Google Business Profile Posts for UK Trades: Examples and Ad Rules
Google Business Profile posts are short updates that appear on your profile in Search and Maps, giving you a place to promote offers, events and products and to put a clear call to action in front of people already looking for your trade. They keep a profile looking active and give customers a quick route to call, book or visit. You can create an Update, Offer or Event in minutes and schedule it ahead.
TL;DR:
- Use Updates for untimed news, Events for scheduled gatherings, and Product posts to showcase a specific item or range customers can browse.
- Google archives posts older than six months unless they have a date range, so remove or replace expired promotions promptly.
- Avoid phone numbers and email addresses in post text; use the verified Call now button, and ensure every button opens the page it promises.
- Use original, clear photos, one message per post, and a matching action button; schedule evergreen reminders, but avoid recurring offers with changing prices or stock.
- Hotels cannot publish Offer posts, so they should use Updates instead; other businesses should reserve Offers for genuine incentives with clear dates and terms.
Table of Contents
- What are Google Business Profile posts and where do they appear?
- Which post types can you use, and when does each one fit?
- How do you create, schedule, edit and delete a post?
- What content rules and policies apply to your posts?
- How do you improve images, buttons, copy length and timing?
- Which post ideas and example snippets can you use today?
- What do post statuses mean, and how do you fix a rejected post?
- What we do differently with posts for trade businesses
- How can we help you manage your profile and website?
- FAQ
- Sources
What are Google Business Profile posts and where do they appear?
A Google Business Profile post is a short piece of content you publish directly from your profile. Google’s help documentation says posts can include text, photos or videos, and that they show in the “Updates” or “Overview” tabs on mobile and in a “From the owner” area on desktop. Think of them as a small noticeboard attached to your listing: they sit exactly where someone is deciding whether to ring you or the next firm down the list.
For a trade business, that matters because many customers never reach your website. They search, glance at the profile, and either tap a button or move on. A post gives you a few seconds of control over what they see at that moment.
The quick benefits are easy to name:
- Visibility: a fresh post puts your latest message on the profile itself, in Search and Maps, without the customer needing to click through to anything.
- Engagement: posts with a clear photo and a single message give people a reason to interact with your listing rather than scroll past it.
- Direct actions: each post can carry a button, such as “Call now”, “Book” or “Learn more”, so the next step is one tap away.
- Freshness: a profile with recent posts looks like a business that is open, busy and paying attention.
- Low cost: posting is free and sits inside the profile you already manage.
Where a post shows depends on the device and the way someone found you. On a phone, recent posts can appear in the Updates or Overview tab of your profile. On a desktop, they appear in the “From the owner” section. Posts are not permanent: Google says posts older than six months are archived unless you set a date range, which is why offers and events carry start and end dates.
Customers interact with a post in several ways. They click the button you attach, they tap the image or text to read the full post, or they use the standard profile actions, such as calling you or asking for directions, after the post has caught their attention. Because the post lives on the profile, it supports those actions rather than replacing them.
A listings study from Uberall, reported by Business Mondays, found that complete profile data improved local search visibility and consumer engagement, with profile completeness increasing website clicks and requests for directions. Posts are one part of that completeness: they show Google and customers that the profile is maintained. If your basic details still need work, our guide to quick actions for a UK trade profile is a good place to start before you plan a posting routine.
Which post types can you use, and when does each one fit?
Google’s help page lists Update, Offer and Event as the main post types you can create from your Business Profile. Product posts are a related format for showing a specific item. Picking the right type matters because each one asks for different fields and displays differently.
Update posts
An Update is the all-purpose post. It can include a description, a photo or video, and a button. Use it for anything that does not need dates or a coupon: this week’s availability, a reminder about a service, a finished job, a seasonal warning or a change to your working hours.
A plumber might post a photo of a replaced boiler with a short line about servicing slots open before winter. A roofer might remind homeowners to check gutters after storms. Neither needs an expiry date, so an Update fits.
