Google Business Profile

Photos and video that win clicks on your Google Business Profile

Travellers decide in about two seconds whether your tour looks worth the money. On Google, that decision is made from a thumbnail — usually one you did not choose.

Who this is for: Operators whose profile is dominated by customer snapshots or dark, low-resolution photos.

What Google shows and what you control

You set a logo and a cover photo. Google decides the rest, mixing owner photos with customer uploads and ranking them by engagement. The way to win is volume of good photos, not fighting the algorithm.

Upload at least 20 owner photos before worrying about anything else.
Minimum 720×720; aim for 1200×900 or larger, JPG or PNG, well lit.
No text overlays, watermarks, borders, or collages — those get suppressed.

The five shots every tour profile needs

These are the frames that consistently move click-through for activity businesses.

The hero moment: guests mid-experience, faces visible, real light.
The meeting point: exactly what the traveller will see when they arrive.
The guide: a human face builds more trust than any landscape.
The equipment or interior: kayaks, van, tasting room, gallery space.
The payoff: the summit, the sunset, the plate of food.

Short video is underused and it works

Thirty seconds, vertical, no music licensing risk, shot on a phone. Upload one a month. Video is still rare on activity profiles, so it stands out in the photo carousel and it is the easiest way to show pace and vibe.

Keep the same standards on your listing feed

Anything you feed into Google Things to Do has stricter rules than the profile does — no people-in-frame restrictions to worry about, but resolution and framing matter more because images get cropped into panels.