Open the Google Business Profile dashboard and pick “Add update,” and Google offers three post formats: update, offer, and event. Most profiles either ignore the feature or fire off a stream of posts that read as low-effort filler. The gap between a post that earns clicks and one that scrolls past unnoticed is rarely about clever copy. It comes down to matching the post type to what the content actually is, choosing a call-to-action button that fits the action you want, and understanding that Google reads posting activity as one input among many rather than a direct rank lever.
A GBP post is a short content unit (text, an image, an optional CTA button) that publishes to the profile and can surface in Google Search and Maps. Unlike attributes, services, and products, which are persistent profile data, posts are activity signals: they mark that the profile is being actively maintained. That distinction sets up most of what follows.
The three post types and how long each one lives #
Google supports three post types in 2026. Two older formats, COVID-19 updates and standalone product posts, have been retired; product content is now handled through the product editor rather than the post composer.
- Update posts (labeled “Add update” and often called “What’s new” posts) are the general-purpose format for business news, recent work, seasonal content, and announcements.
- Offer posts carry a promotion with a start and end date, optional terms, and an optional coupon code.
- Event posts are tied to a specific event with a date and time range.
The expiration behavior is where a lot of older advice has gone stale, and it is worth correcting directly. For years the rule of thumb was that update posts expired after seven days. Google changed that in early 2021. Update posts no longer expire on a seven-day timer; they stay visible on the profile, ordered newest-first, and get pushed down as newer posts arrive. In practice a post remains reachable for roughly six months before Google tucks older entries behind a “view previous updates” link. Offer and event posts behave differently: they are genuinely date-bounded and stop showing once the offer window closes or the event date passes.
The takeaway is that a single good update post keeps working longer than the old model implied, but it still gets buried by silence: the newest post is what anchors the freshness read, so a profile that posts once and stops looks less active than one that keeps a steady cadence.
Offer posts get the most visibility and the most scrutiny #
Offer posts receive the most prominent surface treatment of the three. They render with offer-specific styling, display the expiration date, and can appear with a “limited time” style badge in local results, making them stand out against plain update posts while they are live.
That visibility comes with a tradeoff: offer posts pass through stricter moderation. The offer field carries claim language (“20% off,” “buy one get one free,” “free consultation”) that Google’s policy systems read for misleading or prohibited promotions, so a post that would sail through as an update can be held or rejected as an offer. Prohibited categories (gambling, certain regulated products) and consumer-protection rules apply more sharply here than to general updates.
Specificity is what clears moderation cleanly. Write the terms tightly, name explicit limits, and give real start and end dates. A post reading “15% off auto repair, October 1 to 15, one per customer, Lincoln Park location only” resolves the ambiguity that vague copy like “great deals all month” leaves open, and it is far less likely to be flagged. For the button, offer posts use a redeem-the-offer link that should point to the specific offer page, not a generic homepage, so the click resolves to what the post promised.
Updates are the default; events and offers are special cases #
Update posts are the workhorse. They cover anything that does not need a date range: a completed project, a new hire, a seasonal note, a behind-the-scenes photo, a service reminder. The format is deliberately loose. A tight 100-character caption on a process photo works; a longer story works too. Because updates no longer expire on a timer, they suit a steady publishing rhythm where each post does not carry a calendar dependency.
Two patterns of update post tend to earn more engagement. First, posts anchored to specific recent work (a finished installation with a before-and-after image, a redacted case result, a hosted event) outperform generic posts about the business, because the specificity gives viewers something concrete to react to. Second, posts that offer a clear next step (call, visit, book) draw more measurable action than posts that close with no button, even when the action is not the main point.
Reserve event and offer posts for content where their structure adds something the update format cannot: a real date range for an event, a real promotional window for an offer. Forcing update-shaped content into the offer format just to get the badge invites extra moderation for no gain.
The CTA button is the lever #
Each post supports an optional call-to-action button drawn from a fixed set: Book, Order online, Buy, Learn more, Sign up, and Call now (offer posts substitute a redeem-offer link). The choice often matters more for measurable engagement than the post copy itself, because it defines the action the post is built to drive.
