What to actually post to your Google Business Profile

Open your Google Business Profile right now and check the date on your last post. If it says nothing, or if it says something from three months ago, that gap is doing quiet damage — not because Google punishes silence directly, but because an active profile is one of the signals separating a business Google trusts from one it is guessing about.

Most dealers who do post fall into a second trap: an automated feed that pushes the same inventory photo every day with a caption that's just a VIN and a price. That is not nothing, but it reads to a shopper exactly like nothing.

Why posts matter more than they look

A Google Business Profile post expires after seven days. That expiry is the point — it forces a business to either stay active or visibly go quiet. A profile with a live post from yesterday next to one whose last post was in the spring sends a different signal to anyone comparing two dealers side by side in the map pack.

The post itself gets modest reach. What it protects is worse to lose than it is valuable to have — a profile that looks abandoned.

What actually performs

• Offers, not inventory. "$1,500 below MSRP on remaining 2025 Tucsons" beats a single-vehicle listing every time. Offer posts get their own button and stand out visually from the feed.
• Events, real ones. A Saturday test-drive event, a service clinic, a trade-in week. Give it a start and end date — Google requires it, and it also makes the post feel time-bound instead of evergreen filler.
• One clear photo, not a collage. A real photo from your lot — a truck row, a delivery, the showroom — outperforms a stock graphic. The algorithm can't tell stock from real, but shoppers scrolling past can, and they scroll past stock.
• A call to action that matches the post. "Learn more" for an offer, "Book" for a service post. Mismatched CTAs read as an afterthought.

A cadence that survives a busy month

Twice a week is enough to keep the profile visibly alive without becoming a chore nobody owns. One offer or inventory highlight, one event or behind-the-scenes photo. Assign it to the same person who handles social — the content usually already exists, it just needs fifteen minutes to repurpose.

What to measure

Google shows post-level views and clicks inside the profile dashboard. Ignore the raw view count — it is mostly a function of how much search traffic you already get. Compare click-through rate between offer posts and inventory posts instead. Most stores find offers outperform by two or three times, and stop wasting the slot on VIN dumps once they see the number.