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What Photos Should a Mason Put on Their Website?

By Ansh Singh · Updated November 8, 2026 · 9 min read

Short answer: A mason should show finished jobs in sharp, well-lit photos, and pair each with a "before" shot taken from the same spot. Google asks for in-focus photos with no heavy filters. Insites found photos on 88.9% of local businesses that ChatGPT and Perplexity both surfaced, against 34.8% of those that neither did.

Key facts

Google asks masonry photos to be in focus and well lit, with no significant alterations or heavy filters.
Take the before shot first, from a marked spot, and match height and side in the after photo.
Even, overcast light shows mortar joints clearly; long shadows from low sun can hide the work.
New mortar looks different until it ages, so a second after photo a few weeks later helps.
Use descriptive file names and honest alt text, and place each image near related text.
Our advice, not a sourced number: aim for 8 to 12 finished jobs, with three before and after pairs.

Masonry is a trade people judge with their eyes. A homeowner cannot tell if your mortar joints are tight or your stone is set right from a paragraph of text. They can tell from a picture. This page covers what to shoot, how to take a good before and after, and how to post the photos so people and search tools can use them.

Why do photos matter so much for a mason?

Most buyers cannot read a quote for brickwork. They can see if a wall looks clean. Photos are your proof, and you have no star rating on a driveway until the job is done and a customer says so.

There is data on the profile side too. Insites analyzed 10,000 US local businesses on ChatGPT and Perplexity and found that 88.9% of those surfaced by both tools had photos on their listing, against 34.8% of those surfaced by neither. It also found 91.5% of the first group had claimed their profile, against 38.2% (Insites: Do Google reviews affect AI recommendations (2026)). The numbers show a link, not a cause. Still, a gap that wide is worth acting on.

What should you photograph?

Shoot the jobs you want more of. If you want chimney work, put chimney work first. Here is a list for a masonry business.

Job type	What to capture	Why it sells
Brick repair or repointing	The damaged wall, a close shot of the joints, the finished wall	Shows you repair old walls as well as build new ones
Chimney work	The crown, the stack from the ground, the flashing area	Homeowners search for chimney repair by what they see on the roof
Retaining walls	The full wall from the front, the top edge, the drainage side if visible	Proves the wall is straight and finished clean
Stone veneer	The full wall in daylight, a corner, a close shot of the joints	Corners and edges show your skill
Steps, walks and patios	A wide shot and a low angle across the surface	Shows level lines and clean cuts
Outdoor features	Fireplaces, pizza ovens, columns, from the front and the side	These are the jobs people want to show friends

Add a few pictures of you or your crew at work. The Bureau of Labor Statistics says masons work mostly outdoors (BLS: Masonry Workers), so people expect to see a crew on a wall. A real photo of your team beats a stock image of someone you never met.

What do masonry design examples need to show?

Visitors searching for "masonry design examples" want ideas as well as proof. Group your photos by style so they can compare: running bond brick, a stacked stone wall, a dry-laid retaining wall, a mortared stone patio. Label each one with the material and the job type.

You do not need dozens at first. Ten strong jobs beat a hundred weak ones. Pick one gallery per service and link from your service pages. Our guides on chimney repair marketing, retaining wall contractor marketing and stone veneer contractor leads cover how those pages should read.

How do you take good before and after photos of masonry work?

Masonry changes a lot in one visit, and the change is easy to show if you plan for it.

Step 1: Take the before shot first

Shoot it before you touch the wall. Get the whole wall, then close shots of the problem: crumbling mortar, a cracked brick, a leaning section. The National Park Service lists the signs of trouble in brick walls as cracking, spalling, bowing, leaning and mortar deterioration (NPS: Common Problems with Brick Masonry). Those are the things a customer recognizes in their own house.

Step 2: Mark your spot

Stand in one place, or tape a mark on the ground. Hold the phone at the same height. Use the same side of the wall. When the after photo lines up with the before, the change is clear and nobody doubts it.

Step 3: Shoot in even light

Early morning or late afternoon sun can throw long shadows across brick and hide the work. An overcast day shows joints clearly. Avoid shooting straight into the sun. Google asks for photos that are in focus and well lit (Google Business Profile Help: Photo and video requirements).

Step 4: Be honest about fresh mortar

New mortar looks lighter or different from old mortar until it ages. The National Park Service says that when mortars are properly matched, the best way to handle the color difference is usually to let them age naturally (NPS: Preservation Brief 2, Repointing Mortar Joints (1998)). So if you can, go back a few weeks later and take a second after photo. Put both in your gallery if you like. You can also tell the customer up front why the color will settle.

