Should I replace older photos that have thousands of views?

[KimW]

Hello,

My instincts tell me that I shouldn't remove older photos with thousands of views from Google Business. But my client wants to remove and replace them with newer headshots and office photos so that the older pics don't show.
I think this is a bad idea and that the newer pics should just be added to the profile.
What is the best practice in this situation?

Thank you!

Kim

 

[keyserholiday]

I would never remove all photos.

 

[bearenok]

Always add new and relevant business photos.
New facade photos. Update photos after repairs or upgrades in workflows.
The popularity of the photo is good, but more recent photos always have the best result in attracting and helping customers.
For the same reason, you can delete photos that are definitely not related to the company.

 

[keyserholiday]

Deleting old photos will harm your performance and not help it.

 

[Joey Abna]

This is always a fun discussion. The famous answer "It Depends" applies here. I rarely delete photos as a general practice. But, if a photo is currently being served prominently by Google and it doesn't reflect the current services, staff, atmosphere, facilities etc I would add the updated photos and see if they gain traction over the old photos. Then make a decision about deleting the old photos.

If the new photos don't get traction run the old and new through the Google Cloud Vision and see if you can figure out how Google is interpreting the photos.

 

[dgrunited]

Hello,

My instincts tell me that I shouldn't remove older photos with thousands of views from Google Business. But my client wants to remove and replace them with newer headshots and office photos so that the older pics don't show.
I think this is a bad idea and that the newer pics should just be added to the profile.
What is the best practice in this situation?

Thank you!

Kim

Your client has an emotional reason for this request. Your technical expertise means nothing to him. Therefore, just remove the old photos as per your client's request.

 

[seaniaaa]

@keyserholiday Someone raised a good question. Do you have any data/evidence you can point to in relation to the potential negative impact of removing old photos from a Google Business Profile? I'd be very interested to see that.

 

[dgrunited]

There's no evidence removing GMB photos negatively impacts rank.

I agree.

 

[keyserholiday]

There's no evidence removing GMB photos negatively impacts rank.

I have seen evidence that showed when a business posted a whole slew of new photos to combat their customer uploaded photos, that they saw a massive decline in photo views. The photo views never recovered to where they were. This was presented in a demo by Maplaps. If you have a photo or batches of photos getting views, then it can and will hurt your performance. Mike Blumenthal just did an entire presentation on the importance and value of photos for ranking purposes. If you upload the wrong photo, Google may misread it and you can lose the credit for the photo.

 

[Orlando Sydney]

I've deleted month old photos that were getting little to no views and no big issues. I like the idea of curating the photo gallery to only having photos that G actually found of value. By extension people too? But then I've got tens of thousands of images to pick from so just post another.

Would I delete photos 4,5 and 6 out of gallery with a 100 more current photos, nope. To me it shows G and prospects how long you've been committed to the profile and shows how the business has developed and progressed over years. Good for visual story telling imo.

 

[Tim Kahlert]

I'd only remove photos if they're low-quality or misleading. Like if you're not providing a specific service anymore it would be useless to showcase that service to the public. Or if the office looks old-fashioned and you've just renewed everything I'd remove those older photos showing the old office.

 

[KimW]

I can't believe how rude some people are

@keyserholiday Mike Blumenthal is all the reference I need. Thank you.

 

[keyserholiday]

If you're referring to me I certainly didn't intend it.

Please re-read some of your posts and comments. I am no longer going to engage with you or answer any of your questions.

 

[JoyHawkins]

We did a bunch of case studies last year on images so I can reference some of them here as they are relevant:

GBP:

1. The cover photo is the most important photo. Keep it updated to have more control over what image shows in the SERPs.
2. Does adding photos in GBP impact ranking? (we found it did not)
3. Does geotagging photos help ranking (we found it did not)

Organic:

1. Do photos impact ranking (yes).
2. How to get photos to show up in the SERPs
3. How to use images to increase leads.

Ads:

1. Does adding image extensions help performance (yes)

 

[JoyHawkins]

Hello,

My instincts tell me that I shouldn't remove older photos with thousands of views from Google Business. But my client wants to remove and replace them with newer headshots and office photos so that the older pics don't show.
I think this is a bad idea and that the newer pics should just be added to the profile.
What is the best practice in this situation?

Thank you!

Kim

I would just remove them. You're replacing them with better photos so there should be nothing lost here.