What Are Google Posts, And How Can You Use Them To Your Advantage?

Google Posts: Google has recently introduced a very interesting novelty for those who have a Google My Business account. Don’t have it and run your own business or business? You should fix it because it is an element that can be very useful to you. In fact, Google My Business allows you to equip yourself with a quick card with information about your business (type, brief description, opening hours) and the location on Google Maps that appears to users who search on Google with the corresponding keywords. After a static phase, My Business is expanding its features, and Google Posts have been added to expand the promotion methods. Let’s see what it is.

Google posts: what they are and what they are for

Google posts are content (texts, images, videos, animated gifs) that can be inserted into the Google My Business account card to talk about products, news, services, or events. The content of any type will be linked to your MyBusiness listing and immediately appear to people searching for you on Google. From both desktop and mobile devices. An interesting novelty that will allow you to quickly make known an event, a promotion, a special offer, or a new product or service. Furthermore, Google posts can be linked to your website, and this can bring advantages in terms of increased traffic, newsletter subscriptions, and new customers, as well as benefits from an SEO perspective.

Make the most of Google Posts to your advantage

1 – Google shows statistics related to Views (Number of times the post has been viewed) and Engagement (Number of times a customer has clicked on the button). Here is an example:

Posts can also be inserted without inserting a link, but if you do, the same can be tracked in Google Analytics using UTM parameters. In this way, in addition to the data provided by Google in the Google My Business dashboard, it will be possible to know interesting and important information relating to the users who have clicked on our posts, such as for example, their conversion rate.

2 – Google Posts can be used to publish events, offers, products, and services that will be immediately displayed on Google search and Maps in relation to your business’s local listing. It’s important to always post content that’s relevant to your business, as content that isn’t clearly associated with your business isn’t allowed. The contents published through this service must not mislead users and must present clear, safe, and reliable information. Content not allowed: Spam, malware and deceptive behavior, Adult content, Hateful or offensive content, Personal and confidential information, Exploitation of minors, Graphic violent content, Impersonation.

Google recommends using posts to share current offers and promotions, special events, information for your customers, featured products, and new arrivals; you can insert a link that refers to booking pages, newsletter registration, the latest offers, and much more…

3 – You can insert an image in the posts. Google My Business posts have very specific requirements as regards the size of the images, which must comply with a minimum of 400 pixels in width and 300 in height. Images and photos must be uploaded in JPG or PNG format. For videos, you must not exceed 100 Mb in file size. Not sure where to find quality photos? Contact our experts at Obiyan Infotech.

4 – Up to 300 words can be inserted in the posts, but if you don’t click on them, the first 100 characters or so are those that are displayed in the Knowledge Panel, so it is important to concentrate on the message you want to give immediately, to then deepen it later, in order not to risk it being cut. But as you can see in the previous image if you make an Event, Google cuts the text even more (because it adds the start and end date and the title of the event), practically leaving only one line and, therefore, fewer characters available … Below is an example of a Post that is not an Event, therefore with more text available:

5 – If you publish more than one Google My Business post, the last messages will be those that will be displayed on the left, and first, all the others (maximum 10) will be displayed in a carousel to scroll horizontally. So be careful to publish the posts that you think are most important for your business last. Here is an example of posts displayed in the carousel, with the most recently published one on the left:

6 – Google My Business posts have unique URLs that you can share by clicking on the posts.

7 – Google My Business posts are only displayed for seven days; then, automatically, they will no longer be displayed in the Knowledge Panel. Be careful, though, if you do an event with an expiration date, the post will be displayed until the expiration date, so well beyond the standard seven days. Furthermore, from mobile, if you click on the post, the expired ones will also be displayed in a scrollable list, while this does not happen from the desktop. UPDATE: from November 2017, the old posts, now expired, are also displayed on the desktop, but you will have to click on the last active post to see the complete list of the previous ones. Furthermore, at the moment, there is no possibility of scheduling the publication of posts.

8 – GIFs and animated videos for Google My Business Posts are not currently supported. Then use images that can immediately attract users’ attention in relation to the objectives you want to achieve.

9 – Unlike Google Plus posts, post URLs are not indexed by Google, but they are still a powerful means of communication for local businesses as you have the ability to display news and offers immediately on the front page in relation to local results!

Still, it seems that Google is also working to allow chain stores and franchises to publish posts simultaneously in different locations. This very interesting feature would avoid writing the same posts for each location and possibly for dozens of locations, all with great time-saving!

Are you running a local Business, and are you using or planning to use the new Google My Business Posts? Rely on Obiyan Infotech to create and guide you on the creation of Google posts for your business!