Google Business Profile Posts: What to Publish and Whether It Is Worth Your Time

Your Google listing is often seen by more people than your website. Yet most of the profiles I look at have never published a single post, or published three in one week two years ago and nothing since. Google Business Profile posts are a small tool. Used with a clear idea of what they do, they are worth a few minutes a month.

What is a post?

A short message, with a photo and a button if you wish, published from your profile and shown to people who view your listing. Google offers three kinds:

• an update: news about the business;
• an offer: a promotion with a start date and an end date;
• an event: something that takes place on given dates.

The button can lead to a page of your website: booking, ordering, learning more, or calling.

Who actually reads posts?

People who are already on your listing, comparing you with two others. That matters for what you write. A post is not an advertisement shown to strangers: it is a notice on your door, read by someone who has stopped in front of it.

So the useful posts are the ones that answer a question that person has at that moment: are you open during the holidays, do you have the new season's menu, are you taking new customers, is the work on your street affecting access.

What should you publish?

• A change: new hours, a new service, a new member of the team.
• A date: an annual closure, an open day, a tasting.
• An offer with a real end date.
• Proof of work: a finished job, a new dish, with a photo you took.
• An answer to a question customers often ask.

Write two or three sentences, the main information first. Add one sharp photo. Choose a button that matches the action you want.

What should you avoid?

Google's content policies apply to posts as they do to the rest of the profile. In practice:

• no misleading offers and no prices that are not the real ones;
• no phone number stuffed into the text when the call button exists;
• no copied text repeated every week;
• no photo that is not yours to use.

A post can be rejected. When that happens, read it again with those policies in mind before publishing it a second time.

Do posts improve your ranking?

I will be direct, because a lot is promised on this subject. Google describes posts as a way to share information with customers. It does not state that publishing posts moves you up in local results, and I will not claim it does.

What decides your position is described by Google in three words: relevance, distance and prominence. See how to rank higher on Google Maps. Posts help with what happens after you are shown: a customer who hesitates between two listings and sees that one of them is alive.

How often should you post?

When you have something to say. For most businesses that means once or twice a month, more in a season when things change. A calendar reminder on the first of the month is enough to keep the habit.

If you have nothing new, a recent photo of your work added to the profile is a better use of five minutes. See which photos to add.

How do you know if a post was useful?

Your profile shows how many people viewed the listing, called, asked for directions or visited your website over a period. Compare a month with posts and a month without, knowing that many other things change at the same time. Be modest about what you conclude.

Summary

My opinion: posts are worth doing because they cost little, not because they do much. Put your real effort into reviews and exact information first.