What to post on Google Business Profile (with ideas)

The short answer

A good Google Business Profile post tells a customer something useful about your business this week. Five habits cover most of it:

1. Pick the right type. An update for news, an offer for a deal with dates, an event for something happening on set days.
2. Post what a customer would ask about. What's new, what's on, what it costs, what changed.
3. Add a real photo. One you took at the business, in focus and well lit.
4. Keep phone numbers and odd links out of the text. Google may reject a post with a phone number, and it blocks unsafe links.
5. Post on a steady rhythm. Once a week is easy to keep and means there is always something recent.

The rest of this guide shows what each type needs, gives ideas for each kind of business, and lists Google's rules for posts and photos, with a link to the Google page for each one.

The three post types Google supports

Google's help page Create & manage posts on your Business Profile lists three types of post (we checked it on 9 October 2026). Each can show text, photos or videos.

Updates

Google describes these simply: "Share info about your business." An update can carry an action button, and Google says that button should send customers to a website where they can complete the action. Use updates for news, new products or services, tips and anything that has no end date.

Offers

An offer needs a title, dates and times. Google adds a "View offer" button by itself, and you can add a coupon code and terms and conditions if you want. Use offers for a real deal with a start and an end: a seasonal discount, a first-visit price, a bundle. Hotels are the exception: Google's posts content policy says hotels can't create offer posts.

Events

An event needs a title, start and end dates, and times. If you leave the times out, Google shows the event as lasting the whole of each day. Events can have an action button too. Use them for open days, workshops, tastings, launches and classes.

How to publish one

1. Go to your Business Profile and choose Posts, then Add post.
2. Choose the type: Update, Offer or Event.
3. Add the parts you want (a photo, a button, a coupon code) and write the text.
4. Choose Post to publish now, or turn on Schedule this post and pick a date and time.

The same editor has a Repeats option for posts that should come back weekly or monthly, and if you manage several profiles you can publish one post to all of them at once. Google reviews every post after you publish it, and posts older than 6 months are archived unless they have a date range.

Google's page doesn't state a length limit. Short wins anyway: put the main point in the first sentence, because people skim.

What to post: ideas by business type

The best posts answer a question a customer has right now. Here are ideas to start from, with the type that fits each. Change the details so they are true for your business.

Restaurants and cafés

• Update: a new dish or a seasonal menu, with a photo of the plate.
• Offer: a lunch deal on weekdays this month, with the dates.
• Event: a tasting night, live music or a holiday set menu.
• Update: changed opening hours for a holiday, so nobody arrives to a closed door.

Trades and home services

• Update: a before-and-after of a recent job, with the area you worked in.
• Update: a seasonal reminder, like servicing a boiler before winter or clearing gutters after autumn.
• Offer: a discount on a service you want more of, for a set number of weeks.
• Update: new areas you now cover, or a new service you added.

Dentists, clinics and therapists

• Update: a short answer to a question patients often ask, like how long a treatment takes.
• Update: a new team member, with a photo and what they specialise in.
• Update: new equipment or a new treatment you now offer.
• Event: an open evening or a free check-up day, if you run one.

Salons, barbers and beauty

• Update: a recent cut, colour or set of nails, photographed in good light.
• Offer: a quiet-day discount, with the days it applies.
• Update: the seasonal look or treatment people are booking now.
• Update: late opening or extra appointments before a holiday.

Shops

• Update: new stock that just arrived, with a photo of it on the shelf.
• Offer: a sale with clear start and end dates.
• Event: a launch, a signing or a late shopping night.
• Update: gift ideas before a holiday, from what you actually sell.

Gyms and studios

• Update: a new class or a new timetable.
• Offer: a first-month price for new members, with the dates.
• Event: a workshop, a challenge or an open day.
• Update: an introduction to one of your coaches.

Hotels and guest houses

Google's posts policy is stricter here: hotels can't create offer posts, and can't create any post that "mentions or includes links to deals, promotions, special offers, or discounts". Post updates and events instead: a renovated room, a new breakfast menu, a local festival nearby, a wedding open day.

Accountants, lawyers and other offices

• Update: a reminder of a deadline your clients face, like a tax filing date.
• Update: a plain-language answer to a common question.
• Event: a free webinar or a drop-in session.

If you sell regulated goods or services, such as alcohol, tobacco, pharmaceuticals or financial services, Google's posts page says you can still post, but not content about the regulated products themselves. Post about your business, your team and your opening hours instead.

Ideas that work for any business

When you run out of news, these are always true and always useful:

• Behind the scenes. How something is made, prepared or fixed.
• Meet the team. One person, one photo, one line about what they do.
• Answer a question. Pick one you hear every week and answer it in three sentences.
• Recent work. A finished job, a full room, a happy result (with permission if a customer is in the photo).
• Hours and changes. Holiday hours, a new entrance, parking works outside.
• A thank-you. A milestone, an anniversary, a busy season that just ended.

