Google Business Profile posts

This guide is built from Business Profile Help: Create & manage posts on your Business Profile, the photos, videos & posts content policy, Overview of Google Business Profile policies, Manage your Business Profile photos & videos, Manage offers on your Business Profile and Manage your social media links, plus the Maps Prohibited & restricted content policy and the Business Profile APIs pages Create Posts on Google and the localPosts reference. If you are setting up a profile for the first time, start with our Google Business Profile guide; this page goes deeper into posts only.

What posts are and where they show

Posts are short updates you publish on your own Business Profile. Google describes them as a way "to share announcements, offers, updates, and event details directly with your customers on Search and Maps." A post can carry text, a photo or a video.

Google lists three places customers find them:

• The "Updates" or "Overview" tabs of the profile on mobile, on Search and Maps.
• The "From the owner" section of the profile on a computer, on Search and Maps.
• Featured posts added directly to the profile on mobile.

Featured posts are a narrower feature. Google says posts about events, deals or specials "may automatically show" on the mobile profile, taken from your Facebook or Instagram or from posts you created on the profile. It is currently available in English for single-location food and drink businesses in the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Where it is on, featured posts show in place of reviews on the mobile profile; customers can still reach reviews by tapping the star rating or the "Reviews" tab.

The three post types

The Business Profile editor offers three types. What each one requires differs:

Type	Required	Optional	Notes
Update	Nothing beyond the post itself	Description, photo, video, action button with a link	General news about the business
Offer	Title, dates and time	Description, photo, video, coupon code, link, terms and conditions	Adds a "View Offer" button automatically
Event	Title, start and end dates and times	Description, photo, video, action button	Without a start or end time, the event shows as lasting 24 hours on the event dates

One rule affects all three: "Posts older than 6 months are archived unless a date range is set." An update has no date range, so it drops off after six months. Offers and events run on their own dates.

Hotels are an exception. The content policy says hotels "can't create 'offer' posts", nor any post that mentions or links to deals, promotions, special offers or discounts, so customers aren't confused about where to find organic and ad prices on the hotel listing.

Action buttons

Google says the button on an update "should direct customers to a website where they can complete the action, like make a booking, order online, or learn more." The Business Profile API lists the button types it supports, which match what you see in the editor:

• Book: book an appointment, table or similar.
• Order: order something.
• Shop: browse a product catalog.
• Learn more: learn more on your website.
• Sign up: register, sign up or join something.
• Call: call the business. The API reference says the URL "should be left unset" for this one, because it uses the profile's number.

The Call button matters for the policy below. If you want people to phone you from a post, use the button rather than typing a number into the text.

How to create, schedule and repeat a post

Google's steps are:

1. Go to your Business Profile.
2. Select Posts, then Add post.
3. Pick Update, Offer or Event.
4. Select the elements you want, such as Button or Coupon code, and fill in the details.
5. To publish later, turn on Schedule this post and pick a date and time.
6. To repeat it, choose weekly, monthly or a custom schedule in the "Repeats" menu.
7. Select Post. If you manage several profiles, you can select the others to share the same post, or select Skip to post on one.

To edit or delete a published post, go to Posts, then open More next to the post and choose Edit or Delete. Google suggests editing a post when details change rather than leaving it out of date.

Photos and videos in posts

The posts article doesn't give separate size limits for post media. Google's photos and videos article sets these requirements for media on a Business Profile, and they are the safe target for posts too:

Media	Requirement
Photo format	JPG or PNG
Photo file size	Between 10 KB and 5 MB
Photo resolution	Recommended 720 x 720 px, minimum 250 x 250 px
Video length	Up to 30 seconds
Video file size	Up to 75 MB
Video resolution	720p or higher

Google also asks that photos be in focus, well lit and free of "significant alterations or excessive use of filters", so that the image "should represent reality". Photos and videos only show on Google once the profile is verified.

Post status: Live, Pending, Not approved

Every post is reviewed against the content policy after you publish it. The editor shows one of three statuses:

• Live: public on Search and Maps.
• Pending: not shown yet. It is uploading or processing, or the profile is unverified.
• Not approved: not shown. A question mark next to the status tells you which content policy the post breaks.

