Business Photos That Bring In Customers: What to Upload and How

A customer comparing three local businesses decides quickly, and the pictures do most of the talking. A listing with real photos looks like a place that is open, busy and cared for. A listing with none looks abandoned, even if the business is thriving.

You do not need a photographer. You need a phone, a clean lens, and a plan for which pictures to take.

The shots every listing needs

1. The outside. A clear photo of your storefront or building so people recognize it when they arrive. If you work from a van, photograph the van.
2. The inside or workspace. Show the room, the counter, the shop floor or the kitchen. People want to know what walking in feels like.
3. Your work. For a contractor, before and after shots. For a salon, finished results. For a restaurant, the food. This is the picture that convinces.
4. Your team. Real faces. Customers hire people, and a friendly photo of you or your crew makes the first phone call easier. Get everyone's permission first.
5. Your logo. The clean mark you use on your sign and invoices.

Logo, banner and gallery

On EZZlisting each of these has its own place. The logo is a small mark shown beside your name. The banner is the wide image across the top of your profile. The gallery holds everything else. A free listing includes a logo, a banner, and three gallery photos, and VIP raises the gallery to 25. With three slots, choose the outside, your best piece of work, and your team.

Taking good photos on a phone

• Wipe the lens. It is the most common reason for a hazy photo, and it takes five seconds.
• Use daylight. Turn the lights on and stand near a window, or shoot outside. Avoid the flash.
• Hold the phone level and shoot wide for your banner. A banner is a landscape image, so turn the phone sideways.
• Tidy the frame. Move the clutter, the trash can and the stray cable out of the picture.
• Skip filters. A natural photo of your real business is worth more than a polished one that does not look like it.
• Avoid stock photos. People can tell, and a generic photo of a smiling stranger tells them nothing about you.

Prepare your files so they can be found

Photos on your listing page can show up in image search, and a little preparation helps them do it:

• Name the file. "kitchen-remodel-pasadena.jpg" says what the picture shows. "IMG_4832.jpg" says nothing.
• Keep the size reasonable. A few hundred kilobytes is plenty for the web, and it keeps your page fast. Most phone photos are far larger than they need to be.
• Write a plain description if there is a place for it, such as "Tile bathroom remodel in Pasadena." Describe what is in the picture. Do not stuff keywords.

What to leave out

• Customers' faces, house numbers or license plates without their permission.
• Outdated pictures. If you renovated, repainted or changed your menu, replace the old ones.
• Heavy watermarks and text. They distract from what the picture shows.

Refresh now and then

Swap in new photos every season or after any big project. A gallery that stays current tells customers you are active. When you are done with photos, check the rest of your listing against our local SEO checklist, and read how to write a listing that gets calls to make the words as good as the pictures.