(What I've been uploading for the past 3 months)

[AdrianLunsong]

Local Guides love taking photos and I’m no exception. In my quest to break through to Level 9 (I am about 1250 points away and 3-4 years now as a Level 8 … I’m slow ), I’ve been slowly but regularly uploading photos (at least once a week) to Google Maps. Recently, I noticed some interesting view counts and I thought that I would share my findings in this post. But before I get to that, let’s talk about photo contributions and how to ensure quality uploads.

Firstly, I’m not a professional (some of my photo uploads definitely could be better) and there are many Local Guides out there with an amazing view counts to number of photos ratio! I currently have 6003 photos that have contributed 183,817,754 view counts, so my ratio is about 1: 30,621. What that means is that on average, a single photo that I have uploaded has generated 30,621 views. The assumption is that a higher figure means somehow Google Maps and the public love your photos and your photos are deemed good quality.

Of course, that is not entirely true and that there are many factors that may give an exaggerated view count even though the photos may not be that great. So I cannot stress enough that:

• chasing a high photo view count should not be your goal. Always ensure quality over quantity
• even the best practices may not get you a high view count. There are other factors that are beyond our control but we should at least try to maintain good quality

@AdamGT is doing a very interesting set of leaderboards (Update: the correct/better post should be this one instead as advised by Adam in the comments below) that list out the top 100 Local Guides based on their photo view counts (overall and by Local Guide level) plus another set based on the average view count per photo (the ratio that I mentioned above). The leaderboards are due very soon to be updated for May (Update: the post is now out and you can find it here) so if you would like to participate, do read his post and find out how! Incidentally, my previous average was 33,245 views so I’m dropping!

(Added a new paragraph) Adam has made a great point that this post shows what my dataset of which type of my photos are getting high number of views whilst the Top 100 Most Viewed Photos leaderboard is showing a dataset based on the top viewed photos as submitted by Local Guides from all over the world. So you can again look at a global context or what I’m experiencing here in Manchester.

Anyway, I’ve been back in the UK since 20th January 2021 and I’m going to show you what I’ve been uploading in the past 3 months and maybe there’s something that you can learn from my experience! Since I’ve been back, I’ve uploaded 185 photos/videos that have garnered 1,635,899 views (that’s an average of 8,842 views if you’re wondering).

The type of photos that I normally take are:

• Food - to show the quality, quantity and type of food available
• Front of business - to help users identify and find the business from afar
• Inside of business - to give a sense of what the inside is like (is it clean, is it bright, is it spacious etc)
• Menu - to show what dishes are available and the cost of them
• Signage - this usually shows important information such as opening hours, contact details or extra information about the business

And occasionally, I would remember to do a video to pan around the inside of the business or take extra photos of accessibility points/features. This is something that I need to improve on and make it consistently part of my regular uploads.

Here are some examples that I hope will give you an idea of what to take.

All the photos you see above are from the past 3 months. And I’ve also tabulated all 185 photos that I’ve uploaded to Google Maps below for your reference. I don’t have the specific dates to when I uploaded them (unfortunately, Google Maps only show a vague time frame, which is great from a privacy perspective) but they are listed from the most recent uploads first.

I’ve also detailed the type of business (cafe, bar, restaurant, shopping mall etc) and also the type of photo that I’ve uploaded (food, inside, front etc). I was trying to see if certain types of photos would have more view counts than others and if certain businesses are more popular. For my analysis, you can skip to after the table!