Offer posts
An Offer needs a title and a date range, and can include a coupon code, a link and terms. Use it only when you genuinely have a deal: a discount on a first visit, a free quote, a reduced call-out fee for a set period. The dates matter because an Offer that has no clear start and end looks vague and can mislead.
One restriction to know: Google’s content policy says that hotels cannot create Offer posts to avoid price confusion. If you manage a profile for an accommodation business, use Updates instead.
Event posts
An Event needs a title and start and end dates, and you can add times. If you leave the time out, the post shows the dates only. Use Events for open days, showroom evenings, charity work, training sessions or a stand at a local show. A kitchen fitter could host a showroom open day; an electrician could run a free safety-check morning for local landlords.
Product posts
Product posts are for showing a specific item with an image and a description, and they differ from Offers in one important way: a Product post presents what you sell, whereas an Offer presents a time-limited deal on it. A bathroom installer could showcase a particular walk-in shower range. A gate and fencing specialist could feature a standard gate design. If the item is on a limited-time discount, use an Offer and mention the product in the title.
Choosing quickly
- Update: news, availability, jobs completed, reminders, seasonal advice.
- Offer: a real discount or incentive with a start date, an end date and terms.
- Event: anything with a date and a place that customers can attend.
- Product: a specific item or range you want people to look at.
Pro Tip: Write the dates and terms of an Offer into the post text as well as the date fields, so a customer who reads only the description still knows when it ends and what it covers.
How do you create, schedule, edit and delete a post?
The workflow follows the steps in Google’s create and manage posts guide: find your profile, choose a post type, add your content and publish. Here is the sequence in order.
- Search for your business name on Google while signed in to the account that manages the profile, or open it from your Business Profile manager. This opens your Business Profile with the management tools.
- Select Posts, then Add post. Google may show this as an “Add update” option depending on your account and device.
- Choose the post type: Update, Offer or Event.
- Add your photo or video. Choose an image that shows the actual work, product or team rather than a stock graphic.
- Write the description. Lead with the single most useful fact, then add one clear next step.
- Add a button if the post type supports one, and choose the destination: a call, a booking page, or a specific page on your website.
- For an Offer or Event, enter the title, the start and end dates, and any coupon code or terms.
- Preview the post, then either publish it now or use the scheduling option described below.
Scheduling and recurring posts
Google’s documentation says you can schedule posts for future dates and set recurring schedules. In the post editor, use the scheduling option, choose the date and time, and confirm. For a recurring post, set the schedule so the same message returns at the interval you choose.
Recurring posts suit content that stays true: a standing reminder about emergency call-outs, a seasonal service prompt, or a monthly “book your service” note. They do not suit offers with a changing price or a limited stock, where a stale post can mislead.
Posting across multiple profiles
If you manage several locations, the editor can offer to share a post across your other profiles. Review that option before publishing. A post that mentions a local event or a specific team should be skipped for the profiles it does not apply to, because a post about the Swindon showroom is no use on a Bristol listing.
Editing and deleting posts
Once a post is live, you can change or remove it. Google’s page on editing or deleting posts explains that you find your posts through your Business Profile on Google Search, then choose to edit or delete the one you want. Edit when a date, price or detail changes. Delete when an offer has been withdrawn or a post is no longer accurate.
After publishing, check the post’s status. A post can be live, pending review or not approved, and the section on post management below explains what each means and how to fix a rejection.
Pro Tip: Keep a simple posting calendar, with the post type, the date, the button destination and the expiry date for every offer. It stops forgotten offers lingering and makes it easy to hand the task to someone else.
If you want a profile to be verified and fully listed before you start posting, our guide to Google Business Profile for contractors covers verification and service listing first.
What content rules and policies apply to your posts?
Posts are public advertising for your business, so two sets of rules apply: Google’s own content policy and UK consumer law. Getting both right protects your profile and your reputation.
