How to schedule Google Business Profile posts

First, what Google gives you

In the Google Business Profile manager, whether on the web or through Google Maps on your phone, you can create three kinds of post: an update (Google calls it "What's new"), an offer, and an event. Each takes text up to 1,500 characters, a photo or video, and a button. When you press publish, it goes live immediately. There is no date picker. Updates drop off the profile's main view after seven days; offers and events stay until their end date.

So "scheduling" a Google post always means using something outside Google.

Way 1: a calendar reminder and the app

Put a repeating reminder on your phone for Tuesday at 9 AM, and when it fires, open Google Maps, tap your business, and post. This costs nothing and works for some owners. It fails for most because the reminder fires during a rush, the post gets skipped, and a skipped Tuesday becomes a skipped month. If you go this way, write five posts in advance in your notes app so the reminder only asks you to paste.

Way 2: a general social media scheduler

Buffer, Hootsuite, SocialPilot, SocialBee, Later and similar tools connect to Google Business Profile and let you queue posts on a calendar. You still write every post and find every photo, but you can do a month in one sitting. Cost runs from about fifteen to a hundred dollars a month depending on the tool and the number of channels. Two things to check before paying: that the tool supports all three Google post types with their buttons, and that it does not resize your photo into a square that crops the interesting part.

Way 3: a scheduler that also writes the posts

This is what Social for Shops does. You tell it what happened at the shop in a sentence, or nothing at all, and it drafts the post with the service and the town, makes an image if you have none, sets the button, and queues it. You approve from your phone. It also sends the same post to Facebook and Instagram and drafts your review replies. The trade-off is that it is built for one storefront, not an agency managing fifty brands. See the Google Business Profile scheduler page for what it does and does not do.

How to schedule with any tool, step by step

1. Connect the right Google account. It must be an owner or manager of the profile. If the profile was set up by a previous employee or an agency, get ownership transferred first; Google has a request form for it.
2. Decide the rhythm. Weekly is the minimum that keeps the profile from looking dormant. Our reasoning is in how often to post.
3. Write posts that name the service and the town. "Same-day iPhone screen repair in Attleboro" ranks; "We're here for you!" does not.
4. Use the right post type. An offer with an end date as an Offer post; an event with dates as an Event post. Google shows them differently and they do not expire in a week.
5. Add a photo of at least 720 by 720 pixels, JPG or PNG. Google rejects tiny images and sometimes silently drops posts with text-heavy images.
6. Set the button and point it at a page on your own site, with a tracking parameter so you can see the clicks.
7. Check the profile after the first scheduled post goes out. Occasionally Google rejects a post for policy reasons and the tool does not tell you.

Mistakes that get posts rejected

• Phone numbers in the post text. Google removes these; use the Call button.
• Words in all capitals, or strings of emoji. Flagged as spam.
• Stock photos. Google's image matching recognises them and the post can be dropped.
• Words in regulated categories, including some medical and financial terms, and for repair shops occasionally the phrase "tech support".
• Links to sites that redirect several times or to social profiles instead of your own page.

Whichever way you choose

The profile that posts every week beats the profile with the better logo. Pick the method you will actually keep up, and if that is honestly none of them, that is the case for having it done for you. Related reading: why Google posts expire and what a repair shop should post.