Uploaded	Location	Type	#	Type	Count
Yesterday	Pret A Manger	Cafe	1	Inside	10
	Manchester Arndale	Shopping mall	1	Inside	11
			2	Inside	33
	Albert’s Schloss	Bar / Restaurant	1	Front	52
			2	Food	166
			3	Front	467
			4	Menu	5
			5	Menu	5
			6	Drink	40
			7	Food	8
			8	Food	17
			9	Food	11
			10	Drink	15
	Impossible - Manchester	Bar / Restaurant	1	Front	32
	The Old Wellington	Bar / Restaurant	1	Front	62
	Ted Baker	Clothing shop	1	Front	168
	McDonald’s Manchester - St Anns Sq	Fast food	1	Front	4
	Great Northern Beach Club	Bar / Restaurant	1	Front	57
	Royal Exchange, Manchester	Shopping street	1	Inside	6
	Michaels Coffee House	Cafe	1	Front	8
	Lanigan & Hulme	Clothing shop	1	Front	15
	The Butcher’s Chop Shop	Barber	1	Front	8
			2	Inside	8
	Sunset by Australasia	Bar / Restaurant	1	Front	6
	Comptoir Libanais Manchester	Bar / Restaurant	1	Front	339
			2	Menu	36
			3	Menu	21
	Pall Mall - Medical & Cosmetics - Manchester	Healthcare	1	Signage	38
A week ago	Spinningfields Square	Public space	1	Outside	420
	The Y Club	Gym	1	Front	1,809
	The Lawn Club	Bar / Restaurant	1	Front	672
	Manchester Victoria Station	Train station	1	Inside	168
			2	Inside	99
	Barbirolli Square	Public space	1	Outside	662
	Tower of Light	Landmark	1	Front	99
			2	Front	229
	Chepstow House	Accommodation	1	Front	120
	Starbucks Coffee	Cafe	1	Inside	2,268
			2	Video	63
			3	Inside	31
Two weeks ago	The Wharf	Bar / Restaurant	1	Front	78,532
			2	Menu	19
			3	Video	1,186
			4	Video	292
			5	Food	2,845
			6	Food	5,140
			7	Food	5,342
	Royal Exchange Theatre	Theatre	1	Front	60
	Pret A Manger	Cafe	1	Front	180
	Dunkin’ Burgers	Fast food	1	Video	335
	Black Sheep Coffee and Cocktails	Cafe	1	Video	150
			2	Video	42
			3	Video	165
			4	Video	11
			5	Video	92
			6	Front	59
			7	Inside	320
Three weeks ago	Salt & Pepper	Fast food	1	Menu	1,508
			2	Front	2,085
	Tokyo Tokyo Street Food	Fast food	1	Front	426
	Hong Thai	Fast food	1	Front	10,098
	The Blues Kitchen	Bar / Restaurant	1	Front	8,386
	Pure Electric Manchester	Bicycle shop	1	Front	7
			2	Front	669
			3	Front	714
			4	Front	719
			5	Front	912
	KFC	Fast food	1	Front	370
	Archie’s Manchester Piccadilly	Fast food	1	Front	1,241
	Kampus	Accommodation	1	Front	634
	The Gas Works Brewbar	Bar / Restuarant	1	Front	14,021
	HOME Manchester	Theatre	1	Front	3,942
	Manchester Arndale	Shopping mall	1	Inside	2,364
	Panchos Burritos Arndale Market	Fast food	1	Front	521
	Dunkin’ Burgers	Fast food	1	Front	1,849
Four weeks ago	The Directors Box	Bar / Restuarant	1	Front	209
	Manchester Art Gallery	Art gallery	1	Front	502,777
	Axis Tower	Accommodation	1	Front	1,468
A month ago	The Meadow	Park	1	Outside	516
			2	Outside	837
			3	Signage	618
			4	Outside	291
	Old Pint Pot	Bar / Restaurant	1	Front	2,648
	Federal Cafe Bar	Cafe	1	Inside	1,064
			2	Inside	589
			3	Inside	931
