Google My Business has a posting feature which allows you to engage with searchers directly in SERP’s (Google Search Engine Results Pages) and on Google Maps. Better yet this is a totally free service you can utilise to create compelling content, share photos, events, offers, and use various different calls-to-action (CTA).
These are posts that share more general happenings, new team additions, new blog posts, or to showcase reviews and testimonials.
There are 4 Different Google My Business Post Types
1.What’s New
These are posts that share more general happenings, new team additions, new blog posts, or to showcase reviews and testimonials.
Text: You have 1,500 characters in a What’s New post to use. This kind of post can act like a micro-blog post, allowing users to go into more details, and really engage searchers with content.
Image/Video: You can choose to represent your post with an image, GIF, or a 30 second video.
Note: Photos should have a minimum resolution of 400px wide by 300px tall and in JPG or PNG format. Videos should be in AVI, MP4, WMV, MPG, M4V, MKV, M2TS or MTS format. The max upload size for videos is 100 MB.
CTA Button: Adding a CTA button is optional so if you don’t want to add a link, choose none. The below list is your options for a CTA button:
- Book
- Order online
- Buy
- Learn more
- Sign up
- Call now (This uses the primary number from your listing)
Time Frame: New posts will be active for 7 days, and they will show before existing published posts that have yet to expire. Older posts won’t disappear after expiry, they are accessible to searchers under the Posts navigation in the business profile on mobile, and on desktop by scrolling to the Posts section and clicking any active post, clicking View all, or View previous posts on Google.
Thumbnail Preview: This is the text that’s visible in the Knowledge Panel before a user clicks on the post. The number of characters that is displayed is dependent on if you choose to add a CTA button or not, so some words are likely to be cut off. Always review how a post looks before published and go back and edit if necessary.
Visibility: Searchers will be able to come across your What’s New posts on desktop, mobile and the Google Maps app.
2.Events
Event posts can be used to promote events you are hosting, are involved in, or are supporting. It can be something instore, part of your neighbourhood, or even to say that your business might be passionate about a local charity event.
Image/Video: You can choose to represent your post with an image, GIF, or a 30 second video.
Note: Photos should have a minimum resolution of 400px wide by 300px tall and in JPG or PNG format. Videos should be in AVI, MP4, WMV, MPG, M4V, MKV, M2TS or MTS format. The max upload size for videos is 100 MB.
Event Title: You have up to a maximum of 58 characters (with spaces) for your title to use. If you are using all of the allowable characters some of the text will get cut off in the thumbnail preview.
It’s not mandatory to add a title but if you do add one your post it will stand out in search results and the title will be bold. Currently you can’t manually bold any text in posts, so having a title does make it pop more.
Event Details: You have up to 1,500 characters to describe your event, it’s up to you to use that as you wish. Some prefer to keep it short and sweet while others like to take advantage of the opportunity to use the full room provided for their details of the event.
Start/End Date (Time Frame): Select the dates for your event. There doesn’t seem to be a limit to your end date. So, you could add an event post that will be active for months. As soon as you publish any post after your Event post, the new post will take precedence as the first featured post.
Add Event Time (Optional): Add the start and end times of the event, you can even edit it to the minute if you love precision, however the event time will not be shown publicly. If it’s important to share the exact times with your customers be sure to add it in the details or link to the website with all the details.
CTA Button: Adding a CTA button is optional so if you don’t want to add a link, choose none. The below list is your options for a CTA button:
- Book
- Order online
- Buy
- Learn more
- Sign up
- Call now (This uses the primary number from your listing)
Thumbnail Preview: This is the visible information that is displayed in the Knowledge Panel and results. The Events post is impacted by both the title, dates, and CTA button; words will get cut off and you’ll see a … when that happens, the image also seems to shift in comparison with the What’s New post type.
Visibility: Searchers will be able to come across your Event posts on desktop, mobile and the Google Maps app.
3.Offers
If you have any promotions, sales, or coupons, you can use this post type to showcase them. Like events, offers also require titles, start & end dates, and timeframe. The “View offer” CTA is automatically added. You can even create an exclusive promotion just for your GMB listing if you wish. These posts include a bright yellow tag (on desktop and mobile search) that definitely draws a searchers eye.
