Transcript
Google My Business: Who, What, Where, When & Why To Posting
When it comes to posting, you have to think of Google My Business as a social profile. It kind of goes back to the days of Google Plus, and now, Google has decided that consistent posting is part of their algorithm.
There are some opinions on the frequency of when and where you should post and what you should post. BrightLocal, a tool we use to keep an eye on clients’ rankings, citations, and Google My Business, has a wonderful post guideline that they’ve published in September of 2021. This outlines profile posts, what they are and how long they’re active, etc. You can read more about it here:
Originally, posts used to expire seven days after posting, but this was removed in January of 2021. And now, when you post, it will just stay up there. When you post, one of the things that Google likes to see is that your page is updated. There is some controversy like what I’ve said earlier, and what we do is share what we use on Facebook to Google My Business.
Many people will say you’re not supposed to do that, but in my data, I have never found a negative impact on rankings by doing this. That said, I don’t have the data for the thousands of locations that BrightLocal can pull anonymously. What I would do is follow what they say even though there’s a little bit more flexibility, in my opinion.
Who will see your posts?
This is the tea. When people search for something, they will usually click on the website, directions, socials like Facebook or Instagram, and very rarely will they go over your Google My Business posts. However, posting here helps, and it’s part of optimizing your Google My Business Profile.
What can you post?
You can post anything that’s happening in your location. For example, if you have any offers, limited-time sales, new services, events, or anything relevant to your business, you can put that there. This is pretty self-explanatory but make sure that you review the guidelines and avoid posting content that are inappropriate, obscene, profane, violent, sexually explicit, etc.
Where do they appear?
Google My Business Posts appear below the fold. This is because they’re not at the top like your photos, and everything aside from this is more important. However, this is part of their algorithm.
When do you need to post?
We usually do three posts a week, and it’s enough to just kind of keep the platform’s going because it’s not the focus of our comprehensive strategy with these clients. That said, don’t feel pressured as well. If you only do one week, that’s fine. It is what it is. It’s way more important to have reviews than posting regularly on social on Google My Business (this we will talk about at another time).
In scheduling, we use Social Pilot, but you could use any sort of third-party tool that does social media posting to post to Google My Business. They will be there, evergreen, and if no posts have been made in six months, they will show a few previous updates on Google. However, they appear in the order that you publish them, similar to Instagram.
Why do you need to do this?
Our strategy uses Google ads and SEO and then a converting website because that brings them the best return on investment. Social media is kind of just something we add on top of it.
Google My Business Posts do appear at the bottom, but it’s still it’s kind of one of those things that you need to do in the background. They’re not getting as high click-through rates as they used to, but they do get a click-through rate. And even if it doesn’t have as big of an impact as it did when it first came out, Google uses it as one factor in ranking.
BONUS: How do you know if it’s working?
If you go into insights, there are three types: Direct, Discovery, and Branded. A lot of it will actually be showing up in Branded because this measures the different elements of the website. Discovery is the metric they use when you appear at the Discover Feed at Google Maps. And if you’re wondering which posts are getting more views or clicks, you can click posts, and it will show the stats there.
You don’t necessarily need a lot of effort to create high click-through rate Google My Business posts because they don’t get the traffic they used to. However, if you have the time, make sure that you go in there and do the posts or get things scheduled out. Please don’t leave it completely empty and make it a part of your SEO optimization plan. Be careful about looking at vanity metrics and if you’re limited time or limited funds, keep it to the bare minimum.
And that’s the majority of how to get started on posting on your Google My Business page! Tune in next week as we’re going to talk about reviews. See you next week and have a great day!