	Unite Students Artisan Heights	Accommodation	1	Front	36
			2	Front	21
	The Lass O’Gowrie	Bar / Restaurant	1	Signage	67
			1	Front	1,696
	Sackville Gardens	Park	1	Outside	1,327
			2	Outside	2,155
			3	Signage	13
	Alan Turing Memorial	Landmark	1	Front	2,479
			2	Front	26
			3	Signage	70
	Dr Miao	Cafe	1	Front	858
	Happy Lemon	Cafe	1	Front	39,622
			2	Food	1,624
	Arndale Fresh Fish Market	Market	1	Video	127
			2	Video	105
			3	Video	426
			4	Video	446
	Throstles Nest Footbridge	Landmark	1	Front	810
	Soapworks	Office	1	Front	23
	Worldwide Foods (Old Trafford)	Supermarket	1	Inside	714
			2	Inside	556
			3	Inside	2,002
			4	Inside	243
			5	Inside	7,830
			6	Inside	531
			7	Inside	198
			8	Inside	500
			9	Inside	1,748
			10	Inside	321
	Hang Won Hong	Supermarket	1	Inside	887
			2	Inside	859
	McDonald’s Manchester - Oxford Street	Fast food	1	Inside	3,426
			2	Inside	3,995
	DUNKIN’ Deansgate	Fast food	1	Front	13,266
	Federal Cafe Bar	Cafe	1	Front	25,948
	Crazy Pedro’s Bridge Street	Bar / Restaurant	1	Front	11,314
	Cotton Field Wharf Marina	Public space	1	Outside	8,939
			2	Outside	5,266
			3	Outside	58
			4	Outside	851
			5	Outside	83
	Johnny Roadhouse Music	Music shop	1	Front	96,403
	Manchester Arndale	Shopping mall	1	Inside	2,196
			1	Inside	21,759
	Platzki	Restaurant	1	Front	10
			2	Menu	1,850
			3	Video	304
			4	Food	459
			5	Food	9,085
			6	Food	791
			7	Food	1,779
			8	Food	903
	South Manny Flavaz	Fast food	1	Front	5,279
	Chinatown	Landmark	1	Outside	56,927
	City Road Inn	Bar	1	Front	3,362
	Sand playground	Public space	1	Front	8,430
Albert’s Schloss	Bar / Restaurant	1	Front	15,317
St Ann Square	Public space	1	Front	205
Burlington House	Accommodation	1	Front	9,526
Sackville Gardens	Park	1	Outside	383
OHAYO TEA	Cafe	1	Inside	374
		2	Video	55
		3	Food	114
Ancoats General Store	Cafe	1	Food	888
		2	Inside	2,867
		3	Inside	2,102
		4	Front	12
		5	Front	33,177
Panchos Burritos Arndale Market	Fast food	1	Front	264
		2	Front	1,030
		3	Food	127
		4	Food	194
		5	Food	100
		6	Food	109
		7	Food	678
Five Guys	Fast food	1	Front	1,926
Pot Kettle Black Coffee Manchester	Cafe	1	Front	293,989
Notcutts Ashton Park	Garden center	1	Front	209,596
		1	Front	2,338
		1	Inside	1,225
		1	Video	463
		1	Inside	153
		1	Inside	880
		1	Outside	6,524
		1	Outside	236
		1	Outside	631
		1	Outside	3,475
		1	Inside	5,634
		1	Panorama	9
Two months ago	Taste The Orient Oriental Supermarket	Supermarket	1	Front	6,117
	Sainsbury’s	Supermarket	1	Inside	715
	Wok To Walk	Fast food	1	Front	3,864
	Roomzzz Aparthotel Manchester Corn Exchange	Hotel	1	Front	84
	Selfridges Manchester Exchange	Departmental store	1	Front	1,294
	Costa Coffee	Cafe	1	Front	278
	Vertigo - Plant Based Eatery - Media City UK	Cafe	1	Front	9,944
	101 Embankment	Office	1	Front	1,068
	Manchester Cathedral	Landmark	1	Front	595
	KAMPUS	Accommodation	1	Front	864

