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When it comes to local SEO, most businesses (or SEO & marketing specialists working for said businesses) are constantly asking themselves this question: “what else can I do to my Google Business Profile (GBP) to help rank it better for local search?”
That’s all great, but in my experience, it’s part of an overall problem with the “mindset” of a lot of marketers when it comes to SEO – it focuses on just the ranking of a GBP, and not the possible value it adds to a user, aka a potential customer.
Not An SEO Hack
Everyday, I log into LinkedIn and see an endless scroll of SEO hacks, tricks, tips, checklists, dos and don’ts – you get the picture. It never ends.
What I don’t see, or only see once in a blue moon, is an SEO – especially in the local SEO / brick-and-motor space – talking about anything that uses the tools of GBP to send a clear message to the user that the business they found actually offers a real product or service that they should consider buying. That’s where your GBP update feature comes in handy – as a great tool for conversions!
About Google Business Profile Updates
GBP provides an Update/Post feature that gives businesses a mini‑blog on Google. These posts appear in the “Updates” or “Overview” tab on mobile and in the “From the owner” section on desktop.
Posts can contain text, photos or videos, and they allow businesses to share announcements, special offers, events and other news
The feature supports several post types—updates, offers and events—and each type includes optional action buttons that direct users to book, call, order online or learn more
Posts automatically expire after six months (or after seven days for general updates) and are archived unless a date range is set; event and offer posts require start and end dates.
Many choose to do one of two things with the GBP update feature – they either ignore it completely, or they update it “for SEO”. The former makes sense if you are lacking time, resources, structure, or are lazy; the latter is just what I call “doing SEO for SEO’s sake”.
Constantly posting updates to GBP with keyword-stuffed weak content is probably 99% of the time not going to do a damn thing for your SEO. You’ve probably seen these before, full of stock images and AI text that just regurgitates content from the company website.
I’ve been guilty of using the update tool myself in this way, trust me. When a marketer has nothing but the content given to him or her and has a mandate to check off the SEO boxes, it’s understandable.
Thinking Like A User, Not an SEO
But this is where you need to step outside of the “SEO” box, stop thinking about keywords and rankings and SEO BS for a second, and ask yourself the question “what is the point of having a Google Update and how will a user researching a business, product, or service interact with it?
Which brings us back to some Marketing 101 stuff you might have skipped over in class. Google Updates are a quick and easy method of building trust with a potential customer in their product or service. That’s it!
Recently I had an interaction with a service-based business that is just getting started in a very competitive space (high dollar home improvement stuff). They have a brand-new website and GBP, and are in a major US city. Getting traction, in terms of SEO and rankings, is tough right out of the gate.
But you know what? They landed a huge contract last month right from their GBP, not because of the high volume of visitors, but because they were able to convert from the small volume of visitors using quality Google Updates about the business. The customer actually told them it was their Google updates that made them stand out from the rest of the other businesses in the map-pack, despite them having more reviews.
With a combination of project / case studies (with real pictures and visuals, not stock photos), community-event posts (showing their interactions with other businesses in the community), and behind-the-scenes posts about their employees and family – they were able to that not only showcase their work but also convey that, there are in fact human beings behind the business that have feelings and smiles.
This is the kind of stuff that works on social media to builds relationships with customers, and the same applies here with your Google Update tool.
Creating Connections
It’s not about “SEO” – it’s about taking the eyeballs you might get from those searching your product or service and actually reaching them – getting their attention, showing them you and your team are real people offering a real service, and inviting them to be part of the “family”.
That’s how you use the Google Update tool to compliment your other GBP optimization efforts. I got no bulleted list if tips or tricks, there’s no image optimization requirements, no word count, no suggestions. If you’re the SEO or marketer reading this, time to shoot off an email or get on the phone with the business owner.
Post updates that show others who’s behind the business, real examples of that business out in the real world making customers happy, offers that grab real attention, news that people want to read that makes them warm and fuzzy inside, and events that real people are sharing and attending.
How to access the update feature
Sign in and open your Business Profile. Log in to the Google account that manages your business and open your profile via business.google.com or by searching for your business name in Google. Bookmark this link if you haven’t done so yet!
Navigate to Posts/Updates. In the GBP dashboard, select Posts or Add update
Choose a post type. Select Update, Offer or Event and add the relevant information
Updates allow descriptions, images/videos and an action button; offers require a title, date and optional coupon code; events require a title and dates
Customize and publish. Add text, images/videos and choose a call‑to‑action button if needed
When finished, click Post to publish
Posts can be edited or deleted by selecting “More › Edit” or “More › Delete” next to the post
Now get out there and start forging real relationships with your customers!