Google’s content rules
Google’s posts content policy sets out what is not allowed. The practical points for a trade business are:
- Content must comply with applicable laws. Posts that promote regulated goods or services need particular care, and the policy is the place to check the current wording for your sector.
- Keep it suitable for a general audience. Posts that are offensive, misleading or irrelevant risk being removed.
- Do not put unverified contact information in the post text. Google may remove posts that contain it. Use the “Call now” button, which uses the phone number verified on your profile, instead of typing a number into the description.
- Hotels cannot create Offer posts. This is to avoid price confusion.
- Posts are reviewed. A post that breaks the policy can be refused or removed.
Post status
After you publish, a post is reviewed. It can show as live, pending or not approved. A pending post is still being checked, and a post that is not approved has broken a rule and needs fixing before it can go live. You can read more in the post management section below.
UK advertising and consumer rules
Your post is a commercial claim, which means UK law applies to it. GOV.UK’s guidance on unfair commercial practices says businesses should not make misleading commercial claims and should read the full guidance when selling or advertising to consumers. That guidance was updated in December 2025.
On advertising more broadly, GOV.UK explains that the regulations affecting advertising require marketing to be accurate and honest, and they prohibit misleading comparisons, including those that misuse a competitor’s trademark. In practice that means no inflated “best in the area” claims you cannot back up, no discounts shown against a price you never charged, and no comparisons that name a rival unfairly.
Reviews are a related area. The Competition and Markets Authority has required Google to take action on fake reviews, and GOV.UK reports that it has secured changes from Google so that UK businesses and reviewers who use fake reviews to boost ratings can be sanctioned, and profiles that use them can display warnings. If you quote customer feedback in a post, use only genuine reviews and do not pay for or invent them.
Fake-review enforcement is real: GOV.UK reports that the CMA required Google to sanction UK businesses that use fake reviews to boost ratings and to display warning alerts on profiles involved, so anything you quote in a post should come from a real customer.
A pre-publish checklist
Run every post through this list before you press publish:
- Is every claim true and something you can show if asked?
- Does the post avoid a typed phone number, email address or unverified contact detail in the text?
- Does an Offer have clear start and end dates and plain terms?
- Is the image your own work, product or team, and does it match the message?
- If you mention a customer, is the story genuine and used with their agreement?
- Have you avoided comparisons that name or mock a competitor?
- Is the post suitable for a general audience?
- Does the button lead to a page that matches what the post promises?
For a deeper compliance review of the whole profile, including review policies, our profile audit guide with CMA checks covers what a UK trade profile should be doing.
How do you improve images, buttons, copy length and timing?
Small choices make posts easier to notice and act on. None of the points below is a guarantee of results; treat them as things to test and compare on your own profile.
Images and video
Use a real photo of your work, van, team or product. Customers respond to evidence that you do the job, so a clear shot of a finished bathroom beats a generic graphic. Keep the subject centred, because posts are shown as thumbnails in Search and Maps and edges can be cropped. Use good light, avoid heavy text overlays that become unreadable at small size, and avoid images with phone numbers or web addresses burned into them, which can conflict with Google’s contact-information rules.
If you use video, keep it short and focused on a single point, such as a quick walk-through of a finished job.
Copy length and style
Write for someone scanning on a phone. Lead with the useful fact, add one supporting detail, then finish with the action. A good rhythm is one short sentence for the point, one for the detail, one for the next step.
- Name the service and the area it covers in plain words.
- Use specific details such as “same-week boiler servicing” rather than vague praise.
- Keep to one message per post, because a post that tries to sell five things sells none.
- Avoid capital letters and exclamation marks, which read as shouting.
- Leave out the phone number in the text and use the button instead.
Choosing buttons and destinations
Match the button to the intent. “Call now” suits urgent trades such as emergency plumbing or locksmiths. “Book” suits scheduled work with an online diary. “Learn more” suits a post that points to a service page or a case study. “Order” or a product page link suits a Product post.
