What Are Google Posts? Types, Lifespan & Best Practices

What Are Google Posts?

A Google Post is a short update you publish from your Google Business Profile (GBP) that appears directly on your business listing across Google Search and Google Maps, at no cost. It is not an ad, and it carries no cost-per-click. Posts sit alongside your reviews, photos, hours, and services — free content you control, on the exact surfaces where a local customer is already deciding whether to call you. “Google My Business,” or GMB, is the legacy name; Google renamed the product Google Business Profile on November 4, 2021. For the full picture of what a profile is, see what is a Google Business Profile (GBP).

There are exactly three current post types: Updates (labeled “What’s new”), Offers, and Events (Google, Create or edit a post). An Update is a general announcement — news, a new service, a photo, a “we’re hiring” note. An Offer is a time-bound promotion with a validity window and an optional coupon code. An Event is a dated happening — a sale, an open house, a workshop — that runs from a start date to an end date. All three appear on both Search and Maps, which is the point most owners miss: this is not a social feed nobody sees; it is merchandising space that sits under the map pin, not buried three clicks deep.

You create posts from wherever you manage the profile today: the inline profile-edit panel in Google Search (search your business name while signed in), the Google Maps app, or Business Profile Manager at business.google.com for multi-location accounts. The standalone Google My Business app was discontinued in 2022, so any guide telling you to “download the app” is describing a path that no longer exists.

Search demand for the topic still leans on the legacy name. The head term “google posts” carries the most volume, but “google my business posts” still pulls hundreds of US searches a month — a live signal that the pre-2021 GMB label persists in how people search, and a reason to note the rebrand on first reference.

The MB Adv Agency read: a Google Post is the lowest-effort, highest-placement free content a local business owns. It sits directly beneath the map pin on Search and Maps, and most profiles in most local markets simply leave the slot empty — which is a gift to any competitor willing to fill it.

Key Takeaways

• Google Posts are free updates on your listing, not ads. They publish from your Google Business Profile and show on Search and Maps at no cost — there is no cost-per-click and no ad account required.
• There are exactly three current types. Updates (“What’s new”), Offers, and Events. A separate COVID-19 post type existed from around 2020 but was retired around 2022 — it is gone.
• Posts do not expire after a week. Google retired the roughly 7-day auto-expiry around 2021. A post now stays visible and is archived after 6 months; dated Offers and Events stay live until their end date passes.
• There is no official character or image spec. Google publishes neither. The “1,500 characters” and “400×300px” figures you will see are third-party estimates, not a Google rule.
• Posts are an engagement surface, not a ranking factor. Google documents three local ranking factors — relevance, distance, prominence. Posts can lift clicks and conversions; they are not a documented lever on where you rank.

The Three Current Post Types

Every current Google Post is one of three types, and choosing the right one decides which fields you get and how long the post stays on your profile. The table below sets them side by side; the sections that follow give Offers and Events their own detail, because those two carry the most execution nuance.

Update Posts (“What’s New”)

The Update — labeled “What’s new” in the editor — is the general-purpose post. Use it for a new service, a seasonal note, a staff hire, a fresh photo, or any announcement that is not a dated deal or a scheduled event. An Update takes a headline and body text, a photo or short video, and an optional call-to-action button (“Learn more,” “Call now,” “Book”) pointed at a page you choose. With no date range, an Update stays visible and is archived after 6 months, which makes it the right container for evergreen messages — and a reason to keep them current, because a “Happy 4th of July” Update you forget about is still on your profile in December.

Offer Posts: Put a Promotion on Your Listing

An Offer post is purpose-built for a time-bound deal — “$89 AC tune-up through August,” “20% off new-patient exams,” “free estimate this month.” Beyond the headline and image, the Offer type supports fields a plain Update does not: a start and end date that controls how long it shows, and an optional coupon code, terms and conditions, and a redemption link to a landing page (Google, Create or edit a post).

Because it carries an explicit validity window, an Offer stays live through its end date rather than being archived on the general schedule — which makes it the correct container for anything with a deadline. Create it from the same surfaces you use to manage the profile, add a title and image, set the dates, and publish; it appears on Search and Maps and drops off after the end date passes.

The MB Adv Agency framing, honed on the paid campaigns we run that complement a free GBP: treat an Offer post as the free-listing twin of a promotion you would otherwise only push through ads. Match the offer to real intent — seasonal service specials, first-time-customer incentives, clearance — and always attach the redemption link with UTM tracking so you can see downstream conversions. Set the end date honestly so the profile never shows an expired deal. A seasonal special on your profile pairs naturally with a paid push; see, for a concrete vertical, our HVAC PPC services or dental PPC services.

One caution applies to every post: promotional content still has to obey GBP’s content and restricted-industry rules. Regulated verticals — alcohol, financial services, health — cannot push offers subject to local regulation. Read the overview of GBP content guidelines before publishing a promotion in a regulated field.

