Before and After Photos: What Helps, and What Not to Show

“Should I put job photos on my website?” Yes, your own, on the page for the job they show. One honest before-and-after pair shows a homeowner what a paragraph about quality can only claim. Two things decide whether the photos help: whether the pair actually compares, and what else is in the frame. A photo can show a customer’s address, a neighbor’s face or a plate number that has no business on your website. Here is how to take the pair, what to leave out, and how to put it on the page so search engines and screen readers can use it.

Taking a pair that compares

The “before” is the photo people forget, because the day starts with unloading the truck. Make it the first thing anyone does on site, before a tool touches the job.

• Same spot, same angle, same zoom. Note where you stood (a fence post, a corner of the patio) and shoot the after from there. A pair taken from different places proves much less.
• Daylight, and similar light both times. A gloomy before and a sunny after looks staged even when it is not.
• Hold the phone the same way both times, so the two images sit side by side at the same size.
• Add a “during” for work that ends up hidden: the flashing under the shingles, the base under the pavers, the drain before the backfill. They show work the customer will never see again.
• One wide, one close. The wide shot shows the whole job; the close-up shows the detail that separates careful work from fast work.

Quality matters beyond looks. Google’s image guidance says “high-quality photos appeal to users more than blurry, unclear images,” and its Business Profile rules ask for photos that are “in focus and well lit, and have no significant alterations or excessive use of filters,” and that “represent reality.”

Keep them honest

A job photo on your site is a claim: we did this. The Federal Trade Commission’s guide for small businesses puts the standard simply: “Advertising must be truthful and non-deceptive,” and “Ad claims on the Internet must be truthful and substantiated.” A stock photo or another company’s job presented as yours tells the customer something untrue, and so does an after shot edited until it shows work you did not do. Straighten and crop all you like; do not paint in a lawn.

Check who owns the picture, too. The U.S. Copyright Office says that ordinarily “the author is the person or persons who actually created the work.” A photo an employee takes as part of their regular duties is a work made for hire, so the business owns it. A photo your subcontractor or the homeowner took is ordinarily theirs, so get their permission in writing before it goes on your site.

What to leave out of the frame

Faces

This is the one with real law behind it. New York Civil Rights Law §50 makes it a misdemeanor to use “the name, portrait, picture, likeness, or voice of any living person” for advertising or trade “without having first obtained the written consent of such person,” and §51 lets that person sue for an injunction and damages. California Civil Code §3344 makes anyone who knowingly uses another’s photograph or likeness for advertising without prior consent liable for the greater of $750 or the actual damages, plus profits from the use, and the winner of such a suit recovers attorney’s fees and costs. Check your own state’s law as well. Google’s Maps content policy separately lists a person’s “face in a photograph or a video” posted without consent as personal information not to post.

The safe habit is to treat every recognizable face that way: the homeowner, the neighbor walking a dog, the kids in the window (for a minor, both laws look to a parent or guardian), and your own crew. Crop the face out or get consent. If a crew member will appear in your marketing, get their written consent first, and keep it with their file.

Where the house is

A house number on the porch, a street sign at the corner, a mailbox with a name on it: any one of them turns “a new roof” into “a new roof at this address.” Frame them out, or crop them before you upload. The same goes for a license plate in the driveway.

Inside the home

Kitchen and bathroom shots pick up family photos on the wall, mail on the counter, a calendar, an alarm keypad, medication on a shelf. Spend thirty seconds scanning the frame before you shoot.

The location hidden in the file

Phones can record where a photo was taken. Apple’s safety guide explains that when Location Services is on for the Camera app, the phone records the “location coordinates,” and that people you share such photos with “may be able to access the location metadata.” On an iPhone you can share without it (in the share sheet, tap Options and turn off Location) or stop recording it for the camera in Settings, Privacy & Security, Location Services, Camera. Other phones have their own settings, so check yours before photos leave it.

Putting them on the page

Photos do their work on the service page for that job, next to the text that describes it. Google’s image guidance says to place images “near relevant text and on pages that are relevant to the image subject matter,” and that Google “extracts information about the subject matter of the image from the content of the page, including captions and image titles.” If you are still deciding which pages your site needs, The Website Pages a Contractor Needs covers that.

• File names. Google’s example: my-new-black-kitten.jpg is better than IMG00023.JPG. For a job, cedar-privacy-fence-before.jpg and cedar-privacy-fence-after.jpg.
• Alt text. Google calls it “the most important attribute” for describing an image, and says it “also improves accessibility for people who can’t see images,” including screen reader users; it warns against stuffing it with keywords. The accessibility standard, WCAG 2.2, requires that non-text content have “a text alternative that serves the equivalent purpose,” and W3C’s tutorial says the text should convey “the meaning or content that is displayed visually.” For a pair: “Before: gutter pulling away from the fascia over the back door” and “After: new seamless gutter fastened with hidden hangers.” The rest of what that standard asks of a site is in Is Your Contractor Website ADA Accessible?
• A caption. One line on what was done and roughly where: the town, never the address.
• Size. Google notes that “images are often the largest contributor to overall page size, which can make pages slow and expensive to load.” Resize phone photos before uploading; Website Speed: What Core Web Vitals Mean for a Contractor Site has the details.

For your Google Business Profile the specifications are fixed: JPG or PNG, between 10 KB and 5 MB, with a recommended size of 720 by 720 pixels and a minimum of 250 by 250. Videos there can run up to 30 seconds and 75 MB, at 720p or higher.

Ask before the first photo

The simplest habit is one line in your contract or estimate: permission to photograph the work for your website and marketing, with no address, no faces and no personal items shown, and an easy way to say no. Say a painter adds that line to every estimate. Each job then starts with a yes or a no on record, known before anyone lifts a phone. Where that line fits among the rest of the contract is covered in What a Home Improvement Contract Must Say.

General information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change and vary by state; check with the agency named above or a professional for your situation.