The options map to different intent levels. “Learn more” is the lowest-commitment choice, suited to awareness content; “Call now” is the highest-commitment choice where a phone conversation closes the lead; “Book” fits service businesses with online booking; “Order online” fits restaurants and retail with e-commerce; “Sign up” supports registration and membership flows. Leaving the button off entirely leaves engagement on the table for most categories, since even an informational update benefits from a “Learn more” button that gives the customer somewhere to go and feeds the click into the activity signal.
The destination URL is where measurement lives. A button pointing at the homepage produces a click but tells you nothing about which post drove it, while buttons pointed at specific landing pages or UTM-tagged URLs enable post-level attribution, the difference between knowing what works and guessing.
How to check where posts surface and what they earn #
Posts surface in three main places, and prominence varies by type and by primary category. Check each surface directly rather than assuming.
- The profile itself shows recent posts in a dedicated section whenever someone opens the listing. Every type appears here during its active window; this is the most reliable surface, independent of category or query.
- Local pack and Map cards show posts inline for some queries, more often when a post is offer- or event-tagged. Update posts surface here less often, and visual categories like restaurants and retail tend to appear more than professional services.
- Branded search can show a recent post in the knowledge panel when the query matches the business name, a high-value surface because a name search is already intent-qualified.
For the return side, the GBP performance insights dashboard splits metrics into impression-level (how many saw the post) and action-level (clicks, calls, direction requests). Action-level numbers indicate real intent and are the more meaningful read: a post with 500 impressions and 25 clicks is doing more than one with 5,000 impressions and 8 clicks. In low-volume markets the honest comparison is the profile’s own baseline, not national benchmarks, and treating small absolute numbers as failure usually means giving up the activity signal that justified posting.
Image, length, and cadence #
Including an image is the single largest predictor of post performance, outperforming text-only posts on both impressions and clicks across nearly every category. It does not have to be polished stock: an in-focus photo of recent work, the interior, or a finished project beats a generic stock image, and it beats a logo-only post, which communicates nothing specific. Text-heavy graphics are the other pattern to avoid, since the readable area is too small on mobile.
Text should be shorter than most businesses write, because posts truncate in search and Maps and anything past the cutoff only reaches users who tap to expand. Put a clear hook in the first 80 to 100 characters and the essential information next. The combination that consistently performs is one strong image, roughly 150 to 200 characters of focused text, and a matched CTA.
Cadence is a freshness input, not a content strategy, so the target is sustainable regularity rather than volume. Weekly posting suits most businesses; some categories fit more (restaurants with daily specials, event venues, retail launches) and some fit less (legal, financial, and specialty medical practices often run monthly without losing visibility). The failure pattern is a burst followed by silence: posting daily for two months then stopping for six reads worse than steady weekly posting, because a sudden drop registers as a profile going quiet. Build a cadence you can hold, twice a month at minimum, before launching rather than midway through.
FAQ #
Do GBP posts directly improve local ranking?
Not directly. Google’s local ranking rests on relevance, distance, and prominence, and it does not name posts as a rank factor. Posts contribute engagement and activity signals that support prominence indirectly, and consistency of the pattern matters more than any single post’s numbers.
Do update posts still expire after seven days?
No. Google removed the seven-day expiry in early 2021. Update posts stay visible newest-first and get pushed down over time, remaining reachable for roughly six months before older ones move behind a “view previous updates” link. Offer and event posts are the ones that are genuinely date-bounded.
Why did my offer post take longer to publish than an update?
Offer posts pass through stricter moderation because the promotional claim is read for misleading or prohibited content. Tight, specific terms with clear dates and limits clear review faster than vague promotional language.
Which CTA button should I use?
Match it to the action the post should drive: “Call now” or “Book” for lead-driven service businesses, “Order online” or “Buy” for retail and restaurants, “Learn more” for awareness content, and a redeem link for offers. Point it at a specific, ideally tagged, landing page so you can attribute the click.
Posts are how a profile shows Google, and its customers, that the business is still active. The category, attributes, and services describe the profile’s structure; posts are its pulse. The mechanics that earn engagement are not mysterious: match the post type to the content shape, include a strong image, keep the text focused, choose a CTA that fits the action, and hold a cadence you can sustain. A profile that posts consistently at adequate quality outperforms one that posts brilliantly but rarely. Cadence carries the strategy, content clears a quality bar, and both matter in that order.