Displaying business card entries in Google Maps

Google listings are often underestimated, although for local businesses, they can make a marked difference in a company’s visibility in search results. With the help of this free and truly practical tool from the Mountain View-based giant, you can contact customers, get feedback, publish updates concerning your company and your offer and even publish a list of products and services. Google business card management is a skill that is actually worth learning!

Google’s services, including business cards, are regularly improved on and updated, so business profile owners should verify from time to time whether certain important changes have escaped them. One of the biggest modifications in recent years took place in November 2021, when the name of Google My Business was changed to “Company Profile on Google.” The new name, however, turned out to be just the beginning of other changes, the most significant of which is how entries are displayed in the web browser and their vastly improved display in the Google Maps mobile app. 

In the following article, we’ll outline the latest change and what you can do to continue to get the most out of your entries. But let’s start at the very beginning and see what Google posts are and why it’s worth creating them. 

What is a Google post?

The reason why is very simple. Publishing content on your Google business profile gives your company better visibility in local search results. If you regularly share posts on Google, you will get better results in your local SEO. Moreover, through a company’s business card on Google, Internet users can interact with your brand by publishing photos or sharing opinions about it with other Google users, effectively building customer loyalty. Unlike when the Google My Business tool existed, not all companies can publish Google entries. 

Remember: Some professional sectors, including pharmacies, hotels, plastic surgery, and CBD stores, are prohibited from publishing on Google Posts. 

As long as your business is not within one of the listed industries, you can use Google Posts completely free of charge and thus effectively support promoting your products or services on the Internet.

Why Google posts are important?

The reason why is very simple. Publishing content on your Google business profile gives your company better visibility in local search results. If you regularly share posts on Google, you will get better results in your local SEO. Moreover, through a company’s business card on Google, Internet users can interact with your brand by publishing photos or sharing opinions about it with other Google users, effectively building customer loyalty. Unlike when the Google My Business tool existed, not all companies can publish Google entries. 

Remember: Some professional sectors, including pharmacies, hotels, plastic surgery, and CBD stores are prohibited from publishing on Google Posts. 

As long as your business is not within one of the listed industries, you can use Google Posts completely free of charge and thus effectively support promoting your products or services on the Internet.

Jak utworzyć post Google?

Publishing Google posts slightly differs from the existing way of sharing content via Google My Business. Yet, it is still very simple. Here’s what you need to do to add a Google post:

1. Find your company. You can do this in two ways:
   • by typing your company name into Google,
   • entering the appropriate Google account, type the phrase “my business” into the search bar. 
2. Find the section with entries. It is located at the bottom of the company’s Google business card. 
3. Select “Add an update.” 
4. Add content, photo or video and click “Share.” 

Done! Your Google post is visible, and it will make your company’s business profile look much better, both in the Google search engine and on Google Maps. At this point, it’s worth looking at the differences in the presentation of posts in these two locations because you may see different types of posts depending on which tool you use.

Google Maps entries vs. browser publications

The past few months have been extremely eventful for business profiles on Google. The search engine has made a number of changes that local entrepreneurs must adapt to. One of the most significant changes is limiting the visibility of “offer” type posts in the section under details in the business card. This change is only visible in the browser, but customers who are just using Google Maps in this way will not notice your listings. 

A similar situation occurs in Google Search when you search for a specific establishment. It is necessary to share the “entry” type post first so that Internet users can see a list with thumbnails of entries, offers, and events shared by the company profile in question.

Another important change is the order in which posts are displayed in Google’s business card. “Entry” type posts will always show up first on the list. Only following those will Google display the listings, even if their effective date is current at the time. Until now, such offers have taken precedence over entries. Currently, however, offers must give way to entries each time. 

Here’s a tip! 

It is good practice to publish information about offers, promotions, or other information that is valid for an extended period of time in the form of “entry” type posts. For example, it could be content encouraging people to check out your company’s current product or service catalog. In the next step, you should publish an “offer” or “event” type post with a predetermined expiration date. On the other hand, listings that are added earlier will appear under the business card only when the entire section is visible; that is, when an entry is published.

An entry added to Google Maps without an indicated duration will be visible for about six months. After that, Google will archive it. 

Entries in the Google Maps mobile app

Recent changes to Google’s business profiles have made listings and entries much more prominent in the Google Maps mobile app, making it easier for customers to spot them. In the case of Google Maps, it can be noticed that posts of the “offer” type are displayed regardless of whether the company has previously published a post of the “entry” type, which initiates the appearance of the corresponding section with the title “offer” on the company profile.

Entries, on the other hand, are displayed separately at the very bottom of the business card profile, under reviews.

What’s more, the “offer” type posts that a user will see on Google Maps are already cited in the search results and, in some cases, under the name of the business card when you enter its profile. These excerpts are not visible when viewing business cards from a browser.

What do the changes mean for Google business card owners?

The above examples show that Google promotes offers and posts published in business company profiles more when the user browsing the profile is using the Google Maps mobile app. Thus, the content shared can reach a potential customer, even if that customer does not view the business card or offer itself.

We may also see this type of change with Google Maps when a user accesses it via a web browser on their desktop or mobile device. However, there are currently no official announcements from Google on this issue, so as a business card owner, you should monitor the situation. 

Also, keep in mind that Google is running many different types of tests all the time, so not all of the changes described above may be visible for your company’s business profile as of yet. Some modifications may look a little different or not be visible to you at all. The changes are already visible for most of the business cards our team has seen. However, we recommend that you pay close attention to how your posts and listings display for your business card and then adjust your posting strategy accordingly to get the maximum benefit from posting to your Google business card.

source of the image above: https://www.seroundtable.com/google-maps-offer-available-pin-34552.html