Maybe the thing to do is to try to upload them again, and if they don’t stick this time, you can feel free to email them to me and I’ll take a quick look and throw in my two cents.

Hope you win BoEG (if you haven’t already)!

Thanks for weighing in.

Yeah, Mike definitely has pointed out the main caveat to this technique: at least some of the testimonial text should be readable in a thumbnail, or else it won’t compel anyone to take a closer look. Definitely calls for a touch of photo-editing, rather than just slapping a photo up on the Places page as-is.

I completely agree about the irrelevant photos…and so do most customers. If they can’t tell visually what you offer, that can be a deal-killer. Sure, it can be tough to think of good photos, but so many business owners don’t dig deep enough, don’t study their competitors’ photos, and don’t think to get some second opinions…resulting in the lame photos you mentioned.

Btw, do let me know if you’d be interested in a guest post on this…maybe along the lines of “Great photos you can upload even if your wheels are spinning” (for example).

Cool idea. Mike might be right, but I do think there is room for creativity with these images. QR codes, or even being very specific/strategic with the images, using images that grab attention and so on.

I think though GP wants you to load photos of the inside of your business (if possible) or if it applies to be relevant to your business (might not be necessary for services based businesses).

My biggest pet-peeve is when people do not use images that are relevant to what the business does. If you have a guitar shop don’t have images of people without feature guitars… you get the idea. I can’t tell you how often I listings that have the strangest photos representing their business.

Thanks for the intel. As I’ve said and as of course you’ve noticed first-hand, the evolution here is that the sitelinks are becoming more common. I find it a little puzzling (though I guess not surprising) that #1 so consistently is the one with sitelinks. My best guess at this stage is that it reflects what seems to be Google’s growing emphasis on site quality as a GP ranking factor.

Feel free to let me know if you notice some new development in terms of sitelinks–either in your client’s market or in general. I have a feeling this isn’t the last post I’ll be doing on sitelinks.

In any case, it’s awesome that you got your client in such a good position.