Hmmm… so what can I tell from the information above? Well, before I get into that, I need to mention some context first. When I arrived in the UK, it was in a lockdown i.e. only essential travels or outdoor activities are allowed. These can be going out for food shopping, to exercise, to provide care for other more vulnerable folks etc. During this period, most shops were closed. Shops selling food and drinks could operate but only on a takeaway basis. And you couldn’t meet friends outdoors at all.

On March 8th, schools were re-opened. From 29th March, groups of up to 6 people or two households could meet in an outdoor environment (parks, gardens etc). And from the 12th of April, more shops (clothes, bookstores etc) could open and accept customers (fully masked and socially distanced). Outdoor dining was accepted so when a restaurant could, they would place tables and chairs outside. Thankfully, we’ve had a pretty good sunny/warm/dry spell since the lockdown was eased so it’s been good for the local businesses. The next easing of the lockdown will be May 17th with indoor dining, meeting of friends indoors, concerts, cinemas etc being allowed again.

So the increase in view counts from 12th April onwards is because more folks were allowed out and more shops were operating as well!

Here are some interesting findings:

• Out of 185 photos, 50 photos achieved a view count somewhere between 1,000 and 9,999.
• 12 photos achieved a view count somewhere between 10,000 and 99,999.
  • The Wharf (bar/restaurant), Front photo - 78,532 views (two weeks ago)
  • Hong Thai (fast food), Front photo - 10,098 views (three weeks ago)
  • The Gas Works Brewbar (bar/restaurant), Front photo - 14,021 views (three weeks ago)
  • Happy Lemon (cafe), Front photo - 39,622 views (a month ago)
  • DUNKIN’ Deansgate (fast food), Front photo - 13,266 views (a month ago)
  • Federal Cafe Bar (cafe), Front photo - 25,948 views (a month ago)
  • Crazy Pedro’s Bridge Street (bar/restaurant), Front photo - 11,314 views (a month ago)
  • Johnny Roadhouse Music (music shop), Front photo - 96,403 views (a month ago)
  • Manchester Arndale (shopping mall), Inside photo - 21,759 views (a month ago)
  • Chinatown (landmark), Outside photo - 56,927 views (a month ago)
  • Albert’s Schloss (bar/restaurant), Front photo - 15,317 views (a month ago)
  • Ancoats General Store (cafe), Front photo - 33,177 views (a month ago)
• 3 photos achieved a view count of above 100,000.
  • Manchester Art Gallery (art gallery), Front photo - 502,777 views (four weeks ago). Stellar performance!!
  • Pot Kettle Black Coffee Manchester (cafe), Front photo - 293,989 views (a month ago)
  • Notcutts Ashton Park (garden center), Front photo - 209,596 views (a month ago)
• Majority of the high view counts are of the front of businesses.
• I am guessing that some of the really high view counts (in such a short space of time) are due to the easing of the lockdown and also because these businesses are popular i.e. loads of people are searching and going to them! The biggest surprise is the Manchester Art Gallery because it is still closed and no visitors are allowed in! Pot Kettle Black Coffee is a popular destination and with the lockdown in place, loads are people are spending time in their garden so they need items from garden centers.
• If you’re interested in chasing the high view counts, think about where people are wanting to go during the lockdown and/or when the lockdown is eased/removed. For the UK, I would speculate the DIY stores/garden centers are very popular along with bars/restaurants with outdoor seating areas and needless to say, healthcare places will also be popular due to the vaccination rollout program.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this insight into my photo uploads on Google Maps and I hope that it will inspire you to go out and take photos of store fronts and of popular/important businesses. Obviously, don’t forget that small businesses also need your help too and that’s why I still have 135 photos that despite their low view counts, I am still glad to have uploaded them. And finally, please do adhere to your local laws and not go out unnecessarily. It is very important that we beat this virus so you must stay safe to keep others safe too!

[Niv1234]

@AdrianLunsong Fantastic post. pictures have the power to illustrate and explain without words.

[davidhyno]

Wow @AdrianLunsong !
Never seen a post with such a high level of details and analysis of photographic contributions!
If I can recommend it, insert this post in your personal resume, a job as an accountant is guaranteed! (it would be stupid not to hire you!)

Congratulations again, as soon as I have time I will try to reflect your reasoning on my contributions!

Thanks for sharing with us,
David

[Melissa_Langlois]

Wow! @AdrianLunsong That is such a detailed post! I just can’t believe you took the time to analyse all your picture and your photo views! That is simply amazing.

I really love the example of pictures you put in your post. I think they are easy to understand and sets the bar in what we can look at when taking good pictures. My photo view is way lower than yours, but then, I’m taking pictures in a more rural setting. My photo view is currently 9475 and the picture with the highest score is a supermarket!

[AdrianLunsong]

Thanks for your feedback @Niv1234 ! Do you think I should add more photos? Or should I split the photos to show them individually rather than as a collage? I was looking at this post on my mobile (I’m usually on a desktop) and was surprised that I cannot zoom in on the photo so it looks small to me!

