Do you always find your images getting stretched when shared on Google My Business (now called Google Business Profile) locations? Well, there is an easy way to avoid that by sharing images of appropriate size.
Google is notorious for rejecting posts if you do not adhere to their image guidelines. If you have recently created a new location on Google Business Profile then this guide will help you avoid rookie mistakes.
Once you make and verify your Google my business listing, you will be able to add your business name, location, contact number, category, products, services, photos of your store, and posts. In this guide by RecurPost, a social media scheduler, we’ll see what a Google My Business post is, how to schedule Google My Business posts, and what the right image size to create it is.
What Are Google My Business Posts?
‘Posts’ is a feature provided for Google my business listing owners that allow them to add rich posts to their account which can be used for doing product promotions or providing information to potential customers. You can create posts for announcing a new product launch, any ongoing offer or discount, or to inform about any upcoming event. A GMB post stays on your listing for 7 days and then expires.
Using the posts feature continuously can have a positive impact on your click-through rate. They basically act as a mini display advertisement that you don’t have to pay for. Your Google my business post can also get featured on Google search’s knowledge panel if it matches the user’s search queries. Google my business posts are not limited to adding only text. You can add high-quality photos to improve how the entire posts look like on the screens of searchers’ devices.
The best part of uploading a Google my business post is that you can add a call to action and allow people to click on the button and take a specific action. There are five call to actions that you can use: Sign up, Call now, Book, Get offer, and Learn more.
How do Google My Business Posts Improve SEO?
Not directly. You will not see direct visible changes in your rankings, but there will be a significant increase in your click-through rates. They will increase your website visits and push potential customers to take an action. When a user is looking for a service, your Google my business posts will appear along with other posts in the organic listings. It is very beneficial to post on GMB as they hardly take up 5-10 minutes in creation and bring more customers and help you get more leads with Google my business. Discover how to create posts on Google My Business (GMB) with our easy guide!
Google my business posts also create a rich snippet in the Local-3 pack. Thus, you need to write SEO-Friendly Text along with the post that you publish. Google pulls text from your posts and uses them as rich snippets in the local pack.
Types of Google My Business Posts
At present, Google my business offers you to create 5 types of posts.
- What’s new: Enables you to give continuous and fresh updates related to your business.
- Events: Lets you make announcements regarding any upcoming events.
- Offers: Allows you to make people aware of any ongoing discounts or offers on your products/services.
- Products: Enables you to showcase your products along with their price and a buy now button which takes users directly to the cart.
- COVID-19: Allows you to inform users about any changes in your business due to covid-19.
Google my Business Post Image Size Guide
We’ll now see each type of Google my business post in detail and what should be the criteria while uploading them, along with the correct google post image size.
1. ‘What’s new’ posts
While creating a ‘What’s new’ Google my business post, you can add up to 1500 characters of text. This provides you with a great opportunity to give more details about the post and make users engage with the content. Along with the text, you can add an image, GIF, or a video.
The recommended Google My Business post image size is 480 X 270 (minimum resolution). Try to maintain an aspect ratio of 4:3, otherwise, it will be revised by Google and not appear properly in search results.
For videos, the maximum upload size is 100 MB. The videos should not be more than 30 seconds in duration. You can add up to 10 photos or videos in one Google my business post. Along with media, a call to action button can be added which allows users to take a specific action directly from your post. These kinds of posts have a life of 7 days.
2. Events
Event posts are a bit different as they don’t carry the 7 days of time limit. They stay live from the date of publishing until the date of your event. You can enter that date while creating the post. While you can always write an extended date for keeping the post live for long, it is not recommended.
Event posts allow you to write a title that basically describes the name of your event. In these kinds of posts, you can add a photo, video, event title, start and end date, event details, and a call to action button. The Google my business event image size is also recommended to be of 480 X 270.
3. Offers
These posts are great to grab the attention of users and make them have a look at your products or services. In Offer posts too, you can add a title. Try something catchy, such as ‘Get 20% off on all makeup products’. Just like event posts, you can add an expiry date for your offer.
