Google Posts

What Google Posts are

Google Posts are the short, dated updates — offers, events, product highlights, and news — that publish straight to your Google Business Profile and show up in the Business Profile panel on Search and Maps. They don't directly move your web rankings, but they occupy prime real estate right where a ready-to-buy searcher is already looking, and a stale, empty Posts section quietly signals a neglected profile.

Think of them as a free billboard bolted onto your search listing. Most competitors leave it blank. That's your opening.

A real example

You run a coffee roastery. A searcher looks up your shop, and the panel that comes up shows a fresh Post: a photo of this week's single-origin, the line "New Ethiopian roast — in-store now," and a "Buy" button linking straight to that product page. That Post was live within 30 seconds of the searcher landing on your profile, and it's doing the selling before they've even clicked through to your site.

Contrast that with the shop next door whose most recent Post is a "Happy Holidays" graphic from 14 months ago. Same searcher, same panel, completely different impression of whether the business is even open. The Post itself didn't change a ranking — it changed the click.

The four Post types and when to use each

Offers and Events are date-bound, which is the point — they self-expire so you're not caught showing a dead promo. Updates are the workhorse for keeping the profile looking alive.

How to publish a Google Post

1. Open your Business Profile. Search your own business name while signed in, or go through the Business Profile manager. Click Add update / Promote.
2. Pick the Post type — Update, Offer, Event, or Product — based on the table above.
3. Add a landscape image at least 720×540px. Posts with a clean, real photo pull far more attention than text-only ones. Skip stock — use your actual product or storefront.
4. Write tight copy. You get up to ~1,500 characters but only the first ~80 show before the "more" cut. Front-load the hook and the offer.
5. Set a CTA button with a UTM-tagged URL so you can see the traffic in analytics. "Buy," "Order online," and "Sign up" all deep-link — send them to the exact matching page, not the homepage.
6. Publish and verify. Check it renders on both Search and Maps, on mobile especially. Then set a recurring reminder to refresh it — a weekly cadence keeps the section from going stale.

Common mistakes (and the fix)

• Expecting Posts to boost rankings. They don't feed the ranking algorithm directly — they drive engagement and clicks. Fix: measure them on CTR and conversions from the profile, not on where your website ranks.
• Letting the section go stale. An expired Offer or a year-old "What's New" reads as "closed." Fix: use date-bound Offer/Event types that self-expire, and put a standing reminder on the calendar.
• Sending every CTA to the homepage. A "New Ethiopian roast" Post that dumps people on your homepage wastes the intent. Fix: deep-link to the exact page and tag it with UTMs.
• Keyword-stuffing the copy. Posts aren't a ranking lever, so cramming keywords just makes the copy worse. Fix: write it like an ad — clear, human, one message.
• Text-only, no image. Imageless Posts get skipped. Fix: always attach a real, landscape photo sized 720×540 or larger.

Where Posts fit with the rest of your profile

Posts are one of several ways to keep a Business Profile active and engaging — they pair with the Q&A section (seed and monitor your own questions) and get reinforced by your LocalBusiness schema on the website itself. Posts drive the click; the Q&A answers the objection; the schema and a consistent NAP back it all up on your site. None of them ranks the profile alone — together they make it the obvious choice in the pack.

For the fields and signals that do move map rankings, see the Google Business Profile Optimization guide.

FAQ

Do Google Posts help my rankings?

Not directly. They don't feed the local ranking algorithm the way reviews, categories, or proximity do. What they do is drive engagement and clicks from people already viewing your profile — which is valuable, just measured differently.

How often should I post?

Weekly is a solid baseline. The goal is that the Posts section never looks abandoned. Even one fresh Update a week beats a burst of ten followed by three months of silence.

How long do Posts stay visible?

Updates persist and roll back in the feed as you add newer ones. Offers and Events expire on the end date you set. Products stay in the Products section. Nothing "deletes" itself except the date-bound types hitting their end date.

Can I schedule Posts in advance?

Not natively in the Business Profile interface for standard Updates — you publish live. Some third-party management tools add scheduling. For most single locations, a recurring calendar reminder to post is enough.

What image size works best?

Landscape, at least 720×540px, showing something real — your product, your space, your team. Avoid stock photography and avoid text-heavy graphics that get cropped awkwardly on mobile.