Google My Business (GMB) has seen an exponential rise over the year now and people are increasingly using GMB to increase the visibility of local businesses and has become a primary aspect of local SEO. This is a comprehensive guide to posting on GMB in order to get more leads for your business.
Table Of Contents
- How to Set Up and Optimize a GMB Profile?
- What are Google Posts?
- How Do Google Posts Benefit Your Business?
- Where Do Google Posts Appear?
- What is Google’s Policy for GMB Posts?
- How to Create a Google Post?
- How to Create a New Post on GMB?
- How Many Types of Google Posts are there?
- Why is it Important to Geotag Photos?
- Are There Different Post Displays for Desktop and Mobile Devices?
- Does Google Reject Some GMB Post?
- What are the Reasons Behind Rejection of GMB Posts?
People have been using Google as a primary source of information and to get an answer to their queries for years now. Now, however, Google is emerging as a primary medium that businesses use to showcase their products and services online.
Google My Business was launched in 2014 and has seen a steady rise ever since. 9 out of every 10 people searching for a business search for it online using search engines. Local SEO Service providers understand this fact and that is why the focus is to optimize GMB profiles of businesses.
If you have not yet created a GMB profile, you have been missing out on a lot of potential leads. Now, it is as important to optimize your as it is to optimize your website. The reason is that it is at the forefront of your business for all the people using Google search to find businesses online.
This blog is all about Google posts. You will learn everything about posting on your GMB profile so that you can benefit from greater outreach and visibility. First, it is important to have an optimized GMB profile so here to set up a GMB profile. You can see more details on Google my business news on our weekly roundup.
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1. Setting Up and Optimizing Google My Business Profile
If you don’t already have a GMB profile, download the app and create your account. This is the summary of all the steps that will be explained later in the article
- Sign in to the Google Business Listing and click on the location option
- Select your desired business name, the one that you wish to publish for
- There will be a button stating “post new” on the left menu. Click on that and select the post type you want
- Follow the procedure and fulfill all the requirements for the post
- Publish
Google Business Listing Sign-In
- Open the on your computer
- Enter your username, and password, and sign in to your account
- Enter the domain name of the business
- Depending on how you serve your customer, select the preferred business display on Google Maps
- Select the concerned business category that fits your business criteria
- Add the specifics like your contact information and website URL and your work is done
For Multiple listings
A location group is a selected group of business listings that comes under one organization or user group.
• Click on the “manage locations” for multiple listings
Selection of the Business Name
It is preferred to use the business name under which the business was published within its state. It's not obligatory as you can always change the name later whenever you want but it involves a thorough procedure.
If you are clear and satisfied with the name in the beginning, it eliminates the tiring process in the future.
Now that you have understood how to set up a GMB profile, let's discuss everything about Google posts and how you can use them to your benefit.
2. What are Google Posts?
It is a tool through which you can share messages directly from your Google My Business (GMB) profile dashboard. They are the content blurbs that appear in Google maps or search results if your Business Knowledge Graph is displayed.
Primarily these posts were available only to a handful of industries but recently Google made this feature available to all the verified GMB users
3. How Do the GMB Posts Benefit Your Business?
Through Google My Business posts, you can share text, links, and photos on the Google Knowledge Panel along with your map listing or location. GMB posts boost the visibility of your most recent product, announcements, features, services, and sales.
It benefits you by directly showing up in the search results at the most appropriate stage of the buyer's journey. Google introduced this GMB feature to help its users find all the relevant information about a certain local business without the need for multiple clicking.
It not only elevates the user experience but also helps the local businesses in getting recognition and more exposure to the online community. SEO companies are keen on using GMB posts as a primary source of boosting the visibility of businesses.
Learn more about another key aspect of local SEO which is Lead generation using lead bots.
4. Where do GMB Posts Appear?
GMB posts are great for showing what your business has to offer. These posts appear at the bottom of your Google My Business Knowledge Panel.
5. GMB Posts Policy
Although creating GMB posts is easy, Google is very strict about its policies. It is very important that you are fully aware of the GMB content policy so that you don't have to face the consequences in the future. Some of the key features are:
- Off-topic or irrelevant content is not allowed. Any kind of content that is irrelevant to the business should not be added to the post.
- The content posted in the GMB post should not be misleading in any way. Any information that is being posted should be error-free, clear, and to the point. Any kind of spelling or grammatical mistakes is not allowed.
- Any kind of negative content is prohibited and links to malware, viruses, or to any irrelevant sites are strictly banned.
- The post shouldn't contain any kind of harassing or bullying content. Any kind of inappropriate content is not allowed, and strict action will be taken against it.
- Any kind of private or confidential information shouldn’t be posted as the privacy of its customers is Google’s utmost priority.
