How To Work With Google Business Profiles

Google Business Profiles are here! ✨

You can now improve your web visibility and increase traffic and conversions by posting fresh, timely content to your Google Business listing. Schedule timely and relevant posts with strong content, beautiful images, and compelling calls to action, right from within SmarterQueue. 💪

In This Article

How To Set Up A Google Business Profile

Google is not just the world’s most used online search engine, but it's also the most-visited website, so a Google Business Profile will be vital in increasing awareness and attracting new customers to your business. 

A Google Business Profile is a free listing of your business on Google that will increase your visibility across all Google services and will ensure you are in control of your online business information. 

It only takes a few quick steps to set up your profile:

  1. Sign in to Google Business Profile Manager
  2. Add your business
  3. Enter your location
  4. Fill in your contact information
  5. Verify your business (you'll need to verify your location to successfully publish content)
  6. Customize your profile

Check out a complete guide on setting up Google Business Profiles and ensure your business is set up for success. 

Connect Your Other Social Profiles To Your Google Business Profile

Once you have your Google Business Profile up and running, it's essential to link up your social media accounts. By doing so, you can leverage the "Social Media Updates" section on Google Business Profiles, which displays your latest posts from connected platforms.

This feature can significantly boost the visibility of your social media content 💪

You can add one profile for each platform: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter/X, LinkedIn, Pinterest, TikTok, and YouTube.

To connect your social profiles, follow these steps:

  1. Go to your Google Business Profile
  2. Click "Edit profile"
  3. Click on the "Contact" tab
  4. Click the "pencil" icon next to Social Profiles
  5. Click the dropdown menu to choose the social media platform
  6. In the web address field, paste the link to your social media profile
  7. Click "Save"

Check out this guide on adding your social media profiles to your Google Business Profile for more information.

How To Add Your Google Business Profile(s) To SmarterQueue

1. Navigate to the Profiles page on your SmarterQueue dashboard.   
2. Make sure you’re logged into the Google account that manages the Google Business Profile(s) you’d like to connect inside your browser, then simply click on "Connect" for Google to add inside SmarterQueue.   

3. Follow the on-screen prompts to select your Google account, and make sure to allow all permissions, if asked.

4. Select the profile(s) you want to add to SmarterQueue from the list and press "'Add".

How To Create And Publish Posts To Your Google Business Profile(s)

Create amazing "What's New" posts that grab your audience's attention, right from the Post Editor! You can publish text or single-image posts, with an optional "call to action" button.

1. Navigate to the Post Editor by selecting "Create a Post", then select the desired Category.

2. Select which Social Profile(s) you want to publish your post to by clicking on the Profiles' icons (you can select one or more Google Business Profiles, as well as cross-post with other social media platforms).

3. Now, you can write the text you want to share on your post. 

Note: You can customize the text for each of the Social Profiles you chose. Keep in mind that for Google Business Profiles you have a 1500 character limit.

4. Add a link to your post. You can do so by entering the link in the text box, by setting up a "call to action" button that will direct you to the link, or both. 

  • Enter the link in the text box (this will publish the link with the text).

  • When selecting a Google Business Profile, you'll also see the option to add a Google Button, to assign your link a call to action.

Note: Once you've selected a button, you can remove the link from the post text, should you want to (for Google Profiles). If not, you'll be able to see both the button and the link in the final post, and the link will be actionable.

Note: If you select a Google Button but you haven't added a link to your post yet, you'll see a pop-up asking you to add the link.
5. Next, add media to your post. Keep in mind that for Google Business Profile posts you can only add one image (no videos or GIFs). 

Note: Images must be over 250px X 250px in resolution, and over 10 Kb in size. 

6. Select your scheduling and Evergreen settings and finish up your post. 

How To Check Your Google Business Profile Post Analytics

On February 20, 2023, Google API stopped reporting post-stat insights. As this is a limitation on Google's side, SmarterQueue won't be able to display post stats after this date. 

Past Posts

By going to "Analytics" - "Past Posts", you had access to the number of Views your post got (in Google search results), as well as the Clicks on your "call to action" button. The data for Views is not subject to change. 

! For posts published before February 20, 2023, for which we've already pulled data from Google's API before the update, you can still view the number of Impressions your post got in Google search results. 

Note: The stats you see were generated before the API change - any impressions and clicks that have occurred after this change will not be shown.

‼ For posts published after February 20, 2023, these stats are no longer available and you'll see a note that explains why instead:

For Google posts published after 20th Feb 2023 that have a Bitlink, we still show click stats (but only click stats). 

Note: If you decided to leave the link inline the post text, we're unable to count any clicks for it and you'll only see the clicks for the "call to action" button. The only exception to this is if you used  Bitly, in which case the inline link clicks are checked and used as follows:

  • If there's no "call to action" button, we simply provide the bitly link clicks;
  • If there's a call to action' button added to the post, then we compare the number of bitly inline link clicks with that of the Google button and display the greater one. 

Note: If you didn't leave the link inline, but you still used Bitly for the button, then we'll display the Bitly click stats. 

Reports

The "Analytics" - "Reports" section will show additional details, as well as visual representations of important information for posts published before February 20, 2023. 

Keep in mind that the total number of Clicks will be calculated based on the Clicks displayed for each post in the "Past Posts" section. This means that the note above applies and that the stats used will depend on which is the greater number:  bitly inline link clicks, or "call to action" button clicks.

There will also be a yellow notice to remind you that SmarterQueue is unable to show post stats:

“From 20th February 2023, Google no longer provides post stats.”

Weekly/Monthly Stats

The "Stats" sections of "Analytics" will give you the latest insights for all your connected Social Profiles, including Google Business Profiles, based on data available after changes to Google API on February 20, 2023.

Analyze Social Profiles

We don't currently offer an option to analyze your Google Business Profile via the "Analyze Social Profiles" feature. 

Common Questions

1. Why can't I add my Google Business Profile? 

If you're having trouble adding your profile, you should check your permissions level for it. 

You need to be set as Owner or Manager to be able to add Google Business Profiles to SmarterQueue. 

2. What are the limitations for post content?

Google's API is currently limited, and doesn't offer the same functionality as their website. Here are the following limitations to be aware of:

  • You can only add one image to a post (which must be at least 250x250 pixels in size, and more than 10kb).
  • You cannot post videos, or animated GIFs.
  • The post text can have up to 1500 characters.
  • There is no link preview, but you can add a Call To Action Button.

3. Why is my post failing with the message "Creating/Updating a local post is not authorized for this location."?

If you're seeing this error message, it means that you haven't verified the location of your Google Business Profile with Google natively. You will need to do this in order to successfully publish content. 

Please see the following link to check the status of your business: Google Business Profile Manager.