Are Google Posts worth ten minutes a week

Getting found 5 min read

What a Google Post is, where it shows up, what nobody can honestly promise you about ranking, and the four kinds that are actually worth writing.

Somebody has told you that you should be posting on your Google listing. Weekly, they said, or the listing goes stale. You have a truck to load and a quote to send, and the whole thing sounds like homework set by a person who has never had either.

What a Post actually is

Inside your Google Business Profile there is an option to add an update. You get a short piece of text, usually a photo, and optionally a button that says something like call now or learn more.

It is a small notice that attaches to your listing, not a blog and not an advert you pay for, and it takes about as long to write as a text message to a customer.

Where it shows up, and where it does not

Your Post is not pushed out to anybody, and nobody's phone lights up. It sits on your listing and it is seen by people who were already looking at you.

That means the audience is small and unusually valuable: somebody who has searched your name or your trade, has your listing on the screen, and is deciding whether to tap the number. A Post is the last thing they read before they decide.

So Posts are a way to answer the person already standing at the counter, not a way to reach new people.

What nobody can honestly promise you

You will be told that posting weekly improves your ranking. Nobody outside Google can prove that to you, and neither can we. Anybody who quotes you a percentage has made it up.

A Post gives a person one more current, specific thing to read about you. A listing that says "back from vacation, taking bookings for October" reads like a business that is open, in a way that an empty listing does not.

If that is worth ten minutes to you, do it. If it is not, that is a defensible answer and you can stop reading here.

The four kinds worth writing

The job you just finished. One photograph, one sentence about what was wrong and what you did. This is the strongest kind by a distance, and you are already taking the photo for your own records.

The thing that has changed. Closed the Friday after Thanksgiving. New number. Taking on drain work now. Booked up until the eleventh. Anything a regular customer would want to know before calling.

The question you answered three times this month. Whether you charge for a service call. How soon you can come. What you need access to. Write the answer once and let the listing say it.

The seasonal notice. Furnace checks before the cold. Gutters before the leaves. Not a sale, just the reminder that the season has arrived and you are the person who deals with it.

What a Post should look like

Keep it to two or three sentences, the first of which says the thing, because the rest is cut off on a phone.

One real photograph of your own work, not a stock picture of a smiling stranger with a wrench. If you have no photo for this one, use no photo. And leave the button off unless it goes somewhere that works on a phone, because a button that opens a page that no longer loads is worse than no button.

No exclamation marks, no offers you would not honor, and no counting down to anything.

How long they stay up

Google has changed the rules on this more than once, so treat the top of the pile as the only slot that matters. Event and offer Posts fall away when the date passes. General updates hang around longer than they used to but slide down as new ones arrive.

In practice, what you posted most recently is what people see. An old Post about last winter still sitting on top says something you did not mean to say.

When to skip Posts entirely

If your listing has three photographs and eleven reviews, Posts are the wrong job. Photographs and reviews are read first and by more people, and both keep working while you sleep.

Get the number right, get the hours right, get a set of real photographs up, and get a habit of asking for reviews going. If all of that is done and you still have ten minutes, spend them here. If it is not, spend them there instead. Nobody needs to pay anybody for this part.

A checklist for the ten minutes

• Take the photo while you are still on the job
• Lead with the fact, in the first sentence
• Two or three sentences, then stop
• One photo of your own work, or none
• Add a button only if the page it opens works on a phone
• Post when something has actually changed, not on a schedule
• Take down offers and events once the date has passed
• Check what is sitting at the top of your listing once a month
• Do photos and reviews first if either is thin

Questions people ask

How often should I post

When you have something true to say. Every two weeks is a fine rhythm for a trade. Weekly posting with nothing to report produces filler, and filler is read as filler.

Do Google Posts help me rank higher

Nobody can honestly tell you that, including the person who sold you a weekly package. The defensible reason to post is that it gives a person deciding about you something current to read.

Can I use the same post I put on Facebook

Yes, with the first line rewritten. Facebook rewards a bit of chat, and a Google Post is read by someone mid-decision, so cut the wind-up and start with the fact.

What should a plumber post about

The bathroom you finished on Tuesday, the fact that you now do drains, the week you are booked to, and the answer to whether you charge for coming out. Four Posts, and you have covered a month.

Should I pay somebody to post for me

Only if the alternative is that nothing gets posted at all. This is a job you can do from your phone in the van, and the ten minutes is the entire cost.

My listing looks empty, what do I fix first

The phone number, then the hours, then photographs, then reviews. Posts come after all of those, and hours that are wrong on a holiday cost you more than an empty Posts section ever will.