Image/Video: You can choose to represent your post with an image, GIF, or a 30 second video.
Note: Photos should have a minimum resolution of 400px wide by 300px tall and in JPG or PNG format. Videos should be in AVI, MP4, WMV, MPG, M4V, MKV, M2TS or MTS format. The max upload size for videos is 100 MB.
Offer Title (Required): You have up to a maximum of 58 characters with spaces for your offer title. Just like with the Events posts this gives you a bold title in search results that makes your offer pop. If you use the entire space provided, some of the title will get cut off in the post preview of your branded Knowledge Panel.
Offer Details: You have up to 1,500 characters to use for your full post description and important details. It’s up to you to decide on how much information you would like to provide searchers with, we believe the best approach is to be clear, transparent, and straightforward with your offer.
Start/End Date (Time Frame): Enter the timeframe that the offer is valid for.
Coupon Code (Optional): Add a special coupon code to your Offer. This is optional but is a fantastic way to track the exact conversions you are getting from your GMB listing. Having a coupon code also enhances the look of the Offer post, while making it more enticing and exclusive.
Link to Redeem Offer (Optional): Add a URL to the landing page that provides searchers with your offer details and a way to get in touch for more information or to redeem the offer. This is essentially the CTA button, so if you would like a button on your listing for your offer use this. The text is automatically added as “Redeem online “. Even if you don’t choose to add a link at all to the post, this post type will still automatically trigger text in the Knowledge Panel that says, “View Offer”.
Terms and Conditions (Optional): While this is another optional section, we strongly recommend adding terms and conditions if you are posting on behalf of clients. You can simply add “See our website or contact us for the full rules and regulations.” When in doubt show the searcher how they can be more informed. The terms and conditions text is very small text and won’t clutter your post.
Thumbnail Preview: This is the visible information that is displayed in the Knowledge Panel and in branded search results. The Offer post is impacted by both the title, dates and CTA button both your title and message can get cut off and show a … in the preview.
Visibility: Searchers will come across your Offer posts on desktop, mobile, and the Google Maps app.
4.Products
Product posts encourage you to highlight specific products or services that your business offers. These Post types can even earn their own navigation heading in mobile search results.
Image/Video: You can choose to represent your post with an image, GIF, or a 30 second video.
Note: Photos should have a minimum resolution of 400px wide by 300px tall and in JPG or PNG format. Videos should be in AVI, MP4, WMV, MPG, M4V, MKV, M2TS or MTS format. The max upload size for videos is 100 MB.
Product Name (Required): You have up to 58 characters with spaces for your product or service name which gives the post a bold title/heading and makes it more eye catching.
Price (Optional): You can add the exact dollar amount or click the range slider to put a minimum to maximum amount. You also have the option to leave this area blank and not share a price.
Description: Same as the standard with the other post types, Product posts can have up to 1,500 characters detailing the information of your businesses product or service.
CTA Button: Adding a CTA button is optional so if you don’t want to add a link, choose none. The below list is your options for a CTA button:
- Order online
- Buy
- Learn more
- Get Offer
Thumbnail Preview: This is the snippet of the post content that is displayed in the Business Profile also known as the Knowledge Panel. The same with all the other post types the text that shows up here is impacted by the required Product name, price, and CTA button which means some of your writing will be cut off when including all these elements.
Visibility: Searchers will come across your Product posts on desktop, mobile, and in the Google Maps app.
Tips for Google My Business Posts:
- Incorporate UTM tracking for any urls you add to your different posts. This helps to increase the accuracy of your reporting and you can see who has come to your website via a specific post. You can use Google’s free URL builder tool to help setup UTM Tracking.
Example of UTM Tracking: https://www.YOURDOMAIN.com/?utm_source=gmb&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=gpost
- There are various tools, plugins, and apps available that can help you pre-schedule and design your posts like Publer,Posts to Google My Business, or Canva for example, making the process of adding Posts to your current GMB strategy easier.
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