Google Business Profile posts are short updates, offers and events that you publish from your profile and that show on your listing in Google Search and Maps. You create one at business.google.com under Posts, then Add post, and it stays visible for 6 months unless you give it an end date.
What posts won’t do is move you up the map pack on their own. They are a conversion tool: they give someone who already found your listing a reason to call, book or visit this week. This guide covers how to publish each type, how to track them, and the mistakes that get posts rejected.
Before you post
You need three things in place first:
- A verified profile. Google’s posts help page says a post stays “Pending” while the profile is unverified. If you haven’t finished that, start with our verification guide.
- Owner or manager access. Google’s roles help page gives both roles the same rights to create, manage and publish posts. Our guide to adding a user explains the difference.
- A photo. Google’s photo guidelines for Business Profile media ask for a JPG or PNG between 10 KB and 5 MB, at least 250 x 250 pixels, with 720 x 720 recommended. Videos can run up to 30 seconds, 75 MB and 720p or higher. Our photo size guide explains why the sizes quoted on other sites rarely match.
The three post types
Google offers three kinds of post in the profile editor. Pick by what you want the reader to do, not by what looks busiest.
You may see “product posts” in older guides and in Google’s own AI Overview for this query. Products are a separate section of the profile, not a post type. The Business Profile API lists the post topics as standard (update), event, offer and alert, and alert posts were a COVID-19 feature that Google says are “not always available for authoring.”
How to publish a post
- Sign in at business.google.com with the account that owns or manages the profile, and open the profile.
- Select Posts, then Add post.
- Choose Update, Offer or Event.
- Write the text. Lead with the thing the reader gets (“Free brake check with any oil change”), then the detail. Keep it to a few sentences. The first line is what decides whether anyone reads on.
- Add one photo or video you took yourself. A photo of the real shop, staff or finished work tells the reader more than a stock image.
- Add a button, if the post has a next step. For an update or event the choices are actions such as book, order, shop, learn more, sign up and call (the API names them
BOOK,ORDER,SHOP,LEARN_MORE,SIGN_UPandCALL). Offers get their own View offer button instead. - For an offer or event, set the title, start and end dates and times. For an offer, add the coupon code, redeem link and terms if you have them.
- To post later, turn on Schedule this post and pick a date and time. To repeat a post, use Repeats (weekly, monthly or custom).
- Select Post. If you manage several profiles, Google lets you pick others to share the post to; select Skip to publish to this one only.
Step 6 matters most. A post without a button gives the reader nowhere to go except back to your listing. Point the button at the page that matches the post, such as the booking page for an offer, not the homepage, and use Call when the goal is a phone call so the number shown is your verified one.
To change or remove a post later, open Posts, select the three-dot More menu on it, then Edit or Delete.
Where posts show and how long they last
According to Google’s posts help page, posts appear in the “Updates” or “Overview” tab of your profile on mobile, and in the “From the owner” section on desktop, on both Search and Maps.
Posts older than 6 months are archived unless you set a date range, so an update isn’t gone after a week. Offers and events follow their own dates. That means there is no technical reason to post daily to keep something showing.
Each post has one of three statuses:
- Live: visible on Search and Maps.
- Pending: still processing, or the profile isn’t verified.
- Not approved: hidden. A question mark next to it links to the content policy you broke.
One narrow exception changes how a profile looks. For single-location food and drink businesses in the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand (English only), Google can feature event, deal or special posts automatically, including posts pulled from your social channels. When that happens, featured posts take the place of reviews on mobile, though people can still reach reviews from the star rating.
Do posts help rankings?
Not much, and Google doesn’t claim they do. Its local ranking help page names relevance, distance and prominence, and says nothing about posting.
The best outside evidence is Whitespark’s 2026 Local Search Ranking Factors survey of local SEO practitioners, published November 2025. Out of 187 factors for the local pack and Maps, “Frequency of Google Posts/Updates” ranks 148th, “Keywords in Google Posts/Updates” 160th and “Quantity of Google Posts/Updates” 168th. Your primary category ranks first.
So if your profile has the wrong primary category or a website that lists an old phone number, fix those first (our categories guide covers the first). Posts are worth doing after that, for a different reason: they are the only place on the profile where you can promote something timely. Google’s business guidelines say your business description shouldn’t focus on special promotions, prices or sales. An offer post is where that belongs.
How often to post
Google publishes no recommended frequency. Our working rule: post when you have something a customer would act on, and aim for at least one post a month so the “From the owner” section never looks abandoned. A weekly post is fine if you have real material (a seasonal offer, a new service, a finished job with photos). A post written only to hit a schedule adds nothing.
Repeating posts help with the routine. A made-up auto repair shop in Columbus, Ohio could set one offer to repeat monthly (“$20 off a brake inspection, first week of the month”) and then add updates only when something real happens, such as a new technician or an extended Saturday schedule.
Track what your posts do
Google brought back post view counts in September 2026, after removing post views and clicks in February 2023. As Search Engine Journal reported, each post card in the Posts section of the dashboard now shows views from Search and Maps combined, for posts from the past 18 months. Clicks are not included, and the counts aren’t in the API yet.
To see what a post’s button actually brings in, tag the link. Add utm_source, utm_medium and utm_campaign to the URL; Google Analytics’ UTM help page says you should always use all three, or you get “(not set)” in reports. For example:
https://example.com/brakes/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=gbp_post_brake_offer
Our free UTM builder for Business Profile links writes these for you. Using organic as the medium keeps those visits in GA4’s Organic Search channel, which matches any medium of exactly “organic”, and the campaign name tells you which post sent them. Our local SEO reporting guide shows how to fold this into a monthly report.
What gets posts rejected
These are the problems Google’s policies name:
- Contact details in the text. Google’s posts content policy says it may remove posts with unverified contact information, including phone numbers, email addresses and social media handles. Use the Call button instead, which uses your profile’s verified number.
- Regulated products. Businesses in regulated industries can post, but not about those products. Google lists alcohol, tobacco, pharmaceuticals, recreational drugs, health and medical devices, gambling, fireworks, weapons, financial services and adult services.
- Hotel offers. Hotels can’t create offer posts or any post that mentions deals, promotions or discounts.
- Bad links and content. Links must go to trusted sites, and content has to be family friendly.
If a post stays in Pending, check that the profile is still verified and not suspended. Our suspension guide covers what to do if it isn’t.
FAQ
Are Google Business Profile posts free?
Yes. Posting is part of the free Business Profile and costs nothing. The only cost is the time it takes to write the post and take the photo.
Can I post to several locations at once?
Yes. When you publish, Google offers the other profiles you manage so you can share the same post to them. Write it so it makes sense at every location, or post separately when the offer differs by store.
Why can't I see my post on my profile?
Check its status under Posts. Pending means it is still processing or the profile isn’t verified, and Not approved means it broke a content policy (the question mark tells you which). A live post shows under Updates or Overview on mobile and From the owner on desktop.
Your first post this week
Pick one real thing a customer could act on in the next few weeks, publish it as an offer or event with dates, a photo you took and a tagged button link, and set it to repeat if it will run again. Then check its view count after a month before deciding how much time posts deserve.
