In an article about optimizing Google My Business (GMB), Google Posts have already been mentioned. It is a useful tool to get extra visibility within the search engine. Such a post will be displayed within your GMB and on Google Maps.
What are Google Posts?
Google Posts are actually a kind of mini-blogs that you publish within your GMB listing. This is therefore displayed directly in Google Maps. A post consists of an image or video, text and a Call-to-Action. Without visitors already being on your website, you can already inform them what something is about. In such posts you can highlight an action, event or product. That way you are able to give potential visitors just an extra push to click through to your website. Each post is visible for a week and is automatically deleted after this time. However, you can display multiple posts at the same time.
What do Google Posts consist of?
Google Posts includes the following components. These must be entered manually when creating a post:
1. Titel
It is only possible to add a title for offers or events. It can be up to 58 characters long. Here you can create a beautiful seductive title that ensures that people click through to your website or webshop.
2. Images
It is also possible to add an image to the post. You can compare this with the featured image you may know from a blog article. Make this image stand out, because a good image says more than 1000 words. The ideal size is 750px by 750px.
3. Description
In the description you describe what the posts entail. Here you can describe in up to 1500 characters what the posts are about. Ideally, it should contain 150 to 300 characters, otherwise the text will be truncated. For example, it is not displayed in its entirety within the search engine. Only when someone clicks on the posts can they see the rest of them.
4. Call to Action (CTA)
A CTA should encourage action. There are standard CTAs available for you to choose from. These are:
- Books
- Order Online
- Buy
- More Information
- Call Now
You can then give this CTA a link, so that when a link is clicked, it points to your website.
Types of Google Posts
There are different types of Google Posts available. It is important that the species matches the purpose you have in mind for the posts.
1. Products
This species allows you to display products on your GMB listing. The additional parts can be given to this are price and product category.
2. News
In this type you can, for example, highlight news or a product or project.
3. Actions
With these types of posts you can promote events and make them more visible. For example, if your company has an open day, this can be shown here. This is the only species that can be displayed for more than 7 days.
4. Offers
These types of posts allow you to highlight offers. Here you can enter a start and end date, so that when the offer has ended it will be removed from the Google Posts section.
How to create a Google Posts?
It is quite easy to create a Google Posts. Creating a post looks like this:
Sign in to Google My Business.
- Choose the right company for the post if there are more companies in it.
- In the left menu it says: “Posts”. Click on it.
- At the top of the page you can now select the type of post. Click in the type you would like to create.
- Then fill in all the necessary information needed for as complete a post as possible.
- Now that you’ve filled in everything, you can preview in preview mode. You can do this by clicking on “Preview”.
- When this is completely to your liking, press publish.
- Voila! Your posts are online.
Benefits of Google Posts
By using Google Posts you increase the visibility in the search engines. It also increases the chance for local findability. By using this, you increase the chance that people will click through to your website, and all for free!
In short, Google posts provide:
More visibility within Google
More chance of local findability
Less bounce rate because you give potential visitors pre-targeted information
Easily view statistics such as click-through rate and number of views
