Almost nobody does this. Scroll the map pack in your category and count the listings with a video on them, and in most towns the answer will be none. That is either evidence the feature does not matter or evidence of an open door, and for most local businesses it is the second one, because the reason nobody uploads a video is not that it fails. It is that nobody thinks of it.

The customer behaviour behind it is not in doubt. Kapwing's compilation of video marketing research reports that 60 percent of consumers watch video content before visiting a physical store or making a purchase decision. Those people are already watching something before they decide whether to drive to you. The only question is whether any of it is yours, or whether it is all competitors and strangers. Thirty seconds of your actual shop, shot on the phone in your pocket, is a free answer to that, and it is one of the easier wins Optuno finds on a neglected profile.

What Google allows

The specs are not demanding, which is part of the point. A video on your Business Profile should be up to 30 seconds long, up to 100 MB, and at 720p resolution or higher. Anything shot on a phone from the last several years clears that bar without you thinking about it.

Videos live alongside your photos, in the same section of your profile, and they surface in the same place customers already scroll. They are not posts, they are not ads, and there is no fee.

Customers can also upload videos of your business, exactly as they can upload photos, which means your profile may already have video on it that you did not shoot. Worth checking what it shows.

The most important constraint is not technical. It is Google's rule that the content must be a genuine representation of your business, taken at your location. This is not a channel for a commercial you had made. It is a window into the real place, and content that looks like an advert is the content most likely to get rejected.

What to film

The instinct is to make something polished, and that instinct is why most owners never upload anything, because the polished version never gets made.

Film the thing a customer wants to see before deciding. That is almost always one of three things: what the place looks like inside, what the work looks like being done, or who they will be dealing with. A slow pan across your dining room. Hands doing the work. You, saying what you do, in one take.

Keep it short and start well. Thirty seconds is the ceiling but the first few seconds are the whole thing, since attention on mobile is brutal and nobody is committed to your clip.

Shoot it horizontal if you want it to sit properly, hold the phone still or brace it against something, and film where the light is. Natural daylight near a window will beat any equipment you might buy.

Assume there is no sound. Most people scroll with the volume off, so a video that depends on narration is a video most viewers will not understand. If it needs words, it needs to work without them.

And do not overthink it. A shaky honest clip of your real kitchen outperforms a stock video of somebody else's, because the person watching is trying to find out what your place is like.

How to upload it

Open the Google Maps app signed in to the account that manages the business, or search your business name in Google. Find the photos section of your profile, which is where video lives too, and choose to add. Select the video from your phone.

The phone is the right tool here, and this is one of the few profile tasks that is easier on mobile than on a desktop, since the video is already on the device that shot it.

Expect a wait. Videos go through review and can take longer than photos to appear, sometimes a day or more. Do not upload it again because it has not shown up in an hour.

If it never appears, the usual causes are length, file size, or content. A clip over 30 seconds, over 100 MB, or that reads as an advertisement rather than a look at your business is the likely explanation. Reshoot rather than resubmit the same file.

If you want to see what else on your listing is sitting empty while you are in there, Optuno's free local SEO report gives you a snapshot of your rankings, listings, and reviews.

Being honest about what it does

Video will not move you up the map pack. There is no credible evidence that uploading one improves your ranking, and anyone who tells you otherwise is guessing.

What it does is convert. Someone comparing three similar listings, all with decent reviews and similar distance, is looking for a reason to choose. A video that shows your place looking clean, busy, and real is a reason. That is the whole mechanism, and it is enough.

There is a second, quieter effect. Activity on a profile is a signal that the business is live, and a listing that gets fresh content occasionally looks like a going concern rather than an abandoned record.

The realistic ambition is a handful of short clips, refreshed once or twice a year, sitting alongside good photos. Not a channel, not a content strategy, just proof. If you want the broader version of this, Optuno's video marketing playbook for local businesses covers where video pays off beyond the listing, and its guide to Google Business Profile optimization covers the fields around it. If you would rather hand the whole profile off, Optuno's plans cover Business Profile management and local SEO, with no long-term contracts, no setup fees, and a dedicated contact.

Where your video shows up

Knowing where the clip lands changes what you shoot, and most owners upload blind.

Your video sits in the photos area of your profile, in a videos tab alongside your images. On a phone, which is where the overwhelming majority of local searching happens, that is a swipe or two from the top of your listing, in the same block a customer is already thumbing through.

It does not appear in the map pack, and it will not show up in a search result on its own. Nobody finds you because of it. It only reaches the person who has already landed on your listing and is deciding whether to bother with you, which is exactly the moment it is useful and exactly why a clip that opens with a logo animation wastes the only three seconds it gets.

Videos from customers sit in the same place as yours, which means your best clip can end up next to somebody's shaky footage of a queue. That is not a reason to skip it. It is a reason to put something good there, because the alternative is that the only video of your business is one you did not choose.

Frequently asked questions

What are the video specs for Google Business Profile?
Up to 30 seconds long, up to 100 MB, and 720p resolution or higher. Any reasonably recent phone shoots well above that, so the specs are rarely the thing that stops you.

Why is my video not showing on my Google Business Profile?
Usually length, file size, or content. A clip longer than 30 seconds, larger than 100 MB, or that looks like an advertisement rather than a real look at your business is the common cause. Videos also go through review and can take a day or more to appear.

Does adding a video help my Google rankings?
There is no good evidence that it does. Its value is conversion, giving someone comparing similar listings a reason to pick you. Treat any ranking benefit as unproven rather than as the reason to do it.

Can customers upload videos to my Business Profile?
Yes, in the same way they can upload photos. It is worth looking at your own listing occasionally to see what content is on it that you did not put there.

What should my Google Business Profile video show?
What a customer wants to see before deciding: the inside of your place, the work being done, or the person they will deal with. Google requires it to be a real representation of your business shot at your location, so a produced commercial is the wrong thing to upload.

Do I need a professional camera?
No. A phone shot near a window in daylight is fine, and it often works better than polished production because it looks like the real place. Assume nobody has the sound on, and make the first few seconds count.