do, but obviously, if there's something that's outdated maybe it's a picture of your old clinic or a service that you no longer offer, or there's a photo of a team member that's no longer associated with your organization it's great to remove that content and replace it with new. But you do want to consider adding content or these images quarterly, monthly would be more ideal, but again, it depends on what you have the capability and capacity to do when you upload an image. Something that is important to note is that it can take around 48 hours-ish give or take for Google to approve. Some of them get approved a lot quicker than that and some of them take a little longer.

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Darcy Sullivan

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