Google Business Profile posts: what to post and whether they help

What Google Business Profile posts are

Posts are short announcements you publish on your Business Profile. According to Google Business Profile Help, there are three types:

• Update: a description, photo or video, and an optional button linking to your website.
• Offer: needs a title, dates and times. Google adds a "View offer" button, and you can add a coupon code and terms.
• Event: needs a title and start and end dates. Without times, it shows as lasting 24 hours.

On mobile, posts show in the Updates or Overview tabs of your profile. On desktop, they show under "From the owner". They're part of the steady posting plan we build in our social media for contractors service, alongside Facebook and Instagram.

Do posts help you rank?

Google's own tips to improve your local ranking list verifying your profile, keeping information up to date, responding to reviews and adding photos and videos. Posts aren't on that list. Google ranks on relevance, distance and prominence, and a weekly post doesn't change your category, your distance or your reviews.

So we don't sell posts as a ranking tactic. What they do is help the person already looking at your profile: a recent job in their town, a real photo, a clear next step. That can be the difference between a call to you and a call to the next listing. If rankings are the problem, start with how to get into the Google 3 pack instead.

The rules that get Google Business Profile posts rejected

• Phone numbers in the text. Google may remove posts with phone numbers, emails or social handles it can't verify (posts content policy). Add a Call now button instead, which uses your verified number.
• Auto-generated or filler content. Google asks for posts without misspellings, extra characters, filler text or auto-generated content.
• Untrusted links. Link only to trusted websites, ideally your own service page.
• An unverified profile. Posts stay "Pending" and aren't visible until the profile is verified.

Two more details from Google's help page: posts older than 6 months are archived unless you set a date range, and "featured posts" are currently limited to single-location food and drink businesses, so they don't apply to contractors.

A simple four-week plan for a contractor

Here's an example plan for a roofer. It's a template, not a client result. Google lets you schedule posts and set them to repeat, so a month can be set up in one sitting.

1. Week 1, job update: a before and after photo from a real roof, the town, and one line on what was fixed. Button: "Learn more" to the roof repair page.
2. Week 2, offer: a seasonal check, such as a free gutter and flashing inspection with a booked repair, with real start and end dates.
3. Week 3, question answered: the question homeowners ask most, like whether a leak means a full replacement, answered in three sentences.
4. Week 4, the crew: the team, the truck or the safety gear on a job. People want to know who is coming to the house.

The same habit works on social media. A Cleveland nonprofit we run social for grew from 100+ to 3,200+ Facebook followers on a planned weekly calendar. Those are follower counts on social platforms, not Business Profile results, but the lesson carries over: a plan beats posting when you remember.

How to tell if posts are worth your time

Because posts are about winning the click, judge them on clicks and calls, not on rankings. A simple way to do that:

1. Tag the button link. Add a campaign tag (a UTM parameter) to the link on each post's button, so visits from posts show up as their own source in Google Analytics.
2. Use the Call now button, not a typed number, so calls go through your verified profile number.
3. Check monthly. Look at visits from posts and calls from the profile next to your map grid scan, which we run at the same time each month.
4. Keep what works. If job updates get clicks and offers don't, post more job updates.

If after three months the posts bring no visits at all, that's useful to know. Put the time into reviews or service pages instead, which Google does name in its ranking tips.

Writing a post that earns the call

• Name the service and the town in plain words. "Replaced a failed water heater in Kentwood" says more than "Quality plumbing solutions".
• Use your own photos. Stock images don't tell a homeowner anything about your work.
• Link the button to the matching service page, not the homepage.
• Don't pay extra for geotagging. When we downloaded photos back from a plumbing client's Business Profile, the GPS data was gone. See do geotagged photos help your rankings.
• Skip daily posts written by a tool. One real post a week beats seven generic ones, and Google's own guidance warns against auto-generated content.