I see a lot of businesses (such as hotels, car dealerships, chain restaurants, etc.) add stock photos to their location on Google Maps. Is there an official Google policy against stock photos on Google Maps locations? I’ve always thought that the photos of places on Google Maps should be specific to that location because that’s what’s most helpful. Not a photo that someone in corporate blasts out to all 100 of their company locations. What’s Google’s take on stock photos? Should they be reported?
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GMB have different rules on photo contributions @Sleuther to Local Guides. These sort of images created by branding departments as I understand it are ok and are very common.
Personally I think they miss the point, that local photographs are going to resonate with the customers much more than glossies.
Paul
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Hi @Sleuther ,
Thanks for reaching out to us!
As @PaulPavlinovich already jumped in, I just wanted to let you know that I will move your post to our How-tos board, where Local Guides ask questions and express their doubts. More information on Connect’s labels is available here.
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Hi, @Sleuther
As it was stated in this link: Format Specific Criteria - Maps User Contributed Content (https://support.google.com/contributionpolicy/answer/7411351#zippy=%2Cphotos-and-videos ), 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.
And, imho, according to this link: Add and Remove Photos or Videos for Your Business Profile (https://support.google.com/business/answer/6103862?hl=en&ref_topic=6130059 ), business listing are following the basic rules I was stated previously.
So, imho, you can report stock photos on business listing.
Cmiaw
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I regularly come across store chains that push their cooperate photos to even become the cover photos. This is certainly not helpful to Maps users since most places don’t look like those “glamor” shots.
And some of these places have figured out a way to remove user contributed photos and block us from uploading new and real photos showing the places.
Time is up for some improvements on this, Google!
Cheers
Morten
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Thanks everyone for the responses. Those are all helpful! @PaulPavlinovich and @MortenCopenhagen I agree that these stock, glossy, glam shots miss the point. Reading the policy information @iorikun301 shared, it does seem there are some differences between Local Guides policies and Google My Business- namely it expressly prohibits local guide users from uploading stock photos but on the GMB policies I read no explicit mention of stock photos. However, reading through the Maps Support Community postings on the GMB side, a lot of the GMB product experts are saying not to upload stock photos - although that could just refer to general stock photos and not these glossy, glam shots. So I guess the answer is, Are these photos allowed? It seems like it, as long as they’re uploaded by the business and not users. Should they be allowed? Probably not as they generally aren’t helpful.
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Hi @Sleuther ,
I wanted to let you know that I will remove the accepted solution as this post doesn’t require such. You can learn more about solutions on Connect in this article.
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@iorikun301 I don’t think @Sleuther means photos taken from stock sites, I got the impression that he means photos of one nicely setup business location pushed out to them all instead of using separate photos on each location. Brands are allowed to do that. Their photos do not have the same guidelines as Local Guides.
Paul
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I’m officially confused now. Whether it’s my bad English or the text that cannot be perfectly translated to Indonesian (this is how we called Indonesian language. “Indonesian,” not “Bahasa.” “Bahasa” means language").
Imho, @Sleuther , about photos, GMB has still follow the same rules as Local Guides. “…After you choose the photos or videos you want to add to your Google My Business listing, make sure of the following: Photos and videos follow our content policies.” (https://support.google.com/business/answer/6103862?hl=en&ref_topic=6130059 )
What kind of content policy? This:
"…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."
(https://support.google.com/contributionpolicy/answer/7411351#zippy=%2Cphotos-and-videos )
But @PaulPavlinovich said stock photos here are not stock photo but stock photo.
Maybe that glamour stock photo means business/official photos like in here?
Business Specific Photos (https://support.google.com/business/answer/6123536 )
Imho, yes, business specific photo here can be a staged photo, just like in Team Photo explanation in that guide. And it’s, imho, allowed.
“…Team photos are important to present a more personal side of your establishment.”
And this is including logos that is blasted to all the business chains.
So, imho, stock photos that are means staged business photos is allowed as long as it accurately represent that specific place. “…Show your customers what they’ll see before they get there” (https://support.google.com/business/answer/9336353#zippy= )
Sorry for my bad English.
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@Bobiisha I read the article but hoping you can shine some more light on why this post doesn’t require a solution? From my vantage point, I asked a question looking for a definite answer (solution). Thanks! 
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Hi @Sleuther ,
As this forum is dedicated to Local Guides program and your question is related to Google My Business, we can’t provide the information you are requiring, as @PaulPavlinovich mentioned. You can address your query to the GMB forum for better assistance and a definite answer.
@iorikun301 Thanks for your response! Perhaps it was poor wording on my part. By stock photos, I meant photos that a company posts that aren’t taken at that location but still represent the brand that the company is marketing. They tend to be glossy and make everything look perfect (like a glamour photo).
Here is an example from a McDonalds. This kids meal photo was not taken at this location and is probably posted on hundreds of other McDonalds Maps locations. I see so many of these photos that are clearly taken at a studio and not the location.
Here is an example from a car dealership. While it represents the cars they sell, it was not taken at the dealership or otherwise directly related to the dealership.
Here is an example from a hotel. I found this exact photo on several other hotels from this chain while looking for an example. The hotel photos that I find frustrating the most are the photos of the breakfast area posted by the owner and then when you get there, it looks nothing like the photo because the company owner is using the same photo for multiple locations.
I hope that helps clarify!
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@Bobiisha Thank you for the clarification. That is helpful. I was looking at things from the Local Guides perspective, since we are the reporting machine for Google, and asking if these photos violated a specific policy and should be reported by the local guides or left as is because they aren’t violating any specific policy. Per your suggestion, I’ll be sure to reach out to the community over there.
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Hi @iorikun301 a stock photo is a photo you buy from a place like Getty Images https://www.gettyimages.com.au/ or Stocksy https://www.stocksy.com/ or other similar providers. These are definitely not allowed by anyone.
The photos that I think our friend @Sleuther was asking about are the photos made by the corporate brand people where they likely went to their newest and prettiest store, styled it beautifully and filled it up with beautiful people then made a series of professional amazingly good photographs.
They then use those photos on every single location they have giving people the idea that all of their stores look like this. This is a little bit dodgy but is a common practice among businesses.
Is this a good thing? No it’s not. Nice fresh images of the real place are much better.
It is good to have this interesting conversation.
Paul
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