In the advanced options, you can add offer details, coupon code, a redemption link to claim the offer, and the terms and conditions associated with the offer. These posts have the potential to increase your website visits, link clicks, as well as purchases.
4. Products
Products posts allow you to showcase your products, their price, and provide a link for people to buy them. While creating these kinds of posts, you can use the ‘Buy’ call to action button, and send people straight to your website. Note that you can not add videos here. These posts allow you to add product photos, product name, product category, Description, and a call to action button. The recommended Google my Business product image size is the same as event posts.
5. Covid-19
This category recently got launched by Google as almost every business is operating differently because of the pandemic. The covid-19 posts stay live for an additional 7 days, i.e. a total of 14 days. However, these posts don’t perform very well. You can add only a ‘Status update’ (description) and a call to action button here.
Which Google My Business Post is The Best?
After taking a look at all the Google my business post types, it can definitely be said that ‘What’s new’ posts are the best for any business. They can be used in almost all situations and provide room for including a lot of information.
You can ideally use this post type for providing general business updates, promotional offers, consumer reviews/testimonials, and literally anything else that you can think of. It will actually help in driving results for your business.
Which Google My Business Post Image Size is The Best?
If you are posting from the GMB dashboard, the best Google My Business post image size is 1200 x 900 pixels, a 4:3 image ratio. Always center the subject of your image vertically and horizontally. To get a better idea, we will see the difference between how an image with incorrect sizing appears and how the one with correct sizing appears.
This is an example of an image that will be of the standard size and appear correctly on the thumbnail and the post both:
This image appears perfectly well in the listing because it has been sized appropriately. Now, let’s see how an image would appear if sized incorrectly:
This image is a classic example of how incorrect sizing can affect the text of the image. It happens many times that an image might have the text and because of incorrect sizing, the text does not appear in the listing. Another important thing to take care of is the aspect ratio of the image. Here is an image with an appropriate aspect ratio:
Now, let’s look at the original image size:
It can be observed that not much detail was lost from the original image size.
It is important that you pay attention to your Google my business posts image size and make it correct so that it appears as planned on the post and its thumbnail. If you end up uploading a Google my business photo size that is very wide, then the application will mostly crop up some of the image detail to fit it into the frame and thumbnail. This can be worked with for generic images but if the image text includes something important, you would want it to be there on the thumbnail and the Google My Business posts.
Default Size – 720 x 540 pixels
Maximum Size – 2120 x 1192 pixels
Minimum Size – 480 x 270 pixels
Aspect Ratio – 4:3
What Types of Photos Can You Upload on GMB?
There are mainly three types of photos that you can create a Google post with.
- Google My Business profile photos – These will represent you and will help your customers recognize your business on Google.
The best Google profile image size would be 250 × 250 pixels.
- Google My Business cover photos – You can display your page’s personality through your GMB cover photo. When you add a cover photo, the application will automatically set it as your listing’s preferred photo.
The best Google My Business cover photo size is 1080 x 608 pixels.
- Additional Google My Business photos – You can always add additional different photos to highlight various features of your business that customers might consider while making a buying decision. And the Google business post image size should be optimized when you post.
Best Practices For Google My Business Posts
- Unlike social media platforms, posts on Google my business have to be promotional. Don’t post the same kind of posts that you upload on social sites. Don’t promote your blogs by providing links in the form of call to actions.
- People who are making Google searches are basically looking for solutions to their queries. Thus, you should be focusing on promoting your products and offering discounts that make your listing stand out from others.
- Capitalize the first few lines of the post title to catch the attention of people. Write a compelling copy and put the right call to action button.
- Even though you are allowed to write 300 words, stick with 80-100 words. Depending on the device that people are searching on, the number of characters displayed can vary.
- Make it a practice to include important keywords and messages at the beginning of your post description.
- Be sure that the landing page (CTA link) you send visitors to, matches the content of the Google my business post and meets the users’ expectations.
- Whatever you include in the description, make it conversational and use a natural tone.
