There’s a free noticeboard sitting inside your Google Business Profile, and I’d bet money yours is empty. Most of the local service businesses I look at have never touched Google Posts, or they used them once in 2022 and forgot. It’s one of the few things in local SEO that costs nothing, takes about four minutes, and almost nobody does.
I’ve been banging on about this one for a couple of years now, and it’s still true. (If you’re also wondering about the trust signals Google looks for beyond your profile, see The EEAT Trust Signals Google Actually Checks.) So let’s fix it.
Google Posts are short updates you publish straight to your Google Business Profile. They show up on your listing when someone searches your business name, and they can appear when people find you in Google Maps.
Think of them as little announcements. A special you’re running, a job you just finished, a question customers keep asking, a reminder that you’re open over the long weekend. They’re not blog posts and they’re not meant to be clever. They’re meant to be current.
Most posts stay live for about seven days before they roll off the front of your profile, which is exactly why the “set and forget” approach doesn’t work here. Offer posts follow the dates you set. Everything else has a shelf life.
Here’s the thing people miss. Google Posts probably aren’t a direct ranking factor, and I’m not going to pretend they are. What they do is contribute to something bigger: your online footprint. Proving to Google that you’re the genuine expert in your field isn’t just about what’s on your website. It’s about what Google can see about you across the web, and a Google Business Profile that’s current, active, and specific about what you do is one of the clearest signals in that picture. What Posts do, practically, is change what happens after someone finds you.
Someone searches “electrician Joondalup”, sees three businesses, and has about eight seconds to pick one. Two of those listings look dormant. Yours has a post from Tuesday showing a switchboard you just upgraded. Which one feels open, active, and worth ringing?
That’s the whole game. Your profile isn’t a phone book entry anymore, it’s a trust page, and posts are the part of it that proves you’re still trading. I wrote about that shift in more detail in Your Google Business Profile Is a Trust Page Now.
There’s a second benefit too. Posting regularly gives Google fresh, specific text about what you actually do and where you do it, in your own words. That’s never a bad thing.
This is the question I get most now, so let’s deal with it properly.
When someone asks ChatGPT or Google’s AI for “a good plumber in Fremantle”, the answer gets built from what’s already out there about you. Your Google Business Profile is one of the loudest, most structured signals about your business that exists. A profile that’s current, complete, and describes your services in plain language is easier for any system to read and repeat.
I’m not going to promise you that posting weekly gets you into AI answers. Nobody honest can promise that. (For a clear-headed look at what AI search actually means for local businesses, see Does AI Search Replace Google for Local Service Businesses?.) What I’ll say is this: the businesses I see getting pulled into those answers didn’t do anything clever. They kept their profile current and answered the questions real customers actually ask. Google Posts are one of the simplest ways to do both.
Fundamentals, not tricks. Same as it’s always been.
Once a week is plenty. Genuinely. If you do one post a week you’ll be ahead of nearly every competitor on your street.
Here’s the rotation I give clients:
Week 1: a job you just did. “Replaced a hot water system in Bayswater yesterday. Two hours, no mess.” Photo of the work. Done.
Week 2: a question you get asked constantly. Whatever you explain on the phone five times a week, write it down. That’s a post.
Week 3: something timely. Open over the long weekend? Storm season coming? Say so.
Week 4: an offer or a service you want more of. Use the Offer post type if there’s a real deal attached. If there isn’t, don’t fake one.
A few rules that make the difference:
People treat Google Posts like social media, get no likes, decide it isn’t working, and stop.
Google Posts aren’t social media. Nobody is scrolling a feed of them. The only people who ever see your post are people who are already looking for a business like yours, right now, with their wallet out. That’s a tiny audience with enormous intent, and it’s the opposite of the social media hustle.
You’re not chasing reach. You’re making sure that when someone finds you at the exact moment they need you, your listing looks alive. That’s a much easier job, and it’s why I like this one so much.
Open your Google Business Profile. Write one post about the last job you finished. Add a photo from your phone. Hit publish. That’s it, you’re now doing something most of your competitors aren’t.
Then do it again next Tuesday.
If you’d rather someone just handled the whole local visibility side of things, that’s exactly what our Local Visibility SEO Package is for. Or if you just want a second opinion on whether your profile is pulling its weight, book a free 15-minute chat and I’ll take a look and tell you straight.
Karen Dauncey has been working in SEO since 2003 and is a recognised expert in Local SEO for professional and service-based businesses across Australia.
She is the founder of Blue Cherry Online Marketing, a Local SEO and Google Ads agency she established in 2008. Through Blue Cherry, Karen has optimised over 1,000 websites and managed millions of dollars in Google Ads spend, giving her a deep understanding of what drives visibility and enquiries for service businesses in a constantly evolving search landscape. Over the past two decades, she has worked with a wide range of local service businesses including trades, allied health, psychologists, childcare centres, naturopaths, accountants, lawyers and many more.
Karen is also the creator of The SEO School, an online SEO course designed to teach business owners how to take control of their own SEO. She regularly delivers educational programs for Local, State and Federal Government and was an advisor for the ASBAS Digital Solutions Program. Her passion for making SEO accessible drives everything she does, from free resources to hands-on training.
Karen has attended search engine conferences in London, Stockholm, Adelaide and Sydney, and was invited to attend a pilot Business Coaching Course at Google's Head Office. She holds a Diploma in Marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing in the UK.
She is also the co-owner of the Digital Experts Directory, an online directory for female service-based businesses.
To keep up to date with the latest in SEO, join her Facebook group The SEO School Community or follow her on Facebook or LinkedIn.
Last month I was doing a website review with an electrician who’d been in business for nineteen years, and within ten minutes of talking to him I had a pretty clear picture of what made him worth hiring. He knew his stuff inside out, his customers sent him referrals constantly, and he could tell me […]
A physiotherapist I work with sent me a screenshot in May with a message that said: “Why is she showing up and I’m not?” She’d been treating sports injuries in her suburb for sixteen years. Her clinic has a waiting list. Her reviews are consistently glowing and specific. When she searched for physiotherapists in her […]
I got a call from a roofing client a few months back, and I could hear the worry in his voice before he’d finished saying hello. He’d spent his Saturday morning reading articles about AI killing Google, and by the time he called me he was ready to cancel his SEO retainer. “If Google’s being […]
