Can I use the same interior photos for multiple stores in Google My Business?

[SO-MarceloOtero]

Hi,

The company I work for has many store locations across the country. Getting good/quality interior pictures has become very difficult for us. We recently good a Virtual Tour from Google for one of the locations, and they took some really good pictures.

According to Google, the "Photos should represent the actual business" and "Represent the real-world business location".

My question is: since our stores are VERY similar in the interior, can we use the same pictures for them while we get more pictures? Would Google penalize this?

Thanks!

[BlueCorona]

Hi there,

This is a great question.

Recently I've found that Google is placing high value on photos on a business's GMB profile. Because of this, I suggest that you do not use one set of interior photos for all of the locations. While I don't think you will necessarily get penalized, it's probably best to follow the guidelines Google has in place In case they do penalize you later down the road -- and then you would have to go back and make adjustments after the fact. Even if it takes some time, I would focus on getting photos of each individual location for their profile.

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Marcelo!

Interesting question. While it's true that the inside of one McDonald's looks pretty much like every other McDonald's, Google is going out of their way to say they only want images that represent that location. Would you get penalized for going against this guideline? Probably not, but on the other hand, a user could potentially flag your images as incorrect and who knows where that could lead. So, my answer on this would be, no, don't go against the guidelines. It's always safest to simply stick to them.