Google Is Sending A Loud Signal: Photos And Videos Are Hugely Important For Your GBP
If you’ve been paying attention to local search lately, you may have noticed something new on Google Business Profiles: view counts on photos and videos. It’s a small detail, but it sends a loud signal. Google doesn’t add engagement metrics to something it doesn’t care deeply about.
And when Google cares about something, local businesses need to care too.
What This Really Means
Think about the last time you searched for a local business before deciding to visit. Did you scroll through their photos? Of course you did. Now imagine landing on a profile with grainy, outdated images that look like they were taken years ago on someone’s first smartphone. Compare that to a profile bursting with fresh, vibrant visuals: recent work, happy customers, a team that clearly takes pride in what they do.
The second business wins the click almost every time. Not because they’re necessarily better, but because they look active, credible, and trustworthy.
Your Google Business Profile is evolving into something much closer to a social media presence than a simple business listing. The difference is, instead of collecting likes from people you went to high school with, every piece of content you post is working to attract paying customers who are actively searching for what you offer.
So What Should You Actually Do?
The good news is you don’t need a professional camera crew or a marketing degree. Customers searching Google aren’t expecting cinematic masterpieces. They want proof. Proof that your business is real, that it’s active, and that other people trust it.
Here's What Works:
Upload fresh photos and short videos consistently. Even once a week makes a difference. Show your work, your space, your team in action. When customers leave glowing reviews, encourage them to attach a photo of the result they loved. Those authentic, unpolished customer images carry enormous credibility and signal to Google that real people are engaging with your business.
The businesses climbing local search rankings right now aren’t necessarily the biggest or most established. They’re the ones feeding Google’s content machine on a regular basis.
Let AI Handle the Heavy Lifting
Keeping up with all of this… photos, videos, posts, review management, and profile optimization… can feel like a second job on top of running your actual business. That’s exactly the problem that GRAICE was built to solve.
GRAICE (which stands for Google Ranking Artificial Intelligence Channel Enhancement) is an AI powered tool by My Web People that manages your Google Business Profile automatically. It audits your profile against top performing competitors, optimizes your content for local SEO, publishes posts and videos, replies to reviews, and even turns your uploaded images into keyword optimized slideshow videos, all on autopilot.
Most GRAICE users let it run completely hands free. Set it up, and it keeps working for your ranking, whether you’re on the job or off the clock.
If you’re ready to stop leaving local search visibility on the table, check out GRAICE here and see what consistent, AI-driven GBP management can do for your business.