[AdrianLunsong]

@davidhyno Thanks very much for the kind words! I like looking at data and seeing if there’s any trend. But I’m doing this for fun so I’m not even sure if my analysis has any bearing! I’ve got another post that I will do next week (I hope) and that one will have a chart (or several charts!). I think that data set will be more interesting!

[AdrianLunsong]

@Melissa_Langlois Thanks I think I spent a few hours collecting the data, making the pictures and writing the post! I’m not very fast at writing posts as I tend to check and re-check all the time. The curse of being too critical minded!

And yes, I do agree that a user’s location has a strong influence on the view counts. I’ve found that in bigger cities, my photos will see a spike of view counts in the first few days and then it will plateau out really quickly. I am guessing that’s because there are newer uploads from other users that pushes my photos down the list. I get that usually with very popular landmarks and places with high number of tourists.

On the flipside, if you are in a small town, then there are not enough eyeballs to generate a high view count even if your photo gets featured as the main photo for the business listing! Manchester seems to be in between those two extremes and I also believe that I am enjoying a sweet spot where there are many Google Maps users who search for things but don’t actually upload a lot of photos. So my photos tend to linger longer and gather the views.

[AdrianLunsong]

For anybody reading the comments: just a day after posting this, my view count for Manchester Art Gallery has jumped up to 545,681 views! So roughly 43,000 views in a single day!

[AdamGT]

Interesting post and analysis @AdrianLunsong , I now know who to call on when I need a break from the Top 100 Leaderboards . Being the end of the month I’m caught up on a few things but want to make this quick comment however I will comment further some time after I recover from what’s ahead of me.

I just wanted to say that while in your opening paragraphs you make mention of the average view count per photo and you kindly mention the Top 100 Photo Views Leaderboards, and yes May’s incarnation is on the burner as I write, it seems that the thrust of your discussion and analysis is on the view count of individual photos as well as looking at the type of business and the nature of the photo (e.g. inside, front, menu, drink, food, etc). Rather than the Top 100 Photo Views Leaderboards, your post aligns more with the Leaderboards of the Top 100 Most Viewed Photos post which focuses on the view count of individual photos and their nature. So the Top 100 Photo Views Leaderboards looks at total photo views whereas the Leaderboards of the Top 100 Most Viewed Photos looks at individual photo views (and more specifically, the “star photo”).

[AdrianLunsong]

@AdamGT ah yes… I’ve amended my post to point to the correct leaderboard! Originally, I just picked your latest post with the intention of getting folks submitting their info for the May refresh. But yes, the Most Viewed Photos is a better fit! Thanks!

[Niv1234]

@AdrianLunsong Hey

I think that you have a very impressive number of photo views… its amazing and very helpful. I very soon reaching 50M.

you can add more photos to my opinion.

[TerryPG]

Great post @AdrianLunsong I think you and I think very similar and we are both committed to posting photos that work and not just posting random bulk photos just for the points. I really like what you did. As a side note my photos are averaging 33,642 views per photo, as of last week.

[AdrianLunsong]

Thanks very much @Niv1234 ! I’m lucky to get a high view counts I think but I also do try to add photos that I hope is providing a good view of the businesses whether inside or outside. Any useful photo is a good photo I guess!

[AdrianLunsong]

@TerryPG Well done on your average!! Are there any tips/guides for how you take your photos or what you think make good photos for Google Maps that I’ve not covered?

I do love achieving a high view count but I also like to upload new photos whenever I can. There are some places that I return to quite often (within a few months) and when I upload a new photo, I run the risk of ousting my own photo causing the older photo to get less views whilst the new photo starts to get more views. But at the end of the day, if the new photo is able to show updated changes to the venue, then I think that it makes sense for Google Maps to show the latest changes too.

I do have to say that Google’s algorithms can be quite weird though because I still find some older photos getting ‘promoted’ in the photo stream of a venue although they are no longer valid due to how old they are and things have changed.