The destination matters as much as the button. If a post promotes a loft conversion, link to the loft conversion page, not the homepage. A mismatch between what a post promises and where it lands wastes the click. If your website pages are thin or slow, fixing them lifts every post you publish, which is why our website design service pairs well with profile management.
Timing and frequency
Choose times when your customers are likely to be looking: early morning before work, lunchtimes and early evenings suit many home-service searches. Scheduling lets you prepare posts in one sitting and release them across the week, and recurring posts keep evergreen reminders in place.
There is a difference between posting often and building a body of posts. A single burst followed by months of silence leaves an old-looking profile. A steady rhythm, even one or two posts a week, builds up a library of recent content that shows the profile is maintained. Practitioners often observe that profiles with a healthy number of active posts tend to do better in local results, but treat that as an observation to test, not a rule.
For wider ideas on attracting local customers beyond your profile, this UK guide to local customer attraction strategies lists tactics you can combine with a posting routine.
Pro Tip: Change one thing at a time, for example the button type or the image style, and compare how customers respond over a few weeks. If you change everything at once you will not know what worked.
Which post ideas and example snippets can you use today?
Here are some ready-to-adapt ideas. Replace the bracketed details with your own real information before publishing, and keep every claim true.
- Service reminder (Update): “Boiler servicing slots are open this month. A yearly service helps catch small faults before the cold weather. Tap Book to choose a time.”
- Finished job (Update): “Just completed: a full bathroom refit, from strip-out to final tiling. See the finished result in the photo and ask us about your own project.”
- First-visit offer (Offer): “Free no-obligation quote on kitchen fitting. Valid during the stated offer period. Terms: one quote per household, within our usual service area.”
- Seasonal safety check (Offer): “Winter heating check at a reduced call-out fee, available until the end of November. Terms apply to domestic customers only.”
- Open day (Event): “Showroom open day on the stated date and times. Come and see our bathroom and kitchen displays and talk to the team.”
- Landlord safety morning (Event): “Free electrical safety information morning for local landlords, on the stated date and times. Book a place using the button.”
- Product showcase (Product): “Our most-requested walk-in shower range, now available to order. Choose the size and finish that suits your bathroom and ask for a fitted price.”
- Emergency availability (Update): “Emergency call-outs available during the stated period. If you have a leak or no heating, tap Call now and we will get back to you as soon as we can.”
- Team introduction (Update): “Meet the team behind your local roofing jobs. Our fitters have years of experience on slate, tile and flat roofs. Ask about a free roof check.”
- Seasonal tip (Update): “Before the first frost, check your outside taps and exposed pipes. This can help reduce the risk of a costly burst. Need a hand? Tap Call now.”
- Before and after (Update): “Before: a tired, leaking porch roof. After: a new fitted roof and fresh guttering. Swipe through the photos and request your own quote.”
- Bank holiday hours (Update): “Our bank holiday opening hours: check our profile for our closure and reopening dates. Emergency work is still available by phone.”
A note on customer stories
Sharing a customer’s story is persuasive, but it must be genuine. Use only real jobs and real feedback, get the customer’s agreement before naming them or showing their home, and never invent or pay for testimonials. The guidance on publishing consumer reviews says traders must have policies prohibiting fake reviews and must take reasonable, proportionate steps to prevent and remove fake, incentivised or misleading ones. The same spirit applies to anything you quote in a post.
What do post statuses mean, and how do you fix a rejected post?
After you publish, Google reviews the post, and you can usually see its status in the posts area of your profile. Knowing what each status means saves time.
- Live: the post has passed review and can appear on your profile.
- Pending: the post is still being checked. Give it time before changing it, as editing may restart the review.
- Not approved: the post broke a rule and will not appear until you fix the problem or replace it.
