How Often Should You Update GMB Images?

With the new “updates from this business” feature in GMB, it is important to know more about updating images.

Video transcript:

David: So, tell us what you found.

Tricia: Okay. So, when I was looking through Google maps like I do all the time, I found this. When you pull up a company on there, and it has all the things at the top, call, chat, and you’ve got photos. Well, at the very top, and it’s on the overview section, all of a sudden, I looked in it and saw overview updates from the business. That is a recent post on the Google Business Profile. And so, it used to be when they first came out with posts on Google, the posts were towards the top, and everybody loved it. Well, then, not long after that, they kind of shoved the post all the way to the bottom. So, for most posts, when you go to a profile, you have to go all the way to the bottom to find them. Well, now the most recent one is there at the very top. Which is like updates from this business, and you click on it, and then you go to that post. The thing is that, basically, if your post is too old, or if you’re not adding posts consistently, this doesn’t happen.

Dave: Hmm.

Tricia: So, Google has been doing a lot of different things with photos. I mean, you really, really need to be adding photos to your Google Business Profile. This reminds me, I need to do the same because I have tons of photos from WordCamp US that I need to add. You know, businesses like ours, we’re kind of like, what are we going to do, take pictures of us just sitting at our desk at home? So, I’m like, no, when I’m out at things, when I’m speaking, when I’m talking to people, I need to add photos myself. Let me find the actual link to that because you can’t really get to that profile; you can see that photo, but let me show you the actual profile.

David: It just reminds me recently, Google came out with a kind of a warning stating to be careful about posting the same thing in your business posts on your profile.

Tricia: Yeah, consistently posting the same thing. So, let me share this with you. So, this will take you to that business’s profile, and you can basically… Okay. Ah, so I sent you right there. Okay. And the photos are at the top. So, this is different because it’s different on mobile versus desktop. So, this is the mobile version. So, if we’re looking at this on a desktop, at the very top, here’s where all the pictures would be. And see here, right here on the desktop, you’ve got the most recent one from the owner. But if you look at it on…

David: That’s a responsive website.

Tricia: It’s responsive and not mobile. Exactly. But the photo that I shared on Twitter, that’s how it will look on mobile, which is what a lot of people do when they’re looking on mine; that’s what they find.

David: And you’ll get the notification in your Google maps.

Tricia: Yeah, and this one, just so you all know, I am their client. They’re not my client. I left a review because you can see all the awesome bathroom photos that they did. They did a phenomenal job. Anyway, Moxie got there in the picture. But, you know, I think that it’s something that Google’s even showing the hosts do matter. And they’re always changing things. So, just something to take note of.

David: That’s great. That’s really cool. I wonder if Google’s going to give you analytics as to how many people are getting updates.

Tricia: I’m not sure. I don’t know.

David: So, I would want to know how many hit the bell to be notified.

Tricia: And I want to say when I clicked on that, it just took me to the post. But there is a way to like… Yeah. It used to be that you could follow a business, but then they stopped doing that. And, you can actually follow people, which is very bizarre to me. I guess because I’m a local service guide and I do a lot of reviews, I have tons of people following me. I guess they like looking at my reviews.

David: Good find. Very interesting.

Tricia:  Yeah. And so, from that tweet that Barry did with, what is it? Search Engine Round Table. He had evidently, recently that morning, had an article talking about different things on photos. How they’re timestamping them, because a lot of times you’ll go to the Google Business Profile and you’ll see a picture and be like, well, when was this taken? Or when was this uploaded? And you know, when you actually get to the business, it’s like, whoa, what is this, maybe three years ago? The business looks completely different. You can’t find it. So, this is something new that they were doing when it was recently uploaded. And then when I tweeted out about this, that I found this new, he added that to the post he did about photos and things like that. But one thing I was going to say is that I looked at several, and I don’t know what the cutoff is, but if you haven’t posted recently, you will not get this update from the business. So, you have to have recent, and when I say recent, I recommend a once-a-week post.

David: Oh, we have to have it in mobile.

Tricia: Well, that’s true. Yeah. You have to look at it on your mobile phone.

David: I haven’t posted anything for a month.

Tricia: Well, I want to look that up because I was looking at…

Dave: I have a question about this. So, when you’re doing these posts, they have to be unique content different than your blog?

Tricia: So, let me look here.

David: Okay. So, that’s a separate question.

Tricia: Let me finish this one here for David. So, I looked, and your last post was, when?

David: August 15th.

Tricia: Okay. And it is now the 21st. And it is not showing. So, I’m on my mobile phone and looking at the pictures, and I do not have that same thing that we just saw a minute ago from my screenshot. So, I would say that I recommend posting once a week. And it’s looking like… I don’t know how long it is before they go off. That’d be interesting to see – to look at some profiles and see the last post to determine when it was.