[TerryPG]

We do think alike as I have started taking some new photos of places I had reviewed before, and having success. It’s hard trying to figure out Googles algorithms . But I went thru your recent list and the highest number of views is Front of Business photos. I do know that this is what Google is looking for, Sometimes we forget that and maybe we try and get to artistic looking for the perfect photo. or maybe we upload too many photos. We have to remember the majority of reviews and photos are for Business’s.

Your photos are clear and concise. Great photos.

What I’m doing lately is less photos per POI.

I will review my recent photos every few months and delete the non productive ones. No ones looking at them.

I try and take photos with no humans in them, its hard to do.

When I review or take photos of supermarkets. I Always take photos of the produce section . Google loves it. Here’s what I call my banana pic, It’s not the featured photo there, my outside photo is with over 3.4 million views , this one has over 2 million views.

I got great advice from @MortenCopenhagen

when I first started Connect, He told me take more photos of storefronts and you will get more views . I listened to him.

@AdrianLunsong I could talk for hours on this subject and its a great post like yours that allows us to to converse, discuss and get new ideas on how to improve ourselves.

[AdrianLunsong]

@TerryPG I do agree that front of business photos makes a lot of sense because it’s the first thing that I want to know when I search for a new place. And as the hero/main photo, it really quickly helps users to locate the business on a busy street!

And yes, I do agree that less (usually two or three) is usually more than enough: front of business, the inside to show the general overview and perhaps one more for any accessibility feature (ramps, parking etc). For places selling food/drinks, I do like to add menus and photos of the dishes as they can be helpful. Although probably not very essential/critical.

I did joke with @AdamGT that one way to really improve one’s average view counts (and climb up his leaderboard) was to delete all photos with low view counts (less than 100). In all seriousness though, it does make sense especially for venues with lots of photos because it can be quite tedious to go through the photos of a business and coming across loads that have been uploaded by many users that are similar and I really shouldn’t add my photo that is similar as well!

And your supermarket tip is very true indeed! I think it’s because their AI can identify the produce better compared to just boxes/tins/cans of food. And I also find that specifically for supermarkets, they generally pick my photos that are angled (like the one you’ve shown). They seem to favour the photos with the perpective lines!

I’m glad you’re enjoying the discussions being held here! It’s always quite fun to speculate what photos are doing well and all that!

[GYours]

Hi @TerryPG

Some interesting points. Totally agree about taking photos without the odd human getting in the frame. Couple of reasons. First is that I don’t think you should take people’s photos inside a store or business without their express permission. Second is simply that I believe the photos look better.

I’ve been entertaining your idea of removing photos that aren’t getting many views, but at the moment can’t bring myself to do this, even though I know I should. I’m nearly at 83,000 points and have my eyes firmly on Level 10.

At that stage, no arguments. However many photos I have, as I add new ones, I’ll probably sit down quietly and cull an equal number.

Cheers

Brian

@GYours

[TerryPG]

Cheers @GYours I can understand your reluctance to remove photos , I’m somewhat behind you at 64000 points heading for level 10. I only do it 3 or 4 times a year, By now all my older photos have made the grade, So every few months I concentrate on the newer ones i.e… 6 months or less.

Like most guides when we started I was engrossed in points and thought the more photos =more points . After a few good conversations here with some top guides I started to concentrate on quality not quantity.

My favourite all time post here was How good of a local guide are you It taught me so much,

[TerryPG]

Hey @AdrianLunsong I forgot to share one of my best tips for getting high photo counts. I discovered this little method last year and its very successful in making these photos the featured photo and of course higher view counts. I will share with you and of course anyone else who reads this post my little secret.

Any POI that has 2 signs up i.e. One on the front and one on the side ,take your photo at a 90 degrees angle meaning 45 degrees either side . Please see photos , you’ll see what I am trying to say.

The photo gives you a better idea, these were some of my first ones and now the higher numbers. I am still working on this, but the majority of time and I am guesstimating Google picks your photo over 75 % of the time. Of course the business has to have 2 sides, and 2 signs for this to work.

I actually think I’m tricking Google AI. a little, either way it’s working . Hope this helps.

[BHAI06]

Think

Which future tree is coming

Reply me