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Post to Google My Business Review: Create Google My Business Posts from WordPress

Last Updated on August 31st, 2023

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If you run a local business (or have a client who does), Google My Business is a great way to make your business more visible in Google’s search results and give yourself some control over the information that displays.

However, it’s also another platform to check and something that takes up your time, especially if you want to keep your My Business profile fresh with new content.

Post to Google My Business is a WordPress plugin that eliminates that pain point by letting you automatically publish your latest WordPress blog posts straight to Google My Business…without lifting a finger. Or, you can also lift a finger and write custom posts without leaving the comforts of your WordPress dashboard. Or both! Your choice.

In our Post to Google My Business review, we’ll share more about how the plugin actually does that. Then, we’ll go hands-on and show you how it works on our site.

Post to Google My Business Review: The Feature List

Post to Google My Business comes in both a free version, as well as a premium version with more functionality. For reference, I’m using the premium version for this review.

You can either automatically share new WordPress content to Google My Business using a template. Or, you can manually create posts and share them to Google My Business without leaving your WordPress dashboard.

The plugin works with all WordPress post types, and it also supports the different Google My Business post types for:

  • Update
  • Event
  • Offer
  • Product

When you create new posts, you can:

  • Post to multiple Google My Business locations at the same time
  • Schedule posts to publish at a certain time/date
  • Automatically repost content at a specific interval
  • Create custom auto-post templates that include post variables and Spintax

Let’s go hands-on and I’ll show you everything in detail…

Hands-On With Post to Google My Business

Again, for this Post to Google My Business review, I have the premium version installed on my site.

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When you first install the plugin, it will give you a prompt to connect to your Google My Business account. This process is super easy – you just click a button and go through the normal Google authorization process (just as if you were using Google to sign up to a website).

Once you give the plugin access, you’ll be able to choose the default location to post to (this is helpful if you have multiple Google My Business listings):

 

You’ll also be able to choose different business locations on a post-by-post basis.

Posting to Google My Business from WordPress

Next, let’s look at how to actually post to your Google My Business profile, and then I’ll cover some of the other settings the plugin gives you.

When you go to create a new piece of content in WordPress, you’ll get a new Post to Google My Business meta box that gives you two ways to share that content on WordPress. By default, this meta box only appears for the “Posts” post type, but you can add it to additional post types in the plugin’s settings.

First, for the absolute fastest way to share something on Google My Business, you can just check the box to Auto-post this to GMB. This will automatically share the content to your default Google My Business location using the title and content from the WordPress editor (you can also customize the auto-post template – more on this later).

For example, this simple post on WordPress…

Auto post to Google my Business

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…automatically turns into this post on Google My Business when I use the auto-post feature:

 

The Learn more button links to the actual post on your WordPress site.

So that’s the absolute fastest way to share from WordPress to Google My Business. However, there might be some situations where you don’t want to share the exact same content on both platforms.

If that’s the case, you can opt to click the +New GMB Post button in the meta box rather than checking the auto-post option:

Create a custom Google My Business post

This will open a much more detailed area in your WordPress dashboard that lets you enter a unique post for Google My Business. You’ll be able to:

  • Choose between the different types of Google My Business content – update, event, offer, product.
  • Upload a special image.
  • Add custom post text.
  • Add a button, including linking that button to any URL.
  • Schedule the post for a specific date.
  • Automatically repost this post on a set schedule.
  • Choose between all your Google My Business locations, or even post to multiple locations at the same time.

Enter post details

 

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Once you click the separate Publish button in the Post to Google My Business meta box, your custom post will be live (or will be scheduled for a date in the future, if you chose that option):

 

If you create custom posts like this, you also have the option of creating multiple Google My Business posts, each with their own schedule.

Having these two options is nice because it lets you choose the level of effort needed. For simple stuff, you might just want to auto-post as it takes no extra time and helps you keep your Google My Business content fresh.

But for more important topics, you still have the option to create a unique Google My Business post without needing to leave your WordPress dashboard.

Customizing the Auto-Post Template

As you saw above, the default template for the auto-post feature is this:

New post: {post-title} - {post-content}

As well as a Learn More button that links to the content’s URL on your WordPress site.

However, you also have the ability to fully customize this template, including an option to add variables and Spintax.

To set this up, you’ll go to Post to GMB → Settings → Auto-post settings:

Template

You get access to a lot of variables – view the full list here. Some of the highlights are:

    • Excerpt
    • Publish date
    • Author
    • Author bio
  • Modified date
  • Site name

Beyond using variables to dynamically pull content from your WordPress site, you can also add Spintax to switch up the words used in your template so that your Google My Business feed looks a little less automated.

For example, instead of saying “New Post” every time, you could have it rotate between a few phrases like this:

Overall, this gives you a lot more control over your content if you plan to rely on the auto-post feature a lot.

Creating a Google My Business Campaign

In addition to the meta box that appears when editing individual pieces of WordPress content, you can also create dedicated Post campaigns for Google My Business.

These are Google My Business posts that are not tied to a specific piece of WordPress content. So the main advantage here is that you’re able to run all your Google My Business efforts without needing to leave the comfy confines of your WordPress dashboard:

The actual settings are the same as what you get in the meta box, but you’re now able to add a custom title, categories, and tags just for this campaign:

As with the in-editor meta box, you can also create multiple Google My Business posts inside the same campaign, each with their own schedule and other settings.

Again, the difference between using the meta box in the WordPress editor and the Post Campaigns feature is that post campaigns are not linked to a specific piece of WordPress content, while posts that you create via the meta box in the WordPress editor are.

Post to Google My Business Pricing

Post to Google My Business has a limited free version at WordPress.org that you can use to give it a try.

Then, if you want the premium features, there are three paid plans:

  1. Starter – $79.99
  2. Professional – $99.99
  3. Business – $199.99

Each plan gives you access to slightly different features, so I’d encourage you to pay attention to the feature list. You can see these differences in the image below:

Post to Google My Business pricing

All the premium plans come with a 7-day free trial, so you can test out the premium functionality before you commit to paying.

Final Thoughts on Post to Google My Business

If you work with Google My Business a lot – either for your own projects or client sites – Post to Google My Business can save you a ton of time and make your workflow a lot easier.

If you don’t want to spend too much time on things, you can just set up an auto-post template and automatically share your new content to Google My Business. Or, you can also dig in and create custom posts, either for specific WordPress content, or just generic posts that aren’t tied to any content via the Post Campaigns feature…all without leaving your WordPress dashboard.

If you’re running a specific type of site, like an eCommerce store or event site, you’ll be able to use the different Google My Business post types to promote your products, offers, or events. And you’ll also be able to share to multiple Google My Business profiles from the same WordPress dashboard.

All in all, give this one a look if you’re looking for an easier way to post to Google My Business:

Get Post to Google My Business

A team of WordPress experts that love to test out new WordPress related software, WordPress plugins and WordPress themes.