Real estate agent headshots that work online

Your headshot does more work than almost any other piece of your marketing. It sits on your website, your digital card, your Google Business Profile, your portal profiles and the bottom of every email you send. For many vendors, it’s the first impression they have of you before they ever pick up the phone.

A good headshot for the web isn’t quite the same as a good headshot for a printed brochure. It gets cropped, shrunk and squeezed into circles. This guide covers where your photo appears, what each platform asks for, and how to brief a photographer so one shoot covers all of it.

Where your photo appears

Each platform has its own size and shape. Here’s what the ones that matter most for agents say, from their own help pages.

A few details are worth knowing.

Google wants it to look like you. Google’s photo guidance says a photo should be in focus and well lit, with no significant alterations or excessive use of filters. In its words, the image should represent reality. Heavy retouching works against you here.

Domain uses your photo in more places than your profile. Domain’s help article on agent photos says agent images show on a listing’s details page and on listings in search results for Platinum, Gold and Silver listings, as well as on eBrochures and other marketing material. The photo can only be loaded manually through Agent Admin, not through a CRM, and it should appear on all listings within 24 hours. If someone else manages Agent Admin for your office, send them the file.

RateMyAgent has its own sizes. Its image size guide lists 400 by 400 pixels for the profile picture.

Portals are run by your agency. On realestate.com.au, your agent profile sits in your agency’s account, so your photo is uploaded by whoever manages it. Our guide to changing agencies explains how portal profiles work.

Framing and crops

Because every platform crops differently, the safest approach is a photo that still works when most of it is cut away.

Start with a square

A square head-and-shoulders crop is the one you’ll use most. It suits Google, Domain, RateMyAgent, your card and your email signature. Domain’s minimum of 1320 by 1320 pixels was the largest we found, so ask for square files at least that size and everything smaller can be made from them.

Centre your face and leave room

Domain asks for your face as close to the centre as possible, and that’s good advice everywhere. Leave a little space above your head and below your chin. If your photo is shown as a circle, the corners disappear. Anything important needs to sit well inside the frame.

Keep a wider version too

A website often has room for more than a small square. A half-length portrait, or a landscape photo with space on one side for text, gives you options for your homepage and social banners. These are the shots most people forget to ask for.

Check it small

Much of the time, your headshot is seen small: on a phone, in a search result, beside an email. Look at your chosen photo at the size of a fingernail. If you can’t tell it’s you, choose a tighter crop.

Consistency

Use the same photo everywhere, or at least photos from the same shoot. When a vendor sees your face on a listing, then on Google, then on your website, a matching photo tells them they’ve found the same person.

It’s the photo version of keeping your name and details consistent, which we cover in our guide to Google Business Profile for agents. The same thinking applies to your bio. If you’re refreshing your photo, it’s a good time to check your words too, and our bio templates can help.

A few habits keep things tidy:

• Keep one master folder with your current headshots in each size and crop, so you never have to hunt for the right file.
• Name files clearly, such as firstname-lastname-square-2026.jpg, so an admin or designer picks the current one.
• Note where each photo lives, so you know what to update next time.

When to update it

There’s no fixed rule. A sensible test: if someone meeting you at an open home would hesitate before recognising you, it’s time.

Other good moments:

• You’ve changed agencies. If your old photo shows your previous agency’s branded clothing or office, replace it. Our changing agencies checklist covers the other updates.
• You’ve changed your look. New glasses, a different hairstyle, a beard grown or shaved.
• You’re moving from co-branded to self-branded, or the other way. See co-branded or self-branded for what changes.

When you do update it, go through every place it appears in one sitting: your website, card, Google Business Profile, portal profiles (through your agency’s admin), review platforms, social profiles and email signature.

Briefing a photographer

A clear brief gets you a full set of usable files from one session. Here’s what to cover.

The shot list

• A square head-and-shoulders shot, facing the camera, on a plain background.
• The same shot with a little more space around it, for circle crops.
• A half-length portrait for your website.
• A landscape shot with space on one side, for banners and your homepage.
• A few in a local setting, such as a street or park in the area you work, if you’d like something less formal.

The look

• Clothing. What you’d wear to a listing presentation. Solid colours usually crop better than busy patterns. If you’re co-branded, ask your agency whether it has guidelines.
• Expression. Approachable rather than posed. Ask the photographer to take plenty of frames so you have a choice.
• Editing. Ask for natural retouching. Google’s guidance against significant alterations and heavy filters is a good standard to apply everywhere.

The files

• High-resolution JPGs, with square versions at least 1320 by 1320 pixels.
• A smaller web-ready version of each, for platforms with file size limits. Google’s limit is 5 MB.
• Colour versions. You can always make black and white later.

The rights

Before the shoot, agree in writing where you can use the photos (website, card, portals, social media, print) and for how long, and whether you can keep using them if you change agencies. If your agency is paying, ask whether the photos are yours to take with you. Sorting this out now avoids an awkward conversation later.

Putting it to work

Once you have your files, the square headshot is the one to use first. With Real Agent Marketing, your brief asks for a professional headshot, facing the camera, as a JPG, PNG or WebP of up to 5 MB, and the same photo appears on your website and your digital card. Change it once and both update. Our free email signature generator puts it beside your name in every email.

Sources

• Google Business Profile Help: photo guidance.
• Domain Help Centre: upload agent photo to agent profile.
• RateMyAgent: ideal image sizes for logos, branding and profiles.

Based on each platform’s help pages as we read them in October 2026. Platforms change their requirements from time to time, so check the linked pages before you upload.