A query - as LGs we know Google don’t like us to use the same (or very similar) images for multiple businesses, even if it’s an exterior shot of a building housing multiple offices for example and would be useful for someone looking for any one of them.
We’re also told not to upload images that aren’t taken at that specific location.
So with this in mind are businesses themselves subjected to similar standards?
I ask because I keep seeing businesses using stock images that aren’t reflective of their products (fast food takeaways seem to be the worst for this) as well as companies using photos of say a fashion show or product images from a shoot and then use this as an image on all of their retail outlets as a promotional tool. I know a logo is OK to upload and that seems to make sense (but would it for an LG to upload?) but the guidelines on the business pages are a little vague in places.
https://support.google.com/contributionpolicy/answer/7411351
"In addition to the Prohibited Content guidelines, Photos and Videos are subject to the following criteria.
Screenshots, stock photos, GIFs, other manually created imagery or imagery taken by other parties should not be uploaded. To be relevant, photos or videos must be taken by users at the location in question. If the primary subject of the content is irrelevant to the location, it may be removed"
As a business owner are you working to different set of rules to Local Guides or should we be calling this kind of thing out?
(I have tried to report some stock photos of food before that are nothing like the products the places churn out, they never get removed so I gave up, I was just curious about this so thought I’d ask a wider audience for their thoughts)