Step 5: Get the details right

Take one close shot of the joint profile and the mortar finish. Mortar color, texture and tooling are what the NPS brief says new work has to match to look right. A close shot shows you know that.

Step 6: Ask the owner before you post

Ask the customer if you can use the photos. Tell them you will not post their address or name. Do it before you start, not after. If they say no, keep the shot for your own records.

What should you leave out?

Blurry or dark shots. Google's profile photo rules ask for photos that are in focus and well lit, with no significant alterations or heavy filters.
Heavy editing. Brightening is fine. Do not swap sky, fake colors or smooth the brick.
Photos of other people's work. Use only your own jobs.
House numbers and license plates. Crop them or skip them.
Unsafe scenes. If your photo shows dry cutting of block with no water or dust control, a careful buyer, or a general contractor, may notice. OSHA's silica page says applying water to a saw blade when cutting brick and block substantially reduces dust (OSHA: Respirable crystalline silica in construction).
Stock photos. They tell people you have nothing of your own to show.

How do you post the photos so search tools can use them?

Posting a photo is not the same as posting it well. Google's image guidance gives a few clear rules (Google Search Central: Image SEO best practices).

Use a descriptive file name. Google says to choose names that are short but descriptive, and gives my-new-black-kitten.jpg as better than IMG00023.JPG. For you, that looks like repointed-brick-wall-lexington-ky.jpg (Lexington, Kentucky, is an example town).

Write alt text. Alt text is a short written description of the picture, used by screen readers and by search. Google says to make it information-rich and to avoid stuffing it with keywords. Write what a person would say: "Brick wall repointed with matching mortar on a 1920s house." Use only true details.

Place images near related text. Google says images should sit near relevant text and on pages that match their subject. A photo of a chimney rebuild belongs on your chimney page, with a few lines about the job.

Keep files light. Google notes that images are often the largest part of a page's size. Resize before you upload, so the page loads fast on a phone.

What are Google's rules for your business profile photos?

Your Google Business Profile has its own photo rules. Google asks for JPG or PNG files between 10 KB and 5 MB, at a recommended 720 by 720 pixels, with a 250 by 250 minimum. Videos can run up to 30 seconds and 75 MB, at 720p or higher. New uploads go through review and can take 24 to 48 hours to show. The page also says a low-quality cover photo may be replaced by a customer-submitted photo (Google Business Profile Help: Photo and video requirements).

Add a few new photos after each finished job. For more on setting up the profile itself, see our guide to Google Business Profile for masons.

How many photos do you need on your site?

We found no source that gives a number, so this is our advice. Aim for at least 8 to 12 finished jobs across your main services, with at least three before and after pairs. Add one or two a month. If you can only do one thing, put your three best jobs near the top of the home page.

For the full list of what the site should hold, read what a masonry website should include. For how photos fit your town pages, see our guide to masonry service area pages.

If you want a site with a gallery set up for your jobs, see a free demo site.

Licensing rules, code editions and the number of local competitors change from state to state. Our state pages pull those facts together, for example Kentucky.

Common questions

How many photos should a mason post for each job?

Three to six is enough: a before, a wide after, a close shot of the joints or corner, and one with your crew or a detail. Pick the best ones. More than a dozen for one job tends to bury the good shots.

Do I need a professional photographer?

No. A recent phone camera in even light does the job. Google asks for sharp, well-lit photos, and the NPS says new mortar should match the old in color, texture and tooling. Clean the wall, stand back and hold the phone steady. If you want a few hero shots for the home page, a paid shoot is optional.

Can I post photos of a customer's house?

Ask first. Tell them you will not post their name or address. Crop out house numbers and anything private. If they say no, do not use the photos.

Do photos help my Google ranking?

We found no study that proves photos raise your rank. Insites found that businesses surfaced by ChatGPT and Perplexity were far more likely to have photos on their listing, but that shows a link, not a cause. Photos help people decide to call you, which matters either way.

Should my photos have my logo on them?

A small logo in a corner is fine. Do not cover the work. Google's photo rules ask for no significant alterations or heavy filters. A big watermark across the brick hides the thing you are trying to show.

Sources

About the author

Ansh Singh runs Contractor Websites. He builds websites for electricians, plumbers, roofers and other home service trades, and writes the guides on this site. More about Ansh Singh.

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