Avoid posting the same text again and again. Google's prohibited and restricted content policy doesn't allow repetitive content on Maps, and repeated posts give customers nothing new to read anyway.

How to write a post people read

• Lead with the point. "New: Saturday opening from 9:00" beats a paragraph of warm-up.
• One idea per post. Two offers in one post means neither gets noticed.
• Be concrete. Dates, times, what is included. A customer should know exactly what to do next.
• Use the button. Point it at the page where the customer can book, order or read more.
• Write it cleanly. Google's posts page asks you to "avoid misspelled words, extra characters, text that adds no value, and auto-generated or distracting content." Read every draft before it goes out, whoever wrote it.
• Keep it respectful. Google asks for family-friendly posts with no offensive language, images or videos.

How often to post

Google doesn't say how often to post. What its posts page does say is that posts older than 6 months are archived unless they have a date range, so a profile that posts rarely soon has nothing to show.

Once a week is a rhythm most small businesses can keep, and it means a customer who opens your profile always sees something recent. If a week is too much, post every two weeks, but keep it regular: a steady habit beats a burst of posts followed by silence. A simple month could look like this:

1. Week 1: an update about something new, with a photo.
2. Week 2: an offer, if you have a real one, or an answer to a common question.
3. Week 3: behind the scenes or meet the team.
4. Week 4: an event, a seasonal reminder or changed hours.

Will posting improve your ranking? Google's page on how local ranking works doesn't mention posts. It says local results are based mainly on relevance, distance and prominence. Post because it gives searchers a reason to choose you, not as a ranking trick.

Photo guidelines

Photos go with your posts, and they also sit in your profile's photo section. Google's pages on managing photos and videos and business-specific photos set these requirements:

• Format: JPG or PNG.
• File size: between 10 KB and 5 MB.
• Resolution: 720 by 720 pixels recommended, 250 by 250 at least.
• Quality: "in focus, well lit, and have no significant alterations or excessive use of filters or AI."
• Videos: up to 30 seconds, up to 75 MB, and 720p or higher.

Which photos to add

Google suggests photos by type. For most of them it asks for at least three:

• Exterior: from each direction customers approach, and at different times of day.
• Interior: what it is really like to stand inside as a customer.
• Products: your most popular items, evenly lit.
• At work: your team providing the services you offer.
• Food and drink: your most popular dishes, evenly lit.
• Team: you and your staff, "a little less formal to humanize your business."
• Common areas and guest rooms: at least one photo of each common area, and at least three of your most popular guest rooms.

What makes a photo useful

Google's tips for posting media to Maps add a few rules of thumb:

• The place should be the main subject, and the photo should be one you took there.
• Avoid screenshots, stock photos, GIFs and collages.
• Avoid adding borders or text on top of the photo.
• Avoid blurry, very dark or rotated images, and heavy filters.

New photos can take 24 to 48 hours to appear, and they only show once your profile is verified. If an upload seems to be missing, Google suggests checking it isn't a duplicate before you try again.

What Google rejects or removes

After you publish, Google reviews the post against its rules, set out on its posts page and in its posts content policy. You will see one of three states: Live (it shows on Search and Maps), Pending (still processing, or your profile isn't verified yet) or Not approved (it broke a policy, and Google marks which one). Reasons Google gives include:

• Phone numbers and contact details. Google says posts with a phone number in the description "might get rejected" if the number can't be verified as belonging to the business, and its posts content policy says it may remove posts with unverified phone numbers, email addresses and social media handles. Keep your number on your profile, not in the post.
• Unsafe links. Links to malware, viruses, phishing or pornographic material aren't allowed. Only link to sites you trust.
• Offensive or adult content. Inappropriate or offensive language, images or videos, and sexually suggestive or explicit content.
• Regulated products. Posts about alcohol, tobacco, pharmaceuticals, financial services and other regulated goods themselves.
• Deals from hotels. Offer posts, or any post mentioning deals or discounts, from a hotel.
• Fake, misleading, off-topic or repetitive content. Google's prohibited and restricted content policy covers everything on Maps, posts included. It also says that, for posts, "offers and updates that may be seen as promotional or commercial content are otherwise permitted", so promoting your own business is fine.

If a post is not approved, fix the part Google points to and publish it again. Don't post the same rejected text over and over.

Keep the rhythm without the work

Knowing what to post is the easy part. Doing it every week, for every location, is where most profiles go quiet. Mekomi's posts and photos feature turns one line from you into a drafted post, checks it against Google's rules and a few of Mekomi's own (no phone numbers in the text, links only on the button, dates on offers and events), publishes it when you planned, and adds your photos a few at a time during opening hours.

Its ranking diagnosis also flags a profile with no post in the last 7 days, next to the other gaps between you and the businesses ranking near you.