You upload your owner photo on the Service Area page in your back office.
Owner profile photo upload happens in the Owner Photo card on the Service Area page. Click Upload Photo, pick your headshot, crop to a square, and SiteStakes generates all the sizes automatically.
To change it later, click ✏️ Change to upload a different image.
To remove it, click 🗑️ Remove. Your About page, blog author block, and ebooks fall back to the default placeholder.
You upload a professional headshot — a photo of just you, framed from the chest up, looking at the camera. A real estate agent headshot or investor portrait builds trust faster than stock photography or logos.
Use a recent photo — a portrait from five years ago that doesn't look like you anymore is worse than no photo. Frame your shot head-and-shoulders, not full-body or super-tight close-up — head-and-shoulders crops cleanly to circular previews. Look at the camera, not off-frame; off-frame gazes read as awkward in small circular crops.
Light your face evenly, ideally from a bright window in front of you (not behind), and avoid harsh overhead light that shadows your eyes. Pick a neutral background — a plain wall, a soft outdoor backdrop, or a blurred indoor setting all work. Smile genuinely; smiles lift conversion rates on every page that shows your face.
Avoid: sunglasses, hats, group photos, selfies that look like selfies, photos where you're holding a drink or wearing branded apparel, and AI-generated portraits. Visitors can spot AI faces, and Google's content guidelines penalize fake author identities.
You start with the largest, highest-quality version of your headshot you have. Headshot dimensions matter — SiteStakes downsizes, but it doesn't upscale.
For your owner photo, start with a square image at least 400×400 pixels. 1200×1200 works even better — it gives you cropping flexibility without losing quality. Save as JPEG or PNG. JPEG is fine here (no transparency needed, unlike logos).
If your photo isn't square, that's OK — the square crop tool will frame it for you. Upload the original full-resolution image and crop in the tool.
Your owner photo is part of your site's E-E-A-T signal — Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness. Personal photo branding tells Google and visitors that a real, identifiable person stands behind your content.
Google's algorithm rewards content tied to a real person over anonymous content. A real headshot paired with your name, title, credentials, and bio (set up in the next step) tells Google: this person exists, this is their business, this is their content. Sites without an owner photo rank lower than equivalent sites with one.
Your real estate website gets a measurable lift from completing this single step — across SEO rankings, conversion rates, and visitor trust.
Yes — that's exactly what this article walks through. To add headshot to investor website, click 📤 Upload Photo in the Owner Photo card on the Service Area page and follow the crop tool.
You can, but you lose the E-E-A-T benefit. A logo doesn't tell Google or visitors that a real person stands behind your business. If you're a solo investor or agent, use your face. If you're a team and want to use a team logo, you can — but consider adding individual headshots to your About page later for the same trust benefit.
No. Visitors recognize stock and AI faces — both look generic at best and dishonest at worst. Google's quality rater guidelines explicitly flag fake author identities as low-quality content. Use a real photo, even if it's a phone selfie with good lighting.
You uploaded a small image and SiteStakes scaled it up. Re-upload at a minimum of 400×400 pixels — ideally 1200×1200.
Yes. Owner photo is set per-site. If you run a buyer site and a seller site under different brands, each has its own photo.
Click the 🔍− button or scroll down on the image to zoom out until the full photo fits inside the crop box. Then reposition.
Your About page photo appears in the "Meet [your name]" section. Your blog author photo appears at the top of every blog post. The same headshot appears on the cover of every PDF ebook you send to leads, and in some email templates. One upload, used everywhere. Browse the Help Center for the full list of places your content shows up.