- Avoid using a lot of text in images that you use in posts.
Schedule Google My Business Posts
Now that you know how beneficial Google my business posts can be, you are probably thinking of how often you should post. As the ideal post-expiration period is 7 days, you should post at least once a week. There is no maximum or minimum number that is recommended. Just don’t stuff a lot of posts on your Google my business profile simultaneously or leave it unattended for a longer duration.
If you find it difficult to keep track of all your Google my business posts and their expiration date, you can schedule them in advance. You can use a social media scheduling tool to do so. RecurPost provides you with a Google My Business Post Scheduler that lets you schedule months and months of posts in advance. You can add a call to action button directly from the tool. Before scheduling or publishing, you will also be able to see a preview of how your post will appear on GMB after being uploaded.
RecurPost supports content repurposing which is great for promoting your products and services. You can create recurring posts that will go out on your Google my business listing in a loop. This will help in keeping your listing always active and provide users with a continuous supply of important information related to your products or services.
Along with post-scheduling, you can also manage your reviews from the social inbox. All your reviews will appear in one place, and you will be able to reply to them straight from RecurPost. In short, you can manage multiple Google my business listings completely.
Google My Business Cover Photo Size Tips
If you want to have your Google My Business cover photo in the most optimal size then you should follow the 1024 ✕576 pixels rule. Earlier Google required you to follow the 16:9 ratio for Google My Business cover photo size. The minimum aspect ratio could be 480✕270 pixels and the maximum was 2120✕1192 pixels.
The requirement no longer applies but it is still recommended that you follow this guideline.
How to Optimize Your Google My Business Page’s Posts For Success?
We did learn about creating Google My Business posts but do you know how to create one that gets results? Here are tips to optimize your GMB page posts for success:
- Use high-resolution images or videos – It does not matter what information you are embedding in your post, leveraging the power of videos or images is the best thing to do because consumers retain 95% of a message when it is in media format
- Include keywords in your post – whenever you draft your posts, make sure you include keywords that are relevant with the searches of your customers. You can conduct ground-level keyword research on your own by typing in relevant words and analyzing the search queries people have related to them.
- Add CTA – It is an important step that you should not miss when creating your Google post. When you draft your post, you will get the option of adding a clickable call-to-action button to your post. These buttons will help you draw audiences to your website and also help you track traffic.
- Optimize your landing page – Before you go ahead with publishing your Google post, you should make it a point to optimize your landing page. Your purpose could be simply linking to a blog post, driving traffic to a new product page, or funneling users to a lead capture page, regardless, the landing page should be clean and in sync with your Google post.
- Keep the post text short – You might be tempted to use the entire allotted character limit which is 1500 but refrain from doing so. The best length for your posts would be around 150-300 characters.
What is The Best Google My Business Post Image Size Quality
If you are looking for the best Google My Business posts image size quality, you will have to adhere to the following standards:
- Format: JPG or PNG.
- Size: Between 10 KB and 5 MB.
- Recommended resolution: 720 px tall, 540 px wide.
- Minimum resolution: 480 px tall, 270 px wide.
- Quality: You need to make sure that the photo is in focus and well lit, and has no significant alterations or excessive use of filters. To be more clear, the image should exhibit a reality.
Google My Business Listing Image Size Requirements
You should note that you will always have users posting photos of your business online since Google Listings are heavy on user-generated content. However, the problem with them posting these photos is that these would often be low-quality images that do not portray your business or community in the best way. This calls for the need of having professional photography for your business.
Here are the requirements for images to effectively optimize Google business listings:
- Size: Between 10KB and 5MB
- Minimum resolution: 720 x 720 pixels
- Quality: The best photos will reflect the actual space and will be focused and well-lit.
- Format: JPG or PNG
How to Resize an Image for Google My Business Posts
There are usually three types of images involved in Google My Business posts: profile image, cover image, and logo. If you want to resize an image, here is your guide for all:
When you design your Google My Business logo, you should see to it that your logo is square in dimension, high-resolution, and the file size should fall between 10KB and 5MB. Adding a logo to your profile is a good idea because that will ensure that your branding is loud and clear to those who search for your business. Here are the guidelines you should follow:
Format: JPG or PNG
Size: Between 10 KB and 5 MB.
