The short answer
Post at least once every seven days, because that is how long a Google update stays on the profile. Two or three posts a week is where the benefit flattens out for a single-location shop. More than that, and you are spending time that the profile does not reward.
Why seven days is the number
A "What's new" post on Google Business Profile is shown on the profile for seven days, then it moves into the archive where almost nobody looks. If your last post was eight days ago, a customer opening your profile sees no posts at all, which reads as a business that is not paying attention, or not open. Posting weekly means there is always a post showing. That is the entire reason weekly is the floor. The mechanics are in why Google posts expire.
What we see across real profiles
We run profiles for storefronts in New England: phone and console repair shops, a dessert cafe, service businesses. The pattern across them is consistent enough to state plainly.
| Posting rhythm | What the profile looks like | What happens to calls and visits |
|---|---|---|
| Nothing for a month or more | Empty posts tab, stale photos | Profile drifts down the map results, slowly, then noticeably |
| Once a week | Always one post showing | Holds position; the floor |
| Two or three a week | Posts tab looks alive, photos accumulate | Measurable lift in profile views and direction requests over two to three months |
| Daily | Looks like a chain or a bot | No further lift; occasionally posts start getting rejected |
The lift from two or three a week is not from the posts themselves being read. Few people read Google posts. It is from Google treating an active, complete profile as one worth showing, and from the photos and service names accumulating on the profile.
It depends a little on the trade
- Restaurants and cafes: three or four a week is natural, because every dish is a post and hours matter. See social media for restaurants and cafes.
- Repair shops: two a week, each one a job with the device named. See social media for repair shops.
- Service-area businesses such as landscapers: two a week, rotating through the towns served, with the season followed.
- Salons and barbers: two or three, including one availability post the night before a slow day.
Consistency beats volume
A profile that posts every Tuesday for a year beats one that posts daily for a month and then stops. The shops that fail at this do not fail from posting too little in a given week; they fail from stopping. That is the argument for scheduling a month at a time: the decision to post is made once, not fifty-two times. How to do that is in how to schedule Google Business Profile posts.
Batch it, then forget it
The owners who keep this up do not think about posting weekly. They spend one sitting a month approving a batch, and the rest happens on its own. That is a different habit from remembering to post, and it is the one that survives a busy season.
What about Offers and Events?
These do not expire in seven days; they stay until their end date. One running offer at all times is a good habit, because it shows on the profile even in a week you missed. Events, when you have them, should go up two weeks ahead.
What about photos?
Separate from posts, Google shows a profile's photo gallery, and it is more visible than the posts. Add photos monthly at least. Every post with a real photo also lands in the gallery, which is one reason to attach a real photo when you have one.
The honest minimum
If you can only do one thing: one post a week, with the town and a service named, and a real photo. That keeps you off the "possibly closed" list. Everything above that is improvement, not survival.
See it on your own profiles
We are onboarding a small group of shops now, one at a time. Tell us about the shop and we will connect your accounts with you.