Those with eagle eyes might have noticed that Google+ have just changed their profile layout. Now, your cover photos are much bigger – so this gives you an even better chance (and even more space to promote your business).
Make sure you take the opportunity to make the most of it – the opportunities are really going to open up with the extra space for more information and more creativity.
What do you think of the new Google+ cover photos?
Do you love them? Does it inspire you? Did you prefer the old kind. Let us know in the comments.
The new specifications for Google+ profiles
These new cover photos are responsive – which means the bigger the image the better, but it is worth paying attention to where the cutting points are. It really fills the screen when someone goes on to your profile so there’s a lot of opportunity to put in some interesting design elements.
The new icons are circular (if they have a background) and are laid directly over the cover photo so make sure the colour behind your logo is complementary and that any text is higher up on your image. However, we’ve discovered that it does support a transparent PNG without a background which can look pretty cool (so just your icon appears on top of your background) – but you have to bear in mind that because this is a responsive design that you can’t integrate your logo in to the cover photo.
Another interesting feature is that when someone clicks on to your profile the image is not shown at full height – but you can then scroll up. So this leaves an interesting opportunity for displaying hidden content.
The most important thing to note is the height of these new cover photos – a good 3x what they were previously. Absolutely loads of space to play around with – you’re certainly not restricted! We’re currently experimenting with the new look on our British Design Experts profile with some temporary images and you can really see what an impact the new height has.
Send us your new Google+ cover photo to be included in our gallery!
We’re keen to see what all you creative cats come up with – send us a link to your new profile and we’ll put together all the best (and most inspiring) new profiles we see – and we’ll also throw our own wicked new profile into the ring.