01The three post types, and what each one needs
Google's help page on posts names three types. An update is the open one: a description, an optional photo or video, and an action button that can send people to book, order online or read more. An offer is for a sale or a deal and requires a title, dates and a time. It gets a View Offer button automatically, and a coupon code and terms are optional. An event requires a title plus start and end dates, and if you leave out the times it shows as lasting 24 hours on those dates. Posts appear on Search and Maps, in the Updates or Overview tab on mobile and in the 'From the owner' section on desktop. Most weeks you have no sale and no event, so the update does most of the work.
- Update: a description, an optional photo or video, one action button
- Offer: title, dates and time are required; the View Offer button is added for you
- Event: title, start and end dates; without times it shows as 24 hours
- A hotel cannot create offer posts at all, per Google's content policy
02A weekly routine that fits in ten minutes
Google gives no number for how often to post, so the rhythm below is our suggestion, not a rule. Pick one post a week and make it about something that changed or something a customer asked this week: a finished job, a new item, holiday hours, a slot that just opened. Take the photo yourself at the real location. Google asks for photos that are in focus and well lit, with no significant alterations or excessive filters, and says the image should represent reality. In our reading that rules out stock images. If you want to batch the work, the help page says you can schedule a post for later or set it to repeat, though repeating the identical post every week is a bad use of that.
- One update a week with a photo from this week; an offer or event only when you have real dates
- Once a month, add a few new photos to the profile itself, separate from posts
- Photos are JPG or PNG, 10 KB to 5 MB, recommended 720 by 720 px; videos run up to 30 seconds and 75 MB
- Allow 24 to 48 hours before new photos and videos show on the profile
- Reply to new reviews in the same sitting (see our post on getting more Google reviews)
03What gets a post rejected
Google checks posts against its content policy, and the status tells you the result: Live, Pending or Not approved. A question mark next to Not approved names the policy that was broken. The rule that catches ordinary businesses is contact details. Google says posts with a phone number in the description might get rejected, and that it may remove posts with unverified contact information, which includes phone numbers, email addresses and social media handles. Attach a Call now button instead, which uses your verified number. Link only to trusted sites. A business selling regulated goods may still post but should leave out content about the products; Google's list includes health and medical devices, financial services, alcohol and tobacco.
- No phone number, email address or social handle in the post text; use the Call now button
- Fill in the details: a descriptive title, event times, offer terms
- No misspellings, filler or auto-generated content with no value
- Search Engine Journal reported in 2022 that Google added duplicate photos, posts, videos and logos to the spam list, so write a new post each week and check the current policy page
04What posts will not do, and what happened to Q&A
Google's page on local ranking says results are mainly based on relevance, distance and popularity, and it does not mention posts. It does say that businesses with complete and accurate info are more likely to show up, and that more reviews and positive ratings can help. So no source we opened says weekly posting raises your position, and we will not claim it. The case for posting is simpler: a customer who already found you sees today's hours, offer or event. Posts older than six months are archived unless a date range is set. On Q&A, Google's developer deprecation schedule says the Q&A API was discontinued on 3 November 2025 and says nothing about the feature on profiles. BrightLocal, updated April 2026, reports that Google has replaced Q&A with Ask Maps, which it says was available only in the USA and India as of March 2026. Check your own profile, and do not build a weekly task around Q&A.
- Google's ranking page names relevance, distance and popularity; posts are not mentioned
- Complete, accurate info and more reviews are the things that page ties to showing up
- Posts older than six months are archived unless you set a date range
- Put answers to repeated questions on your website and in the profile fields, not in a Q&A habit
- Sources we read: support.google.com/business/answer/7662907, support.google.com/business/answer/7213077, support.google.com/business/answer/6103862, support.google.com/business/answer/7091, developers.google.com/my-business/content/sunset-dates, brightlocal.com/learn/google-q-and-a/, searchenginejournal.com/google-avoid-duplicate-content-in-business-profile-posts/460863/
05Where PROOF48 is the wrong choice
A weekly post is ten minutes of work and needs no tool. If you or someone on your team can take a phone photo and type three sentences, do it yourself. PROOF48's FOUND plan, at 297 EUR a month, includes Google Business Profile management, but this article does not state how many posts that covers, so ask any provider, us included, what the management contains before you pay. If the website the post button points to is broken or missing, fix that first: a business website of up to about five pages costs 500 to 2,500 EUR, is built in 48 hours and is paid for only after you have seen the preview.
- Ten minutes a week and a phone: do it yourself
- FOUND, 297 EUR a month: Google Business Profile management, local SEO for 5 keywords, monthly ranking report
- Ask any provider what profile management includes; we state no post count here
- Broken or missing website: 500 to 2,500 EUR, 48 hours, paid after the preview
A page per service is a year of weekly posts
SCP Shine & Style is a beauty salon on Strada Baba Novac in Sector 3, Bucharest. The build gave every service its own page and shipped 21 salon video clips. For a Business Profile that is a stock of weekly material: one service a week, one photo or clip, an action button pointing at that service's page. That is our reading of the build, not a record of what the salon posts. The case study does not say what is on its Business Profile, and we publish no booking or ranking figures for it, because we do not measure them.
See the build: SCP Shine & StyleQuestions, answered
How often should I post on Google Business Profile?
Google's help page gives no number. We suggest one post a week, because it is a pace most owners can keep up for a year.
Do Google Business Profile posts expire?
Google's help page says posts older than 6 months are archived unless a date range is set. Offers and events carry dates, so set them correctly.
Do posts improve my local ranking?
Google's page on local ranking names relevance, distance and popularity and does not mention posts. We have found no Google source that says posting raises a position.
Can I put my phone number in a post?
Google says posts with a phone number it cannot verify as yours might get rejected. Attach a Call now button instead, which uses your verified Business Profile number.
Does PROOF48 promise a position on Google?
No. Nobody controls Google's ranking, and Google says there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking.
Where PROOF48 fits
Post one real thing a week: an update with your own photo, or an offer or event with true dates. Keep phone numbers out of the text, never paste the same post twice, and expect no position from it, because the Google pages we read do not list posts as a ranking factor. PROOF48's FOUND plan, at 297 EUR a month, manages the profile, and the weekly post itself is ten minutes you can do free.
Cosmin Tiu · Founder, PROOF48
Cosmin has worked in online marketing and software development since 2018, and has built with AI every day since January 2023. He still writes code from scratch daily, in Python, React, Rust and C#. PROOF48 ships business websites in 48 hours and invoices afterwards, so every opinion on this blog was paid for in real builds, not in theory.