Event Posts: Schedule a Dated Happening

An Event post announces something with a date: a grand opening, an open house, a workshop, a live demo, a seasonal sale weekend, a webinar. The Event type requires a title and a start and end date (with optional times), and — the load-bearing mechanic — an Event post stays visible until its end date passes, rather than being archived on the general 6-month schedule (Google, Create or edit a post). That makes Events the correct type for anything you want reliably shown right up to the day it happens.

Scheduling is straightforward: create the Event, set the window, add a photo and a call-to-action button such as “Sign up” or “Learn more” pointing at a registration or details page, and publish. It appears on the profile in Search and Maps immediately and drops off after the end date. If the event changes your open hours that day, pair the Event post with a Special hours entry on the profile (Google, Set special hours) so the listing tells one consistent story.

The MB Adv Agency view for the local businesses we work with: Events are underused because owners assume “posting” means daily social-style updates, when the higher-leverage move is one well-timed Event post per real happening, published a week or two ahead so it accrues visibility before the date. For businesses that lean on foot traffic and appointments, that single post can do more than a month of filler. To understand what actually determines where the listing itself ranks, see optimizing business categories for better visibility, and for a local trade example, our plumbing PPC services.

How Long Posts Last — and Three Rules That Are Wrong

The single highest-value correction on this topic: Google Posts no longer expire after about 7 days. That was true once — the original “What’s new” post had a roughly 7-day auto-expiry — but Google retired that behavior around 2021, and the current rule is that a post stays visible and is archived after 6 months unless you set a shorter date range (Google, Create or edit a post; retirement date reported by Search Engine Land and Sterling Sky). Dated Offers and Events behave more intuitively: they stay live until their end date passes, then move out of the visible slot.

So the real rule is the opposite of the myth: an evergreen Update you publish today is still showing on your profile half a year from now, not next Tuesday. You are not on a weekly treadmill to avoid a blank profile; you are curating what a searcher sees — and stale posts stick around longer than owners expect, which is its own argument for keeping them current. Nearly every pre-2021 tutorial still repeats the 7-day rule, so it is the drift-trap to correct first.

Two more claims from stale guides are simply out of date. First, there is no COVID-19 post type anymore. Google launched a dedicated COVID-19 post type around April 2020 and retired it around 2022 (Search Engine Roundtable); the complete current set is the three types above — nothing else. Any template listing a fourth “COVID-19” or “special announcement” option is describing a removed feature. For an urgent operational message today, use a standard Update and set Special hours if hours change.

Second, Google publishes no official character limit or image-dimension spec for posts. The widely repeated “1,500 characters” and “400×300px” figures trace to bloggers and tools, not to a Google support page — so do not present them as a rule. Posts truncate on the profile with a “Read more” link, so the honest guidance is to front-load your message in the first line or two and use a clear, high-quality landscape image, not to write to an invented cap.

How to Use Posts Effectively

The effective pattern is not “post daily.” It is to keep something current, relevant, and clickable in the slot: lead with a real photo, write a specific headline a searcher would act on, always attach a destination link with UTM tracking, use the right type for the job, and refresh before content goes stale. The table below turns that into a working cadence.

Two honest constraints the thin pages skip. First, you can no longer track how many people saw or clicked an individual post. Post-level insights were removed when Insights became Performance on February 20, 2023 (Google, Performance on your Business Profile). Effectiveness is now inferred from profile-level actions in Performance — calls, direction requests, website clicks — plus the UTM-tagged destination links you attach, tracked in GA4. To measure the actions posts help drive, see understanding Performance reports in GBP.

Second, Google does not document posts as a local ranking factor. Local results are driven by relevance, distance, and prominence (Google, Improve your local ranking); posts are an engagement and conversion surface, not a documented lever on where you rank. For what actually drives the local pack, see how GBP impacts local rankings. The MB Adv Agency read for agency-managed profiles: post because it merchandises your free listing and converts the traffic you already earn — not because it is a ranking hack it is not. Free listings are the organic layer; when a seasonal offer needs to reach beyond existing profile traffic, that is a paid job — see our PPC services or PPC campaign management.

Frequently Asked Questions: Google Posts

Methodology & Sources

This pillar is the best-practices anchor for the Google Posts cluster; it absorbs the older offer and event sub-pages and settles the “what are these, which types exist, do they expire, and how do I use them” questions in one place. The three current post types, the Offer and Event date fields, and the 6-month archive behavior are from Google’s create-a-post help page (support.google.com/business/answer/7342169). The removal of post-level insights in the Insights → Performance transition (February 20, 2023) is from support.google.com/business/answer/9918094; the three local ranking factors from support.google.com/business/answer/7091; Special hours from support.google.com/business/answer/9876800. The retirement of the roughly 7-day expiry (around 2021) and the COVID-19 post type (around 2022) are dated via named local-SEO authorities — Search Engine Land, Sterling Sky, and Search Engine Roundtable — not a Google page. Search-demand figures are from Ahrefs Keywords Explorer (US, July 1, 2026) and are estimates, not Google-published numbers. No mbadv client metrics appear in this article; all agency perspective is qualitative. Reviewed by MB Adv Agency, July 2026.