Photography Tips · Brussels

Salon Photos for Google Maps: What Clients See Before They Book

By Dmytro Derkach · Brussels-based commercial photographer

On Google Maps a salon gets judged on a handful of small squares, often before anyone opens the website. My advice is simple: upload real, sharp photos of your door and your treatment room, add the people who work there, and delete the old phone snapshots that don't look like your salon anymore.

What Google actually asks for

Google's help page on business photos is short. JPG or PNG, between 10 KB and 5 MB, ideally 720 by 720 pixels (the minimum is 250 by 250). Photos should be in focus and well lit, without heavy edits or filters, and Google puts it plainly: the image should represent reality.

That last line is the one I'd underline for a salon. A filtered photo that makes a narrow room look wide and bright will get clicks, sure. Then the client opens the door and sees something smaller and darker, and she starts her appointment slightly on guard.

Your cover photo is only a suggestion

You can pick a cover photo. Google says this doesn't guarantee it'll appear first, though. If the cover is low quality, or Google decides another image represents you better, it may show something else, including a picture a customer uploaded.

I wouldn't fight over one image. Give Google several good photos of the same quality, so that whichever one lands in first position still shows your salon properly.

The six frames I'd start with

The entrance from the street comes first, so a new client recognises your door when she's walking along looking for the number. Then the reception desk. Then the main room in daylight, chairs turned the same way and fresh towels rolled on the trolley. Then the team.

Last come a treatment in progress, shot with written consent from whoever's in it, and one finished result in honest light. On Google these all show up as small tiles next to your neighbours' tiles, so I keep each composition simple: one clear subject, not a wide frame full of shelves. The full website set is a different list, covered in the 12 photos every salon website needs.

When clients add their own photos

Clients can post pictures to your profile, and they'll sit right next to yours. You can't control the light in a selfie taken under the dryer. What you can do is keep enough recent photos of your own that the overall picture stays fair.

I'd replace images whenever something visible changes. New chairs, a repainted wall, a new colleague. Small mismatches are easy to miss from the inside: the old green wall in the photo, a white one at the door.

One morning, three uses

The same session can feed the Google profile and the website, plus a few weeks of Instagram. It just needs a shot list with both wide frames and simple square-friendly ones. I like to shoot the room before the first client arrives (the floor's clean, the light's even, nobody's in a hurry).

What a commercial session includes is on the commercial photography page, and the formats are on the price list.