GBP Photo Audit: A Health Check for Your Visual Assets

If you are managing a Google Business Profile for a client, or looking after your own, you already know that photos matter. What is easy to miss is just how quickly they can become a liability. A profile that looked great two years ago can now be quietly working against you, and most businesses do not notice until something feels off with their enquiry numbers.

This GBP photo audit checklist is designed to help marketing agencies, web developers, and business owners do a quick but thorough review of the visual assets that influence how potential customers perceive a business before they ever make contact.

Why Visual Assets Need Regular Reviewing

Photos are not a set-and-forget element of a GBP listing. They reflect the current state of a business, and that changes. Staff come and go, showrooms get updated, product lines change, branding evolves. When the images on a listing no longer match reality, they create doubt. And doubt kills conversions.

The goal of a GBP photo audit is not to replace everything on a schedule. It is to ask a simple question: does this still represent who we are today?

Profile and Cover Photos

Start here. These are the first visual impressions a potential customer gets.

For the profile photo, check whether the right person or logo is showing. For the cover photo, ask whether the space, team, or product it features is still accurate. If a staff member has moved on, changed their look significantly, or if the branding has been updated, it is time for a refresh.

This is also a good moment to check whether the images are sized and cropped correctly. A poorly framed cover photo on mobile is easy to miss on desktop and gets noticed immediately on a phone.

Virtual Tours

For premises-based businesses, a 360 virtual tour is one of the strongest trust signals on a GBP listing. The first question is straightforward: do they have one? If not, and it is a customer-facing premises, that is the priority. Get one done.

If a tour exists, the GBP Photo Audit question is whether it still reflects the space accurately. Has the layout changed? New signage, updated fit-out, different stock on display, or staff visible in the tour who are no longer there? Any of these are good reasons to update. A tour that misleads, even unintentionally, creates friction the moment someone walks through the door.

Website Hero Images

GBP drives clicks to websites. When the photos on the listing and the images on the website feel disconnected, that transition undermines confidence. It should feel seamless.

Check whether the hero images on the website reflect the same environment, branding, and people visible on the GBP listing. A business that has grown, moved, or refreshed its look deserves imagery that tells a consistent story across both.

Service and Product Photography

Gallery photos on a GBP listing show what a business actually does. If services have changed, stock has rotated, or equipment has been upgraded, outdated gallery shots create confusion.

This is worth checking carefully for businesses that have evolved their offer. The images should reflect current work, current products, and current pricing where relevant. Getting this right also benefits the website, and a single shoot can update both.

Video Content

Video remains one of the most powerful and engaging assets you can have. It can be at times a bit more costly to create but the proof is there. It just works because of the ability tell more complete stories that also include audio.

And with that, remember that a good video often depends on good audio. With the cost of wireless microphones today, there’s no excuse for not capturing good audio. The only thing with video is that it does take more time to create the narratives, scripts and messaging. So with that in mind do have a go at creating your own. If for any reason they’re not hitting the mark, then bring in a professional crew (I can help with that) to get it ‘in the can’ and showcasing your business in full motion.

Note that for GBP videos keep them short (30 -60 seconds or less) and small in file sizes under 75MB or they will be rejected.

Social Media Photo Assets

Social media content pulls from the same visual library as everything else. When social posts look visually inconsistent with the GBP listing or website, it dilutes the brand.

The GBP Photo audit here is simple. Does the business have a usable set of professional photos they can draw on for posts? Do those photos reflect the current team, space, and offer? A good set of images from one session can feed all channels for months.

Even if you feel you need more images for social media, having a core set of what I call ‘internal stock’ images (in other words you have set of professional images large enough to use or to at least inform you on what else to shoot and how to shoot) will go a very long way to keep your social media flywheels going without every looking too repetitive or stale.

Review Photos

Photos attached to reviews carry real weight. A review with a photo gets seen more often and feels more credible. The audit question here is whether there are any visual testimonials in the review section at all, and whether the business is actively encouraging clients to include photos when they leave a review.

This is a low-cost, high-impact improvement that most businesses overlook entirely.

Team Photos

Team photos make a business feel real and approachable. They are worth checking when staff change, new people join, or the team has grown. Event photos showing the business in action are also worth capturing and adding. They signal an active, engaged business rather than a static listing.

A Few Technical Notes

Ensuring that photos and videos have been properly optimised also means keeping them small enough to load fast but big enough to not get pixelated. Try using formats like Webp when saving photos for your website. With video, use tools like Handbrake to compress videos so that they load fast and play well without too much degradation.

Remember to also name files properly, add Alt-Tags and ensure that the image crops look great on both desktop and mobile.

How to Use This GBP Photo Audit in Practice

Run through each of these areas for a client listing. Note what is current and what has drifted. Most of the time you will find one or two areas that need attention rather than everything at once.

If you want a second set of eyes on a listing, I offer a full GBP and website image audit. Send me a URL and I will go through it properly and come back with a clear picture of what is working and what could be stronger. No obligation, just useful information you can act on.

If in the end you want to engage me to assist with your image assets update, I’d be happy to provide you an estimate. Note that for virtual tours, if you don’t already have one, I recommend a visual in person site inspection. That way I can be more accurate in my assessment.

The businesses that keep their visual assets current are the ones that hold trust across the full customer journey, from the first search result to the moment someone walks through the door.