--- title: "Google My Business Posts: What a Neighbourhood Business Should Post" description: "Google My Business posts for a neighbourhood shop: what to post as an update, event or offer, which launch button to pick, and a simple weekly routine." canonical: "https://socialinfluencebuilder.com/en/blog/google-my-business-posts-neighbourhood/" lastmod: "2017-07-02T12:33:00+00:00" lang: "en-CA" format: "markdown" --- HTML version: # Google My Business Posts: What a Neighbourhood Business Should Post > **Archive note.** This article describes the situation as it stood when it was published. The rules, tools and features it mentions may have changed since. Check the current information with the official source before acting. Google My Business posts: short, dated news a customer can act on this week, such as changed hours, an event or a time-limited offer. I run Social Influence Builder out of Mascouche, and lately the small business owners I work with across Greater Montréal have all asked the same thing after spotting the Posts option in their dashboard: what am I actually supposed to put here? The honest answer is that a post earns its place when it carries the one thing happening now that a customer nearby could act on before the week is out. ## Google My Business posts: what a neighbourhood business should post and where it shows Google My Business posts are short updates you publish from your listing dashboard, and they surface in your knowledge panel on Google Search and sometimes on Google Maps. Someone searches your business name, sees the post on your listing, and reads it without ever leaving the results page. Keep each post to one clear message: a weekly special, a seasonal hours change, a new service, or a local event you are part of. Everything you publish here is public, so a competitor can read it too, which is a good reason to keep the tone plain and the details accurate. Posts also tend to stand out more on Search than on Maps, so treat them as a Search feature first and a bonus on Maps. ## Update posts: hours changes and short news that drop off after a week Update posts carry short news that does not fit another category, and they drop off your listing after seven days. That short life is the point. A bakery posting its Fête nationale hours, a shop noting it closes early for an inventory day, a quick heads-up about a new arrival: all of it belongs in an update, because none of it needs to live on your listing past the week it matters. | Good for an update post | Not for an update post | | --- | --- | | A temporary hours change | Your permanent service description | | A holiday closure | An offer that runs to a set end date | | A quick announcement | Anything you want up all year | Write one or two sentences, add a photo if you have one, and publish. I tell the owners I work with to set a weekly reminder so a [Google My Business](/en/glossary/#google-business-profile) update is always waiting there, because a listing with no current post looks half-abandoned to the person reading it. ## Event posts: a vente trottoir, a workshop or an in-store tasting Event posts suit anything with a date: a vente trottoir, a workshop or an in-store tasting, and they stay visible until the end date you set. That means you post once and leave it, instead of reposting an update every seven days in the run-up. Give the post three things: 1. A clear title. "Saturday Sidewalk Sale" tells people more than "Come Visit Us" does. 2. The exact start and end date and time. 3. A short description covering what people get, where to show up, and whether they need to register. Picture a boutique on a commercial street running its vente trottoir the last Saturday of the month. One event post, set to end when the sale ends, keeps the news on the listing through the whole build-up and clears itself the moment the day is over. ## Offer posts: a promotion with a clear end date Offer posts announce a time-limited promotion, and the end date you set carries the message: once the date passes, the offer stops showing on your listing. Think of a discount on a slow weekday, or a free add-on with a purchase. When you build one, give it a plain title, that firm end date, a photo, and one of the launch buttons so the reader knows what to do with it. ### Call-to-action buttons: Learn more, Reserve, Sign up, Buy, Get offer Each post can carry one button from a fixed set: Learn more, Reserve, Sign up, Buy or Get offer. The one you pick shapes what happens after someone reads the post, so match it to the goal. Here is how I choose for the businesses I work with: 1. Get offer on a promotion, so the reader can claim the deal in one tap. 2. Reserve for a salon or a clinic, where a booking is the thing that matters. 3. Learn more for news or an explanation that needs a page to land on. Skip Buy unless your website actually completes a sale. A button that promises something the next screen cannot deliver wastes the click you just earned and leaves the visitor annoyed. ## Photos and language: one image and French, English or both in the text Each post takes one image and a short block of text, so choose a clean, well-lit photo of your product, service or shop. A real photo of the counter, the room or the item on the shelf shows the reader the actual place they would be walking into, which a stock image never does. For an offer especially, that honesty is worth more than a polished picture of someone else's storefront. Language depends on your street. In Mascouche and across most of Greater Montréal I write posts in both French and English, either in one post or as two, and I lead with French, which is the sensible default here in Québec. If your clientele is plainly one language, keep it to that language and do not overthink it. The point is that the person who reads the post understands it at a glance. ## Weekly posting routine for a neighbourhood business A weekly posting routine keeps a neighbourhood listing active: pick one fixed day, rotate the post type, and glance at the last post before you write the next. That rhythm is more useful than any single clever post, because a listing that changes each week gives the person who finds you something current to read. 1. Choose one day a week to write and publish. 2. Rotate the type: an offer one week, an update the next, an event when you have one. 3. Look at how the last post did before you write, so you notice what your neighbours respond to. When I [set up a Google My Business listing](/en/services/google-business-profile/) for a client, I leave them with this weekly routine so the listing always has something current on it. Consistency matters more than volume: one steady post a week is plenty for most neighbourhood shops. Further reading: for a similar project on a small-business site, see [Café Chasca](/en/cafe-chasca/). ## Go further - **Service:** [Google Business Profile Optimization for Montreal Businesses](https://socialinfluencebuilder.com/en/services/google-business-profile/) - **Case study:** [Café Chasca](https://socialinfluencebuilder.com/en/cafe-chasca/) - **Glossary:** [Digital marketing glossary: Google Business Profile](https://socialinfluencebuilder.com/en/glossary/#google-business-profile)