The API uses a few more states for the same lifecycle: Processing, Scheduled (set for the future and not yet showing), Recurring (a repeating post that is showing), Live and Rejected ("due to content policy violation").

A Pending post that never goes live is often a profile problem, not a post problem. Google's policy overview says content may be rejected when the profile is unverified, suspended or disabled, or was deleted before review. Suspended and disabled profiles must be reinstated before new content is accepted. Our guides to verification and suspended profiles cover those steps.

The rules that get posts rejected

Posts fall under the same rules as reviews, photos and videos. Google's policy overview says the Prohibited and restricted content policies "apply to all content formats, which includes Reviews, Photos, Videos and Posts." The rules that catch business posts most often are:

• Unverified contact details. "To avoid fraud or abuse, we may remove posts with unverified contact information. This includes phone numbers, email addresses, and social media handles." Google suggests the Call now button instead. If you need another number on the profile, add it through a profile edit, not in a post.
• Regulated goods and services. Businesses in regulated industries can post, but Google says "do not include content about the products." It names adult services, alcohol, tobacco, pharmaceutical products, recreational drugs, health and medical devices, gambling, fireworks, weapons and financial services.
• Links. Links to malware, viruses, phishing or pornographic material are not allowed.
• Quality. Google asks you to avoid misspellings, extra characters, "text that adds no value, and auto-generated or distracting content", and to keep posts respectful and family-friendly.
• Misleading claims. The Maps policy bans "false or misleading accounts of the description or quality of a good or service". An offer that isn't real, or one with hidden conditions, is a risk.
• Review incentives. The same policy forbids offering "payment, discounts, free goods and/or services" in exchange for a review. A post such as "10% off when you leave a 5-star review" breaks it.

Google also warns that a pattern of violations can get the account restricted, which suspends every profile on that account. Repeated rejected posts are worth fixing rather than resubmitting as they are.

Offers and posts you didn't write

Not everything in the posts and offers areas comes from you. The social media links article says posts about events, deals or special offers "from your linked social media profiles or Business Profile may also show", in select regions and languages.

Offers also have their own article. In select regions, customers may see offer chips on the Search listing and in AI Overviews. These come from two sources: authorized third-party partners that send offer data to Google, and promotions Google identifies, including your Offer posts and offers found on linked social profiles. If a partner shows an offer you didn't authorize, contact Business Profile support ("Remove Offers", category "Fix Posts"). Google says providers must remove a third-party offer within 5 business days of your request.

Posting to many locations

The editor already lets you share one post across several profiles. For larger estates, the Business Profile API creates posts programmatically. Its guide covers event posts, call-to-action posts and offer posts, and the API returns a searchUrl link to each post on Google Search that you can share. The API also has a fourth topic type, Alert, for "high-priority, and timely announcements", which Google notes is "not always available for authoring."

Our view: posts worth publishing

This part is our own practice, not Google guidance. We treat posts as a way to keep a profile current, not as a ranking trick; Google's posts article doesn't claim they affect local ranking, and our guide to how local ranking works covers what Google does say. We use offers and events for anything with a date, so the post expires with the thing it promotes. We keep phone numbers out of post text and use the Call button. We link each button to the specific page for that offer or event, with UTM tags so the visit shows up properly in analytics (see our UTM guide). And we check the profile's performance numbers and site analytics before and after a run of posts, rather than assuming they work.

Frequently asked questions

How long do Google Business Profile posts stay up?

Google says posts older than 6 months are archived unless a date range is set. Offers and events carry their own dates; an update without a date range is archived after six months.

Why was my post not approved?

The question mark next to the Not approved status shows which content policy it breaks. Common causes are a phone number, email address or social handle Google can't verify, content about regulated products, or links Google doesn't allow.

Why is my post stuck on Pending?

Google says Pending means the post is uploading or processing, or the profile is unverified. Content may also be rejected while a profile is suspended or disabled.

Can I schedule Business Profile posts?

Yes. Turn on Schedule this post to pick a publish date and time, and use the Repeats menu for weekly, monthly or custom repeats.

Can a hotel post offers?

No. Google's policy says hotels can't create offer posts or any post that mentions or links to deals, promotions, special offers or discounts. Hotels can still post other updates.

For more on Business Profiles, see our guides to services, products, attributes, local business schema and small business SEO.