The under-an-hour photo checklist for a daycare's Google profile

By Steven Von · 2026-10-19 · 4 min read

Parents judge a daycare by its photos before they ever book a tour. A 50-minute checklist for the 12 photos to take, what to leave out and where to post them.

A parent looking for care opens your Google profile and sees one blurry photo of the front door, taken in 2019. They cannot see the classrooms, the playground or the nap room, so they cannot picture their child there. They scroll to the next center that shows them.

Almost every child care center has at least one photo on Google. In our data it is 95.9%. But one photo is not the point. Parents want to see inside. This checklist gets you a useful set of photos in under an hour, with your phone, on a day when the children are not in the room.

Before you start (5 minutes)

• Pick the time. Early morning before drop-off, or after pickup. Natural light from the windows, no children in the frame.
• Clean the phone lens. Wipe it on your shirt. This one step fixes half of bad daycare photos.
• Turn on every light. Open the blinds too.
• Clear the counters. Coffee cups, paperwork, lost mittens, the staff lunch bag. Two minutes per room.
• Decide your rule on children. The safest rule is no children's faces at all. If you ever do show a child, you need written permission from that child's parent for that use. For this hour, shoot empty rooms.

The 12 photos to take (30 minutes)

Hold the phone horizontally, at about the height of an adult's chest. Stand in a corner of each room so you get two walls in the shot. Take three of each and keep the best one.

1. The front of the building from the parking lot. This is how a parent finds you on their first tour. Include the sign.
2. The entry and check-in area. Parents care about who comes in the door. If you have a keypad or a locked entry, show it.
3. The infant room. Cribs, the changing area, soft floor space. This is the room parents of babies will look at hardest.
4. The toddler room. Low shelves, toys at child height, the cubbies.
5. The preschool or pre-K room. Tables, the reading corner, anything on the walls that shows learning.
6. A close-up of a learning area. The block corner, the art easel, the book shelf. Close-ups feel warm in a way wide shots do not.
7. The nap setup. Cots or mats laid out. Parents of toddlers always ask about nap time.
8. The kitchen or food prep area, if you serve meals. Clean counters and labeled bins.
9. The playground, wide, showing the fence and the ground cover.
10. A close-up of the play structure or the sandbox.
11. Your staff, if they agree. A group photo of teachers outside or in the hallway, smiling. Ask each person first.
12. You. A simple photo of the director or owner. Parents want to know who runs the place.

What to leave out

• Children's faces, for the reasons above.
• Anything showing a child's name: cubby labels, sign-in sheets, art with names on it. Turn those around or crop them out.
• Stock photos. Parents can tell, and it makes the real photos feel less trustworthy.
• Heavy filters. Keep the colors true. A room that looks brighter online than in person makes the tour feel worse.

Upload them (10 minutes)

On your Google Business Profile, add the photos and choose the right type for each one: exterior, interior, team. Our Google Business Profile guide walks through where each setting lives. Set the front of the building as your cover photo if it is clear and well lit. Otherwise use the brightest classroom.

Then put the same photos on your website. A gallery is fine, but it is better to put each room photo on the page for that age group: the infant room photo on the infant page, and so on. Our website essentials guide covers how those pages should be laid out.

Write one short caption each (5 minutes)

Captions help parents and help AI search tools describe you. Keep them plain:

• "Infant room, ages 6 weeks to 12 months. Ratio of 1 teacher to 4 babies."
• "Fenced playground with rubber ground cover. Toddlers and preschoolers play here twice a day."

Only write the ratio or ages you actually have. If you are not sure what your state requires you to say, leave the ratio out.

Do it again every season

Set a calendar reminder for January, April, July and October. Add three or four new photos each time: a seasonal bulletin board, a new piece of equipment, the garden in spring. Fresh photos show parents you are paying attention.

Why it matters now

Many parents start looking for January spots in the next few weeks. When they compare centers, the photos and the reviews are what they see first. In our data the median center has just 6 Google reviews, so photos often have to do more of the work. If you want to build reviews too, the reviews guide has the exact ask for busy parents at pickup.

Once the photos are up, more parents will call to ask about openings. Make sure someone answers, or that a text goes back fast. The calculator shows what a missed tour call is worth over a year of tuition.

If you want a hand getting the profile and photos set up, the free 14-day trial covers any one service, no card. Text or call (385) 213-2802.

Steven Von, Editor
Steven has spent the last several years running growth campaigns for local service businesses, child care centers and daycares among them, and builds the benchmark datasets on this site from public Google listings. About the editor