6. How to Create a Google Post?
Don’t know how to create a Google post? Don’t worry about it. After reading this blog you will not only be able to create Google posts but also learn how to make your posts user-friendly so that the prospects get the best experience.
7. Create a New Post
The option for a "" is on the left menu. When you click on it, a number of options for posting will appear in the blue letters at the top of the display. Select the most appropriate option depending on your business type.
Then you add the UTM parameters to keep track of the viewer's response. You should select an option that is beneficial for your audience and meet your business goals as well.
Selecting the Post Type That You Want
There are a you can choose from. Some of them will only be in text format and others might include pictures depending on the content.
Follow the prompt according to the selected post type. Each post type has certain protocols that need to be followed before posting
Publish Your Post
Analyze your post critically before posting and review your post by clicking on the “Review Post” option to see what your viewers will see once the content is posted. Then publish the post
8. Types of Google Posts That Can Be Created
Google gives you a variety of post types to choose from. Here is the detail of the types of posts that can be created through GMB posts
• COVID-19 Updates
This type of posts help you keep your customers updated about the changes to your business due to the pandemic. Hopefully, this new addition will not stay for long but for the time being, it is very effective in keeping the customers updated and engaged. These posts stay live for about 14 days.
• Add Offer
This type of posts are great if your business has a special offer going on with a time limit. In these types of posts, you add a start and end date for the offer, a headline, description, and disclaimer if any and this post will stay live during the whole time period of the offer.
• Add Update
This type of post is dedicated to the news about any kind of changes in your business, products, or services. This post is to inform your customers about any new updates in your business
• Add Event
This type of post is used to keep your customers updated on any upcoming events happening in near future. You need to add a title for this post along with the specifications including the time and days of that event. This post will stay live throughout the date range.
• Add Product
This type of post is dedicated to the description of products that you might have for sale at your store. GMB posts do not accommodate online purchasing. That means you can only add the description for the product but the interested buyers will either have to switch to your website or have to visit your store in person in order to buy the product.
In this type of post, you need to add the product name, its category, product description, its price along with a CTA.
• Add Photos or Videos
To grab the searcher’s attention and to provide a more elaborate description of your product, it is suggested to add a post with a photo or a small video in it. Try to add clear pictures with the most suitable image size.
The recommended size is 1200 x 900 pixels. Keep in mind that you can only post short videos for up to 10-30 seconds. These kinds of posts stay live for almost seven days.
9. Importance of Geotagging Photos
It is very important to geotag all the images that you use in your GMB posts. Geotagging is the process in which you add geographical info as metadata. It consists primarily of coordinates involving latitude and longitude and it can also include additional information.
Geotagging is one of the primary aspects of local SEO that helps search engines identify the link between the information that you are sharing and your geographical location. It is primarily important for regional business.
Most of the time, it has been found that searchers add geographical data in their searches so geotagging your photos will allow your posts to relate more and show up when a location-based query is made.
Check out: 4 New Features of Google Maps to Grow Your Local Business Presence
You should also know that images also show up on different SERPs, mostly on top. Geotagging will allow your images to be identified by search engines more easily and potentially show up on SERPs.
10. Different post displays for desktop and mobile devices
While creating any kind of post, it should be kept in mind that it will be viewed on both desktops and mobile devices. So, you have to try your best to optimize the content in a way that is suitable for both.
The post should not contain more than 1500 characters. With the switch of the device that it is being viewed on, the content will get cut off so you should try to keep your content as precise yet informative as possible
11. Rejection of post
Your post will get rejected if you violate any of the GMB policy points that have been stated earlier in this article. If your post gets rejected, a red "Rejected" notice will appear. Most of the time, the post gets rejected due to inappropriate photos or videos used. Google also rejects posts that contain any kind of sensitive topic.
12. How to Avoid Rejection?
If you want to avoid post rejection, try to exclude website URLs, phone numbers, or email addresses from your GMB posts. Using ALL CAPS or stock photos can also trigger rejection of the post.
Do not use hashtags in your GMB posts and be careful of your choice of words. Any word that seems benign to you might be offensive to Google and might lead to rejection.
If you keep all these points in mind and create a post with the best-suited post type for your business, it will help you gain an audience as well as potential buyers. Hopefully, now you have an idea of how to work with GMB posts and how to use them for the benefit of your business.
This will be all for today. If you have any comments or queries, do write in the comments section and I will get back to you as soon as possible. If you need any kind of SEO Services in Dubai for your business, write to me and I will be happy to help. Do share it with others so they can benefit as well. Thank you
About The Author: Lovetto Nazareth
Lovetto Nazareth is a digital marketing consultant and agency owner of Prism Digital. He has been in the advertising and digital marketing business for the last 2 decades and has managed thousands of campaigns and generated millions of dollars of new leads. He is an avid adventure sports enthusiast and a singer-songwriter. Follow him on social media on @Lovetto Nazareth