Google My Business Profile Photo Size: 250 x 250 pixels (min 120 x 120; max 5200 x 5300)
Minimum resolution: 250 px tall, 250 px wide
Google my business profile photo size Guide
Moving on to another type of Google My Business image size guide, here are the standards that you should follow for profile photo size:
- Google My Business Profile Photo Size: 250 x 250 pixels (minimum 120 x 120; maximum 5200 x 5300)
- Format: JPG or PNG.
- Size: Between 10 KB and 5 MB.
- Minimum Resolution: 720 px tall, 720 px wide.
How to Measure Google My Business Post Performance?
When you upload a post on Google my business, you can see how many people came across it. You can also see the number of times the call to action button in your post was clicked.
To check the views and clicks on any post, simply go to the ‘Posts’ section from your GMB dashboard. Look at the bottom of each post in the authoring tool. You will see the total number of views for that post which is received from Google search and other platforms combined. Just beside the view count, you will see the number of clicks received on the post. This is the number of times your call to action button was clicked by the users.
You can see these numbers from your GMB dashboard and Google will also email the aggregate account metrics every week. The email will include the number of posts on a search for the week, the total number of views from all posts, and thumbnails of 3 posts with the highest interaction rate for the week.
How to Track GMB Traffic to Your Site?
UTM tracking will help you keep a track of GMB traffic to your site. You must use UTM because Google Analytics attribution is not very reliable in this case. You will get the exact number of views and clicks on a post via GMB insights but the problem is that multiple impressions from the same user are counted in that. This can be slightly misleading if you want to track your growth and strategize based on that.
How Often You Should Post on Google My Business
The optimal frequency of posting on Google My Business is once per week. That means you should post at least once a week and refrain from posting more. You are wrong if you think that posting more and creating carousels of posts will get you better results. As per tests, businesses are found to get good results from using a single post.
Posting only once a week will also allow you to track the performance of your posts better. You will know what is working with the help of Google analytics.
RecurPost-supported platforms in addition to Google My Business
RecurPost assists you in improving your brand engagement on multiple platforms. It allows you to schedule Instagram posts on your personal and business profiles to entertain your audience with images, stories, and reels. You can schedule Facebook posts on your profiles, business pages, and groups.
RecurPost is among the few social media tools that help you to schedule Google Business Profile posts with your chosen call to action button to promote your brand locally. You should try its features by signing up for a free trial.
Your business needs the support of GMB!
RecurPost will be your partner in acing GMB posting.
Summing Up
Frequently Asked Questions for Google My Business Post Image Size
If you are posting from the GMB dashboard, the best image size for a Google My Business post is 1200 x 900 pixels, a 4:3 image ratio. Always center the subject of your image vertically and horizontally. Most importantly, GMB post image sizes must be set just right and properly optimized for your posts to be attractive and appear as desired.
Default Size – 720 x 540 pixels
Maximum Size – 2120 x 1192 pixels
Minimum Size – 480 x 270 pixels
Aspect Ratio – 4:3
A maximum file size of 10 MB (2120 x 1192 pixels), png or jpg, is recommended for the image post that you upload on Google my business. However, it will better if you can compress the image for minimum resolution requirements without degrading the quality of the image.
A post made on Google my business normally has an expiration period of one week. After expiration, it will not be visible to the viewers but you can see it in the list of your posts and check its analytics.
What’s new posts – 7 Day expiration
Event posts – They stay live till the starting date of your event
Offer posts – They stay live till the last date of your offer
Product posts – 7 Day expiration
Covid-19 related posts – 14 Day expiration
Your image post will look best on Google my Business when it meets the following standards:
Format: JPG or PNG.
Size: Between 10 KB and 5 MB.
Recommended resolution: 720 px tall, 540 px wide.
