Is posting on Google
worth your ten minutes?

You've got a job to run, and somebody keeps telling you to post on Google. Post what? How often? Is it worth the ten minutes? A post is a small tool, not a lever. It helps a customer who already found you decide to call. And Google's own list of things that lift your local ranking doesn't include posting.

A note on the door, not a billboard

Picture a post as a note you tape inside the shop window. The folks who walk up to your door read it. Nobody driving past on the highway does. Google doesn't claim a post pulls new traffic down your street. It talks to the one person already standing at your door, deciding whether to come in. That is what a post is for: small, useful, aimed at a customer who already looked you up.

What Google actually claims a post does

Go to Google's own page on posts and read what it promises. Posts are there to "share announcements, offers, updates, and event details directly with your customers on Search and Maps." And the strongest thing Google says they do? When a customer sees your latest update, "it helps them decide to visit your business."

A decision, not a discovery.

So does posting move you up the map?

Here's the part the "post daily" crowd skips. Google keeps a page listing the things you can actually do to show up better in local results — keep your info current, verify your business, keep your hours right, answer reviews, add photos. Posting is not on it.

That's not us saying posts do nothing. Google simply never put them on the ranking list. The full walk through what really moves the map lives on its own page, why your business isn't showing up — and posting isn't one of those dials.

If a vendor is charging you a monthly fee to post every single day "for the algorithm," that is paying a man to re-tape the same note to your door every morning. Google's own ranking page never asked for a single strip of it.

The three kinds of posts, in plain terms

Google's help page listed three types of post when we checked it in July 2026 — Update, Offer, Event. Here's what each one is for.

• Update. The everyday one. A finished job, a note that you're booked into next month, a heads-up that you're closed Friday. A photo, a line or two of text, maybe a button. This is the one you'll actually use.
• Offer. A deal with a start and end date — say, twenty dollars off a service call, running through March. Use it only if you actually run deals; plenty of good shops never do.
• Event. Something tied to a date and time — a home-show booth, an open house.

A post shows up on your profile when someone pulls you up — in the "Updates" area on a phone, in a "From the owner" spot on a computer. So the audience is exactly who we said: the person who already searched your name and is looking you over.

Put a photo on the Update — a picture of the work does the talking. What's worth shooting, and how to get it onto your profile, is a whole job of its own, and it already has its own page: the contractor's shot list.

How often, really

How often? When you've got something real to show. That's it. There's exactly one clock on it: Google archives a post after six months unless you set a date range. Post again when a job's worth showing, and something recent stays up.

That archive is the only clock on a post. It is not the only rule — posts run under Google's content policies. So keep a post boring: plain text, a photo of the work, no customer's face.

Something worth showing might come up once a month, on a rain day, from the seat of the truck — not a daily chore, not an evening after the kids are down. Ten minutes when you've got them beats a daily habit you'll resent by week two.

Why the how-to you find online is probably wrong

Search "how to post on Google" and plenty of the tutorials won't match your screen. Google keeps changing the furniture: its My Business API sunset list ends post insights in February 2023, and Search Engine Land reported the post creation tool refreshed in August 2025. So any guide built on an old screenshot — or telling you to "watch your post insights" — is arguing with a menu that's gone. Trust Google's own current page, and ignore a tutorial that argues with your screen.

Do this once: one Update this week

Here's the whole thing, start to finish, one time through. If it sticks, good. If it doesn't, you've spent ten minutes, not a monthly fee.

One thing first: this assumes you've already claimed your free listing on Google. Haven't yet? That's the real first step, and it's its own page — claim and set up your listing. Come back here once you're in.

Step 1Pick one job you already shot

Open your camera roll and find one finished job you're proud of. One clean "after" shot is plenty. Nothing on the phone yet? Then the photo is the first job — the photos page covers what to shoot.

Step 2Start an Update on your profile

Open your profile from the Google account that owns it, find your business, and start a post. Pick the "Update" type, not Offer or Event.

Step 3Say it like you'd say it at the counter

Add the photo and a line or two of plain talk — what you did and where, the way you'd tell it at the counter. Something like: "Rehung a storm-torn fascia on the west side today, done before the rain." Or: "New panel in across town, power back by lunch." Pick your own job; there's no sales voice to hit. Then post it.

Step 4Check it in a day

Give it a day, then search your own business name and look for the post. A day is our estimate, not a Google timeline. If it's there, that's it — one Update is live, and whether you ever post again is entirely your call. If it isn't there, work the box below in order.

One Update, start to finishten minutes, once

Picked one finished job you already photographed Signed in and started an Update — not Offer, not Event One photo, one or two plain lines — no sales voice, no customer's face, no readable house number Posted it A day later, searched my name and looked for the post — there, or working the fail box