Google Posts
Article Suggestion: Revealing the Potential of Google Business Posts for Enhanced Online Presence
Navigate to Posts
Click on ''Create Post'' and select ''Google''
Currently, we offer two types of Google Posts: Updates or Offers
Select on which Post type you would like to create
Add a Title (for internal use only)
Select all locations you would like this Update or Offer to go out to
Add the text of your post
Add a call to action ( article on CTA)
Click ''Publish''
You have up to 1,500 characters for the details of your post, but the ideal length is between 150-300 characters.
All uploaded media must meet the following size requirements:
Image has to be minimum 250x250
Image file must be less than 4 MB (Larger images will be auto-resized to fit google's requirement)
Image file must be at least 10240 bytes
Recommended format for images is landscape.
Please check the Posts Content Policy of Google here.
Go to the published Google post you'd like to update
Click on the edit icon in the top right corner
Here you can edit all fields, including image, except for the "Post Type" field (changing an Offer Post to an Update or Update Post to an Offer)
Once you are happy with your changes, click "Publish"
Google stopped providing insights for its Local Posts feature, so views and impressions for Google posts are not visible in PinMeTo (or any other platform). However, we will be providing some helpful insights and continue reading below for good alternatives on how to track clicks.
Published Posts (coming soon): The total published posts across your connected Google Listings during the selected time period. Example 1: If you create one post in Posts and publish it to 70 Google Listings, it will count as 70 posts. Example 2: Imported posts published directly via Google are also included. Each page post published this way counts as one post.
Page Activity (coming soon): The number of locations that have had a least one post to their Google Listing during your selected time period. Example 1: Your business has 55 connected Listings on Google and you have access to them all. If you look at the last month and see 45/56 active Listings, this means that 45 Listings had at least 1 post last month. Feel free to use filters to narrow your search based on your interests.
We have seen some accounts have posts rejected for various reasons. Google’s content policy recommends the following to prevent having posts rejected:
Refrain from posting images that contain excessive amounts of text.
Do not include phone numbers in the post message field. Use the "Call Now CTA" instead.
Do not use hashtags in Google post message field.
Be mindful when including links as Google may reject suspicious links.
For a list of prohibited content, please read here.
Post visibility and best practices:
Previews of Google posts remain visible on search results for up to six months, so consistent activity is essential to building continuous engagement.
After six months, the posts can still be viewed but users must navigate to the From the Owner or Updates section of your business profile in order to see them.
In real-world use, we've noticed some differences between Update (standard) and Offer posts. Although, there is a strong advantage of posting an offer to set start and end dates, terms and conditions, and coupon details, Offer posts don't seem to be shown directly on the search results page contrary to what Google describes about their behaviour.
If this reflects your experience, an alternative to increase the visibility of promotional offers is to create a standard Update post including the offer details in the image or message content (e.g. 20% off all items store-wide this week). Reminder that we recommend images with 16:9 aspect ratio to avoid unwanted image cropping in search results.
Tracking clicks:
Google stopped providing insights for its Local Posts feature, so views and impressions for Google posts are not visible in PinMeTo (or any other platform). However, you can still track clicks on links used in post Calls-To-Action in these scenarios:
If linking directly to your web site and you have analytics tools (e.g. Google Analytics) integrated, you will be able to track incoming traffic to your web site.
Additional template tags are available specific to CTA links. For example, use {{storeId}} to point to resources distinct to each selected location for your post (e.g. https: //yourdomain/123456). Use the {{homepage}} tag to retrieve the homepage associated with a location from your Listings data.
Also make sure to select an appropriate CTA button title that is relevant to the desired customer action.
Finally, you can use UTM tags to provide more precise attribution insights (e.g. https: //yourdomain/123456?utm_source=google&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=xmas).
Creating a Google Business Post
Navigate to Posts
Click on ''Create Post'' and select ''Google''
Currently, we offer two types of Google Posts: Updates or Offers
Select on which Post type you would like to create
Add a Title (for internal use only)
Select all locations you would like this Update or Offer to go out to
Add the text of your post
Add a call to action ( article on CTA)
Click ''Publish''
You have up to 1,500 characters for the details of your post, but the ideal length is between 150-300 characters.
All uploaded media must meet the following size requirements:
Image has to be minimum 250x250
Image file must be less than 4 MB (Larger images will be auto-resized to fit google's requirement)
Image file must be at least 10240 bytes
Recommended format for images is landscape.
Please check the Posts Content Policy of Google here.
Editing a published Google Business Post
Go to the published Google post you'd like to update
Click on the edit icon in the top right corner
Here you can edit all fields, including image, except for the "Post Type" field (changing an Offer Post to an Update or Update Post to an Offer)
Once you are happy with your changes, click "Publish"
What metrics can I track for Google Posts?
Google stopped providing insights for its Local Posts feature, so views and impressions for Google posts are not visible in PinMeTo (or any other platform). However, we will be providing some helpful insights and continue reading below for good alternatives on how to track clicks.
Published Posts (coming soon): The total published posts across your connected Google Listings during the selected time period. Example 1: If you create one post in Posts and publish it to 70 Google Listings, it will count as 70 posts. Example 2: Imported posts published directly via Google are also included. Each page post published this way counts as one post.
Page Activity (coming soon): The number of locations that have had a least one post to their Google Listing during your selected time period. Example 1: Your business has 55 connected Listings on Google and you have access to them all. If you look at the last month and see 45/56 active Listings, this means that 45 Listings had at least 1 post last month. Feel free to use filters to narrow your search based on your interests.
IMPORTANT – Tips, Recommendations and Cautions
We have seen some accounts have posts rejected for various reasons. Google’s content policy recommends the following to prevent having posts rejected:
Refrain from posting images that contain excessive amounts of text.
Do not include phone numbers in the post message field. Use the "Call Now CTA" instead.
Do not use hashtags in Google post message field.
Be mindful when including links as Google may reject suspicious links.
For a list of prohibited content, please read here.
Post visibility and best practices:
Previews of Google posts remain visible on search results for up to six months, so consistent activity is essential to building continuous engagement.
After six months, the posts can still be viewed but users must navigate to the From the Owner or Updates section of your business profile in order to see them.
In real-world use, we've noticed some differences between Update (standard) and Offer posts. Although, there is a strong advantage of posting an offer to set start and end dates, terms and conditions, and coupon details, Offer posts don't seem to be shown directly on the search results page contrary to what Google describes about their behaviour.
If this reflects your experience, an alternative to increase the visibility of promotional offers is to create a standard Update post including the offer details in the image or message content (e.g. 20% off all items store-wide this week). Reminder that we recommend images with 16:9 aspect ratio to avoid unwanted image cropping in search results.
Tracking clicks:
Google stopped providing insights for its Local Posts feature, so views and impressions for Google posts are not visible in PinMeTo (or any other platform). However, you can still track clicks on links used in post Calls-To-Action in these scenarios:
If linking directly to your web site and you have analytics tools (e.g. Google Analytics) integrated, you will be able to track incoming traffic to your web site.
Additional template tags are available specific to CTA links. For example, use {{storeId}} to point to resources distinct to each selected location for your post (e.g. https: //yourdomain/123456). Use the {{homepage}} tag to retrieve the homepage associated with a location from your Listings data.
Also make sure to select an appropriate CTA button title that is relevant to the desired customer action.
Finally, you can use UTM tags to provide more precise attribution insights (e.g. https: //yourdomain/123456?utm_source=google&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=xmas).
Updated on: 05/12/2024
Thank you!