Fewer than one listing in a hundred on GroomLocator has a photo. Most were built from public business data and show a name, an address and a phone number. When a pet parent compares three groomers and one of them has a clean, well-lit picture of a happy dog, that is the one they call.
This article covers where photos go, the limits, how they are cropped on the page, and what to shoot first.
The quick answer
- Upload from Photos in your dashboard. Drag files onto the box or click it.
- JPEG, PNG or WebP, up to 25 MB each. Photos are shrunk on your device before upload, so phone photos are fine as they are.
- Free listings hold 5 photos; TGS Verified listings hold 20.
- The first photo is the big tile on your page. Drag to reorder.
- Start with one finished, happy dog in good light. Then your van or salon, then you at work.
Where photos go
Sign in and open Photos. The dotted box at the top accepts files by drag and drop or by clicking it and choosing from your phone or computer. You can select several at once.
Each photo gets a caption field and a type: gallery, before and after, van or team. Captions show as a small label on the photo, so keep them short: "Sir Fluffington after his summer cut" is plenty. Types are for you; they do not change where a photo appears.
Once you have more than one photo, drag them to reorder. Order matters, which the next section explains.
Two other images live on the Profile page, not here:
- Logo appears on your search result card and next to your name. It is shrunk to 800 pixels on its longest side and shown small, so use a clean mark on a plain background rather than a photo.
- Banner is a wide image behind your name on the listing page. Same upload rules as photos.
Limits and formats
| Free | TGS Verified | |
|---|---|---|
| Photos | 5 | 20 |
| Size per file | 25 MB | 25 MB |
| Formats | JPEG, PNG, WebP | JPEG, PNG, WebP |
Photos are resized on your device. Before anything uploads, the photo is scaled so its longest side is 2,000 pixels and saved as WebP at a quality that looks identical at the sizes the site shows. A typical 4 MB phone photo lands at around 250 KB. You do not need to resize anything yourself, and there is no benefit to uploading larger originals.
HEIC photos from iPhones are not accepted. If you see "Please use a JPG or PNG photo", the file is HEIC. On the iPhone, Settings, Camera, Formats, choose Most Compatible to shoot JPEG from now on. For photos you already have, share the photo to Files or email it to yourself; iOS converts it to JPEG on the way. AirDrop and the Photos app's export also convert.
Screenshots and collages usually look worse than the originals. Upload the photo itself.
How your photos are shown
Your listing page shows the first five photos in a mosaic. On a desktop screen that is one large tile on the left and four smaller ones on the right; on a phone it is one wide tile with two small tiles under it. Tapping any tile opens every photo at full size.
Tiles are cropped to fill their shape, which means:
- The first photo is roughly square on desktop and wide on a phone. Put the dog or the van in the middle of the frame with space around it, and both crops keep the subject.
- The small tiles are landscape. A portrait photo of a standing dog loses its top and bottom; a landscape photo of a dog lying down keeps almost everything.
- Text near an edge gets cut off. If your van has the business name on the side, shoot it so the name sits in the middle third of the photo.
The first photo is also the image search engines can show next to your listing, so it should be the one you would put on a sign.
What to upload first
You do not need a photographer. A phone, daylight and a clean background do the job. In this order:
- One finished dog, happy, in good light. Outdoors in the shade or by a window, after the groom, looking at the camera or the treat above it. This is the photo that gets you chosen.
- Your van or your salon front. For mobile groomers, the van with the name visible, parked somewhere tidy. For salons, the entrance with the sign.
- Where the work happens. The table, the tub, the inside of the van. Clean, dry, no clutter. Pet parents are checking whether they would trust the space.
- You with a dog. People book people. A calm, mid-groom shot with the dog relaxed says more than any sentence.
- A before and after. Two photos of the same dog, or one side-by-side if you have made one already. Choose a transformation the owner would be proud of.
If you plan to add the TGS Certified badge later, it asks for three to five photos of your actual setup, so shots 2 and 3 do double duty.
What to avoid
- Stock photos, or photos of dogs you did not groom. Pet parents can tell, and the badge programs check.
- Heavy filters, borders, watermarks and text overlays. The mosaic crops them into fragments.
- Photos taken under fluorescent light with a flash. Take the dog to the door.
- A dog that looks stressed, restrained or mid-bath with soap in its eyes. Finished and calm, always.
- Uploading 20 near-identical photos. Five distinct ones beat twenty of the same cut.
Ask the owner before posting a photo of their dog. Most say yes and many will share it themselves, which is free reach for you.
Checklist
- First photo: one finished, happy dog, subject centered, taken in daylight
- Van or salon front with the name in the middle of the frame
- Inside the van or salon, tidy and dry
- You at work with a relaxed dog
- A short caption on each photo
- Logo uploaded on the Profile page (plain background, no photo)
- Photos dragged into the order you want them seen
Frequently asked questions
Can I use the photos from my Google Business Profile?
Yes, if you took them. Download the originals from Google and upload them here; a screenshot of the Google page will look soft. Photos that customers posted to Google belong to them, so ask first.
Why does my photo look different on the listing than in the upload grid?
The upload grid shows the whole photo; the listing page crops it to fit the mosaic tile. Open your public listing after uploading and check the first photo. If the dog's head is cut off, drag a different photo into first place or re-take it with more space around the subject.
Do I need a logo if I have photos?
A logo is what shows on the search result card next to your name, where there is no room for a photo, and it counts toward your completeness score. If you do not have one, a clear photo of your van's lettering on a plain background works.
I hit the five-photo limit. What should I remove?
Keep the finished dog, the van or salon, and you at work. Remove duplicates of the same cut first. TGS Verified listings hold 20 photos if you want the full gallery.
Screens and limits in this article match the dashboard as of September 21, 2026. If something looks different, let us know and we will fix the article.