·Adiamo Studio
What photos belong on a restaurant website
Pick the few photos that help a guest decide to book — the door, the room, and the plates — and leave out stock, dark phone shots, and a gallery that hides the Reserve button.
Answer first
Use a small set of real photos: the outside so people can find the door, the room as a guest actually sees it, and a few plates you still serve. Do not use stock photos of other restaurants, and do not fill the first screen with a slideshow. Put the name, the place, and the Reserve button where a phone can see them without scrolling past pictures. The same honest photos belong on Google; filters and last year’s plating do not.
A guest who has never walked in uses photos to answer a simple question: will I like being in this room, and does the food look like food I want? A dark bar shot, a stock table of people laughing, or twenty nearly identical plates does not answer it. It also pushes the booking button down the page.
This guide is about which pictures earn a booking, which ones to leave off, and how the website set should relate to the photos already on your Google listing. It is not a photography course. If you are still deciding what the page itself must contain, start with the restaurant website checklist.
How a booking photo differs from a mood photo
Restaurants often collect two kinds of pictures and treat them as one. Mood photos are wide, dark, and full of atmosphere. Booking photos answer a decision: where is the door, what does a table look like, what does the dish look like when it arrives. Nielsen Norman Group’s research on photos as web content is the general finding: people scrutinize pictures that carry information, and they skip pictures that are only there to feel good.
| Booking photo | Mood photo | |
|---|---|---|
| Job | Help someone reserve or walk in | Set a feeling |
| Subject | Door, room, a real plate | Candlelight, hands, blur |
| Light | You can see the thing | Often too dark on a phone |
| Where it sits | Near the decision: hero, menu, visit | Lower on the page, if at all |
| Stock allowed | No | Still no — it is someone else’s room |
| Update when | The room or the plate changes | Whenever, which usually means never |
Door
So they recognise the place
Room
So they know the noise and the seats
Plates
A few you still serve
When a small set is enough
A short set is enough
- You are an independent room with one dining space.
- Guests book from a phone and need the Reserve button early.
- You have five to twelve honest photos, not a shoot from 2019.
- The menu highlights can sit next to the plates they show.
You need more than a short set
- You have clearly different rooms — terrace, private dining, bar — and guests choose among them. What to write for the private room is in how to publish a private dining room.
- A hotel site must show the restaurant separately from the bedrooms.
- The menu is the product and almost every signature has a photo you can stand behind.
- You still do not lead with a slideshow. Group the extra photos under the decision, not above it.
How to choose and place the photos
Door
One exterior in daylight
Room
Tables as a guest sits
Plates
Signatures you still serve
Page
Reserve stays visible
Same truth, their format
- 1
Photograph the door in daylight
One clear exterior from the way guests actually approach. Night shots look better in a mood film and worse when someone is looking for the entrance. Google’s own tips ask for exterior photos so customers can recognise the place; the same picture belongs on the site. See tips for business-specific photos.
- 2
Show the room empty enough to read
A full service blur tells people it is busy. It does not tell them whether they will sit at a counter, a bare table, or a booth. Take the room when you can see the furniture. Two or three angles are enough for one dining room.
- 3
Photograph plates you still send
Pick the dishes that define the menu, the same short list as in how to put your menu on your restaurant website. Even light, the plate as it leaves the pass, no props that are not on the table. If the dish left the carte, the photo leaves the site the same week.
- 4
Put the booking decision above the gallery
Name, neighbourhood, and one Reserve button stay on the first screen. A full-bleed slideshow that hides them is a common fail on the checklist. Photos support that decision. They do not replace it.
- 5
Use the same truth on Google
The listing and the site should not show different rooms. File limits, the cover photo, and the set Google asks for — exterior, interior, food — are in what photos belong on your Google listing. Google also publishes the format rules — JPG or PNG, between 10 KB and 5 MB, at least 250 pixels on a side — in Manage your Business Profile photos. Those limits are for the listing. The website can use a larger file, but a huge image that stalls a phone is not a better photo.
- 6
Replace weak pictures before you chase a shoot
A phone photo in daylight of the real room beats a styled shoot of a room you no longer have. If a draft arrived with listing photos, swap the bad ones and keep the useful ones. That edit is part of how to turn Google reviews into a restaurant website.
What to shoot, and what to skip
| Shot | Take it | Skip it |
|---|---|---|
| Exterior | Daylight, the sign readable, the door in frame | A dark street with no landmark |
| Dining room | Tables, light, and how close people sit | A single candle and nothing else |
| Bar or counter | Only if guests can actually sit there | A styled shelf that is not the bar |
| Signature plates | Three to six dishes you still serve | Every side, or a dish from last winter |
| People | Real staff or guests who agreed to be in the photo | Stock models, or guests who did not agree |
| Kitchen | One honest pass photo if it helps the story | A chaotic shot you would not show a health inspector |
| Menu board | Only if it is current | A board you already replaced |
Large files are a separate problem from bad pictures. A beautiful photo that takes several seconds to appear on a phone is still a bad page. Google’s image guidance on web.dev is the practical point: send a size that fits the screen, not the camera’s original file. You do not need a developer to crop and export a reasonable JPG before you upload.
When restaurant photos fail
- Stock photos. The room in the picture is not your room. Guests notice at the door, and they trust the rest of the page less.
- Last year’s plating. The photo sells a dish you no longer serve. That is a false menu.
- Everything is too dark. It looked warm on the photographer’s laptop and reads as a black rectangle on a phone at noon.
- The slideshow is the first screen. The name and the Reserve button sit under three full-screen images. Many people never reach them.
- A gallery of forty. Nothing is chosen, so nothing is the dish to book for.
- People who did not agree. A guest’s face is not yours to publish because they were in the room.
What photos do not do
They do not replace hours, a price, or a reservation path. They do not fix a listing full of guest photos you dislike; you can add your own on Google, and you still cannot delete every customer photo. They do not need to be a professional shoot before the site can go live. And a larger image is not a ranking trick. The job is recognition and appetite, then a button someone can press.
Frequently asked questions
How many photos does a restaurant website need?
Enough to show the door, the room, and a few plates you still serve. For one dining room that is often under twelve. Add more only when you have a second space guests must choose, such as a terrace or a private room.
Can I use stock photos until the shoot?
No. A placeholder of someone else’s restaurant teaches guests the wrong room. Use a phone photo of your actual door and tables, and replace it when you have a better one of the same place.
Should the website match the Google photos?
They should show the same place and the same plates. Google’s gallery will also contain guest photos you did not take. Your site should be the set you chose, not a dump of every image on the listing.
Do I need a photographer before I publish?
No. Publish with honest photos you already have, including phone photos in daylight. Book a shoot when you want a stronger set, not as a reason to keep the page offline.
Where should photos sit relative to the menu and the Reserve button?
The first screen carries the name, the place, and one Reserve button. Plates sit next to the menu highlights. A long gallery comes after someone can already book.
Can Adiamo use the photos from my Maps listing?
A draft can start from photos already on the listing. You still delete the ones that are dark, old, or not your plating, and you add better ones before you call the page finished.