Benefits & Reasonings for Posting in Google My Business

Competition to rank high on SERPs is never going away, so it’s important that your business take advantage everywhere it can. One easy way to do that? By regularly utilizing Google posts.

1). What are Google Posts?

Google posts are a feature offered through Google My Business that allow businesses to create and post content that will show up directly in Google Search and on Google Maps. These mini articles are meant to be timely, and they are meant to share recent business updates, promotions, sales, events, etc.

These articles only appear within search results, when triggered by searching for your brand. Like mentioned above, since this is timely content, they get removed after seven days from the SERPs. Owners of the content can still access the articles through the dashboard, however.

When writing a Google post, you are allowed to upload an image, write text (up to 300 words), and add an event title with start and end dates and times. Users can also add call-to-action buttons including “Learn more”, “Reserve”, “Sign up”, “Buy”, or “Get offer.”

How to Create and Publish a  Google Post

Posts can be made by logging into your Google My Business account on your desktop or through the Google My Business app on your phone or tablet.

Below we’ve listed the steps you need to take to create a post:

Desktop

1. Sign in to Google My Business. If you have two or more locations, click “Manage location” for the location you’d like to post about.
2. Click “Create post” or click “Posts” from the menu.
3. The “Create post” screen will appear. Here, you’ll see options to add photos, text, events, and a button to your post. Just click each field and enter the relevant information.
4. Once you’ve created your post, click “Preview” to see a preview. If it looks good, click “Publish” in the top right corner of the screen.

Mobile

1. Open the Google My Business app.
2. In the bottom right corner of the screen, tap the “Create” icon and then tap the “Posts” icon.
3. The “Create post” screen will appear. Here, you’ll see options to add photos, text, events, and a button to your post. Just tap each field and enter the relevant information.
4. Once you’ve filled out your information, you can see a preview of your post. If it looks good, tap “Publish” in the top right corner of the screen.

Below we’ve posted a screenshot so you can see how the interface looks:

On the left side menu, click on Posts:

After you active make this post event and add a button, you’ll see the fields below:

Google Post Guidelines

Google first launched this feature in 2016 for political candidates to post content that would show up for relevant political search queries.

Like any Google service, there are several guidelines you need to follow. If the guidelines are broken, you run the risk of your post getting removed.

Not allowed

• Don’t use commercial slang: “BOGO: 50% off men’s sneakers.”
• Don’t use excessive exclamation marks or all caps: “Crazy SALE today!!!”
• Don’t include more than one theme or offer in one communication: “Half price coffee and tea from 3-6 PM on Fridays, and buy 6, get one free donut on weekdays.”
• Don’t craft a deal with too many exclusions: “10% off new seasonal sandwiches. Not valid on lunch specials.”
• Don’t include a phone number.

Encouraged

• Be precise: What are the three things your customer needs to know? What do you want them to remember, for how much, and when? For example: “Happy Hour! Half-price milkshakes from 5-6 PM every Friday.”
• Be personal: “We love families at Mike’s and to show our appreciation, kids eat free this weekend!”
• Tell your customers what they can do: “Tickets range from $60-$160 and are available for purchase at the front desk starting at 12 PM EST today.”
• Highlight what makes your business, product, or offer unique: “Free shipping on orders over $50.”
• Be timely — use a key selling point or popular item as the hook for your post: “Spring is here. All flip flops now 30% off.”
• Be sure to include any redemption instructions, unique codes, or restrictions on offers or sales: “$10 off purchase of $50 or more. 50% off select women’s clothing.”
• Use abbreviations for days and months, and don’t use periods, to allow more space for your post: Jan, Feb, Mar, Mon, Tue, Wed, etc.
• Abbreviate hours in this way: 9 AM, 5 PM, 12 PM, 12 AM

Note: All existing Google My Business content policies, review policies and photo guidelines apply to posts.

2). Benefits of Posting through Google My Business

The main benefit of posting through Google My Business is that the content will appear in both Google Search and Google Maps results, providing businesses the ability to share specials or current promotions that encourage new and existing customers to take advantage of your offers right now. Google also provides the option of promoting events at your location. Another possibility is to showcase products or events directly on the SERP and include a “buy now”, “sign-up”,  or “learn more” button reducing the number of steps clients need to take to acquire the product.

Here are examples of how Google Posts come up in search:

Once you’ve published a post, it will appear to customers on Google Search and Maps in a few moments. To ensure that posts are timely, Google removes these posts from the default view after seven days (or when the event date the post referenced has passed). You can edit or delete a post following the instructions provided by Google here: https://support.google.com/business/answer/7342763

3). Why you should use Google Posts

Posting through Google My Business can capture attention of potential customers, since the posts are ideally used for events, sales, and other types of promotion. So when people search for a favorite brand, they can see that a store is having a flash sale that day or a special even that day that can make up their mind to go to the store versus going to a competing store.

Businesses can also share photos of events, products or anything that they would like to promote on Google’s result page or Map page. It is also a great opportunity to share last-minute updates. Let’s say a bicycle store is having a riding event and it starts raining. They can share a message saying that the event is cancelled.

With the one-click path, you can provide people an easy, direct way to book appointments, reservations or apply for an open job position.

Furthermore, there is no cost in posting these articles, and it doesn’t require a lot of time to post a 300-word max article.

Are you in need of SEO expertise in Local Search and Google My Business? Get in touch with LOCOMOTIVE Agency today, and find out how we can improve your business’s local search rankings, click-through rate, and more.