It’s not exactly “new” news, but if you haven’t kept up on the latest innovations at Google the advent of “posts” for Google My Business Listings may have slipped by you.
What Are Google My Business Posts?
Google My Business posts are essentially temporary promotions that businesses can add which are intended to show up in their knowledge graph and map listings. Here’s what an example looks like:
How Do I Use Google My Business Posts?
Assuming you have a Google My Business page, you simply login and go to your account. On the left hand side of the page you’ll see the option for posts. Click on that and then you have a few different options for setting up your posts, but it’s really quite simple.
- Upload a photo.
- Write your post (100-300 words).
- Make the post an event. This is optional, but if you choose to make it an event you simply have to enter the event title and the starting and ending dates and times.
- Add a button. This allows you to create a call to action and let the user click through to one of your web properties. You have some premade choices of what the button can read, so it needs to be either Learn more, Reserve, Sign up, Buy or Get offer.
- Preview
- Publish
It’s really that easy. The limitation here is that the posts are temporary. At this point they only last a week, so you’ll need to update them regularly if you want them to continue to show in search results.
What Should I Be Doing With Google My Business Posts?
The obvious answer here is that you should be using this new tool to promote yourself. Does your business show up in a lot of map listings? Does your knowledge graph listing show up in a lot of searches for your brand? If so, you’ll want to make sure any current sales, promotions or upcoming events are posted on your listing. This can be a great promotional tool for all kinds of companies from local businesses, online stores, service providers and many more.
One thing that will be important to use this new tool effectively is tracking. The beauty of the button option is that you can put in any kind of URL you want. So, if you’re driving people back to your website you can use a Google URL builder to set the URL up as a campaign and track conversions from your posts. Over time you can use this information to see which posts and promotions are most effective. If you’re sending traffic to your Facebook page or a third party site, you can still use a URL shortener like bit.ly to see how many clicks you get from your post.
How Will You Use Google My Business Posts?
Have you been using Google My Business posts? If not, how are you planning to use them? Please leave a comment and let us know!
Source: Netvantage Marketing