When someone searches for a product or service you offer (for example “plumbers in Miami”) or your brand name the Google Business Profile’s cover photo image is going to be the first and main image people see related to your brand:

What is the Google Business Profile (ex Google My Business) Cover Photo

So the “Cover” photo is  the primary/main image that accompanies your profile across the Google ecosystem – in your business profile on a desktop or a smartphone and on Google maps.

Google Business Profile Cover Photo Guidelines

• Format: JPG or PNG.
• Size: Between 10 KB and 5 MB.
• Minimum resolution:  250 px tall, 250 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.
• Stock photos should not be uploaded

Ideal Cover Photo Size >

How to Change Cover Photo On Google Business Profile

1. You need to be signed in to the Google Account you use for your Google Business Profile
2. Find your Business Profile by searching on Google for the exact business name or write “my business” in the search field
3. To update your Business Profile, select “View profile”
4. Click on “Add photo”
5. Click on “Cover photo”:
6. The add cover editor box will open:
   • You can either drag the cover photo or
   • Click on the blue button “Select photo” to open the “file explorer”. 
7. After you selected the image file for your cover, the process is finished

Change Google Business Profile Cover Photo Step by Step Screenshots

Important Note

Uploading the image that you want as your cover photo doesn’t guarantee that image will be selected by Google as the “cover” photo, but it does tell Google you prefer to display this photo.

Google Business Profile (ex Google My Business) Cover Photos Examples

Bad Cover examples

In the example below, you would think plumber, bathroom remodelers, etc

But nope:

People evaluate what they are seeing, your cover photo is an opportunity to create trust.

One example (which is infamously funny) is when a customer at Bed, Bath and Beyond arranged one of their products to spell a “not-so-appropriate” word – then uploaded the image to the location’s Google Business Profile and Google chose it as the “Cover”.

Good Cover examples

In the example below, the cover is well fitted and the brand is well visible.

Change Cover Photo On Google Business Profile FAQs

What to do when the Google Business Profile Cover Photo is not showing

Amazing Pro Tip to fix Google Business Profile/Google My Business Cover not showing issue.

If you tried to change your cover photo but the Public Google Business Profile shows another photo, you can try change Google’s choice by changing your header photo on the Google Profile Business website! I tested it several times and it works most of the time.

Google Business Profile Cover Photo is not showing fix

1. Go to the Website section
2. On the right you will find the “header Photo” with a button “Edit Header Photo”, click on it
3. Select the cover photo you want

Step by Step Screenshots

Ideal Google Business Profile Cover Photo Size

The best size for a Google Business Profile/Google My Business Cover photo (Main photo) is a rectangle of ratio 4:3, I recommend 1080px by 810px (Width x Height), but you can calculate different sizes using this ratio calculator.

Before you change the cover photo in your Google Business Profile, you should make sure the main elements of the cover are in the middle of the photo, you can use a square as a guide with a size 85% of the height, for example: using a photo with 810px in height, the square should be 690 x 690 px. It will help in the smartphone searches as thumbnails of cover photos are square in search results on a smartphone.

 You may have to crop your cover to fit well.

Google Business Profile Cover Photo Template (click on it for the real template size):