Common causes of rejection
Most rejections come from a short list of mistakes:
- Contact details in the text. A typed phone number or email address can lead to removal. Delete it and use the “Call now” button instead.
- Policy conflicts. Content that is misleading, inappropriate or related to restricted goods may be refused. Check the content policy and rewrite the post.
- Hotel offers. Hotels cannot use Offer posts, so switch the post to an Update.
- Poor images. Blurred, stretched, heavily edited or text-covered images can cause problems. Replace them with a clean, original photo.
- Mismatched claims. A post that promises one thing and links to another can look misleading. Make the post and the destination page agree.
To fix a post, edit it using the steps in the edit or delete guide, remove the problem, and resubmit. If a post keeps failing, rewrite it from scratch with a simpler message.
Using Gemini to help
Google describes how the Gemini web app can connect to your Business Profile to update profile details, draft and publish posts, schedule posts and access business insights, which can also help you manage customer reviews and posts. For a busy owner, that can speed up drafting and scheduling. Review every draft yourself before it goes out, because the post still has to be accurate, original and compliant, and an automated draft is not exempt from the content rules.
What we do differently with posts for trade businesses
In our experience, the posts that work for tradespeople are the plainest ones: a real photo of a real job, one clear line about what you did, and a single button that matches the intent. The temptation is to treat posts as a place for slogans. We would rather see a profile with a steady run of honest job updates than a handful of polished offers that never change.
Posts also work best as one part of a joined-up setup. A fast, managed website gives each button somewhere sensible to land, and ongoing profile management keeps posts, hours, services and photos consistent. The errors we correct most often are typed phone numbers in post text, offers with no end date, reused stock images, and buttons that send customers to a homepage instead of the relevant service page.
If you want a short checklist to give to whoever does your posting, use this: one message per post, a real photo, no typed contact details, dates and terms on every offer, a button that matches the page it opens, and a quick compliance check before publishing.
— Trey
How can we help you manage your profile and website?
If you would rather spend your time on the tools than on the posting calendar, we can take it off your plate. We manage Google Business Profiles for trade businesses and build the websites those posts point to, so everything customers see matches.
What we can do for you:
- Google Business Profile management: post creation, scheduling and ongoing updates, with a compliance check against Google’s policy and UK advertising guidance. See our Google Business Profile service.
- Monthly management: from £20 per month, covering regular updates and upkeep.
- Shopfront: £39 per month with a £299 one-off setup.
- Shopfront Plus: £59 per month with a £399 one-off setup.
- Website Max: £499 per month with a £599 one-off setup.
- WordPress Website: £599 one-off.
You can compare every option on our pricing page. We build sites quickly, supply written content, and handle hosting, security and updates, so your profile and your website work together.
If you want to know where your profile stands before committing to anything, ask us for a Google Business Profile audit or an initial consultation. We will look at your posts, your listing details and your website, and tell you plainly what we would change first. Get in touch through Tkmarketing and we will arrange a time to talk.
FAQ
What should I post on my Google Business Profile?
Post things customers can act on: service reminders, finished jobs, real offers with dates, events and standout products. Keep each post to one message with a real photo and a matching button, and avoid typing contact details into the text.
Where can I see Google Business Profile posts?
On a phone, posts appear in the “Updates” or “Overview” tabs of your profile, and on a desktop they appear under “From the owner”. You can also search your business name while signed in to find and manage them.
How do I add a post to my Google Business Profile?
Open your Business Profile, select Posts, choose Add post, pick Update, Offer or Event, then add your photo, text and button. Publish it straight away or use the scheduling option, as set out in Google’s post creation guide.
What does a Google Business Profile post look like?
A post is a small card on your profile with a photo or video, a short block of text and an optional button such as “Call now” or “Learn more”. Offers and Events also show their titles and dates.
Why was my post not approved?
Posts are reviewed against Google’s content policy. Typed contact details, misleading claims, restricted content and poor images are common causes, and fixing the problem and resubmitting usually resolves it.