Minimum resolution: 480 px tall, 270 px wide.
Quality: The photo should be in focus and well lit, and have no significant alterations or excessive use of filters. In other words, the image should represent reality.
When your Google my business post gets rejected, you will see a ‘Rejected’ notice in a red button. Normally, posts are rejected due to the content written or image used. Sometimes, certain words written in the description triggers rejection. Those words might appear normal to you, but they may be on the offensive words list of Google.
So, when your post gets rejected, try writing a more general copy in the description and don’t use any sensitive images. Also, don’t include any URL or phone number in the description of the post. Use the call to action button for sending people to your website or to call you.
The ideal recommended Google My Business cover photo size (Banner size) is 1024 x 576 pixels. The 16:9 ratio looks excellent in Google Maps, and it can still be cropped into a square when it’s needed as a thumbnail. 1024 x 576 is a great option because it’s high-resolution but still small enough to support fast load times.
Here is a guideline for you to post an image (pictures) on Google listing:
Sign in to your Google my business account and choose the location on which you want to post (if you have multiple locations). From the menu, click on ‘Posts’. At the top of the page, choose the type of post you want to create: Update, Event, Offer, or Product. Choose the image that you want to add to the post. You can also add videos. Add text, events, offers, or a button. Enter relevant information for each post addition you choose. To publish the post, click on the ‘Publish’ button on the top right.
You can also schedule your Google my business listing posts using RecurPost. You can add call to action buttons directly from the tool. Before scheduling or publishing, you will also be able to see a preview of how your post will appear on GMB after being uploaded. This way, you’ll never need to open GMB to create posts manually.
Your profile logo will look best on Google my Business when it meets the following standards:
Format: JPG or PNG
Size:Between 10 KB and 5 MB.
Recommended resolution:250 x 250 pixels (min 120 x 120; max 5200 x 5300)
Minimum resolution:250 px tall, 250 px wide
Your product image will look best on Google my Business when it meets the following standards:
Format: JPG or PNG
Size: Less than 5 MB.
Recommended resolution:250 x 250 pixels (min 120 x 120; max 5200 x 5300)
Minimum resolution:250 px tall, 250 px wide
The recommended video size for google my business is;
File size: up to 100 MB
Duration: up to 30 seconds.
Google My Business allowed businesses to add videos to their listings to showcase their products, services, or other aspects of their business. The file size and duration limitations were in place to ensure that the videos were of reasonable quality and length for online viewing.
Google Maps typically resizes and optimizes images to fit various screen sizes and devices.
Here are some general guidelines to consider when uploading images to Google Maps:
1. High Resolution: It’s best to use high-resolution images to ensure they look clear and crisp on different devices.
2. Aspect Ratio: While there is no strict aspect ratio requirement, square (1:1) and landscape (16:9) images tend to work well on Google Maps.
3. Supported Formats: JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP, and WebP are some of the commonly supported image formats on Google Maps.
4. Avoid Watermarks and Promotional Content: Google Maps generally discourages images with watermarks, promotional content, or other elements that may not be relevant to the location.
The thumbnail size for Google My Business posts may be automatically generated or depend on the image you choose to use in your post.
However, When creating posts on Google My Business, it’s best to use images with a minimum resolution of 400 x 300 pixels and an aspect ratio of 4:3. However, for the thumbnail specifically, it may be automatically cropped or resized based on the platform’s display requirements.
To find information regarding specific actions visitors have taken on your Google My Business listing over a given period of time, you should use the “Insights” feature.
Google My Business Insights provides valuable data and metrics about how customers interact with your business listing. It includes information such as:
1. Total searches
2. Direct searches
3. Discovery searches
4. Custom actions
5. Phone calls
6. Direct requests
7. Photo views
8. Post interaction
Dr. Dinesh Agarwal is a research scientist turned entrepreneur. He is fascinated with the social media world and has been working in the industry since 2013, where he built his first social media management tool that got acquired a few years later. He likes sharing his experience on podcasts, conferences and via his articles.