GOOGLE TIPS & TRICKS
Google Posts for Local Businesses
(first published on July 22, 2017)
Google posts were rolled out in 2017 to help local businesses drive traffic to their websites and make their Google Business Profile more attractive. Since then, Google has introduced many changes to the posts and their functionality. In this article, you can find up-to-date information about Google posts including our tips
What are Google posts for?
Local businesses can benefit from this new feature and use it as another promotion channel. Such social network-style posts are perfect to tell users about your new events, products, and services. Announce an opening of your new shop or restaurant, share daily specials and current promotions, or just publish a nice picture to make your customers visit your business. Here is an example of a barbershop in London and a restaurant in New York showing a perfect implementation of this Google’s feature.
The most important reason why local businesses should add posts on Google is that posts are linked to your website. This is a good source of traffic which may result in a higher sign-up rate for your newsletter and a larger number of converting customers. Connect to your customers directly from your Google listing.
What businesses are not eligible to create Google posts?
Unfortunately, not all the business types have access to Google posts. Such categories include, for example, Camp, Casino, Hotel, Vacation Rental, and Wine Store.
Recently a Google post has been noticed on a hotel listing in the U.S. However, the feature has not been rolled out for most hospitality listings.
How to create a Google post and where will it show up?
Posts can be created in the Google Business Profile interface. If you have multiple locations, open the location you would like to publish a post for.
Choose the option Create post or click on Posts from the menu and choose one of the available options: “COVID-10 update”, “Update”, “Event”, “Offer”, or “Product”. A new window will appear where you can upload a photo or video and write your post.
It is possible to add a call-to-action button, for example, “Book” or “Sign up” leading directly to your website. It is a good idea to add UTM parameters to the URL in order to track conversions.
When creating an “Event” or “Offer”, you can choose the start and end date, which will define how long your post will stay live.
Preview your post before publishing it to make sure it looks good.
You can also create posts on a mobile device from the Google Business Profile Android and iOS apps as well as from Goolge Maps and Search. Make sure you are logged in with the account you use to sign up for Google Business Profile.
Once a post is published it will appear in Google Search and Maps results. It is important to know that on mobile devices Google posts appear on the top of the Knowledge Panel and are given a lot of visibility. See an example below:
Users will automatically see the newest posts as they are shown first. The older ones will show in a carousel format (up to 10 posts). Google posts used to expire after 7 days. With a recent update, Google posts are visible in the business’s Knowledge Panel for more than 7 days, which gives them more visibility.
Which photos and videos can be added to Google posts?
Creating posts on Google is very easy, as long as you have a suitable creative at hand. Images should be in JPG or PNG format, an aspect ratio of 4:3 is recommended.
Google posts support videos too. They can be uploaded in the following formats AVI, MP4, MOV, FLV, WMV, MPG, M4V, MKV, M2TS, and MTS. The videos should not be more than 30 seconds long.
It is possible to add up to 10 photos or videos in one Google Business Profile post. All uploaded media must meet the following size requirements:
- Minimum: 400×300 pixels and 10 KB size limit
- Maximum: 10000×10000 pixels and 25 MB size limit (for videos 100 MB)
Tip: It is better not to use stock photos for your posts. Unique photos usually perform better and bring more clicks.
With posts, Google gives you the chance to define and influence the content that appears on your brand search on Google’s first search result page. Don’t miss the opportunity.
Have you observed anything else interesting about Google posts? Share your ideas in the comments below.
About the Author
Natalia is a Co-Founder of re:spondelligent. She is passionate about helping businesses manage and respond to their customer reviews and loves sharing her industry and marketing knowledge to help brands succeed.
