# Google Posts for Restaurants: What to Post, How Often, and What They Do for Your Maps Ranking

> Google posts put your specials, events and offers on the profile a guest is already reading, and Google says event posts lift engagement by 9%. They will not move your Maps pin. What a UK café, pub, restaurant or bakery should post, how often, and what gets rejected.

- Author: Alex Riesenkampff (Super44)
- Published: 2026-11-02
- Canonical: https://super44.ai/blog/google-posts-restaurants

## Key takeaways

- Google presenters at its Posts 101 workshop, reported by Whitespark in May 2026, said event posts were creating a 9% lift in user engagement, and the workshop urged businesses to post at least once a week.
- In Sterling Sky's analysis of more than 1,000 small-business posts, offer posts averaged 3.06 clicks each against 0.76 for plain updates, and posts about specials or discounts averaged 6.04.
- Experts in Whitespark's 2026 survey rate posting frequency 78th of 120 factors for turning profile visitors into customers, but only 148th of 187 for Maps ranking: posts work on the guest, not the pin.
- Updates stay on your profile for six months unless a date range is set, which is how a Christmas menu posted as an update is still showing in February; offers and events end on their own dates.
- Single-location food and drink businesses in the UK are one of five English-speaking markets where Google can show featured posts in place of reviews on the mobile profile.

A Google post is a short update, offer or event on your Google Business Profile, and its job is to win over the guest who is already looking at you. **Google told its Posts 101 workshop, reported in May 2026, that event posts were creating a 9% lift in user engagement, and offer posts drew about four times the clicks of plain updates in Sterling Sky's study of more than 1,000 posts.** What posts will not do is move your Maps pin: experts rank posting frequency 148th of 187 ranking factors. Post once a week about something real happening at your venue, and fix your ranking elsewhere.

That changes what a good post looks like. Written for an algorithm, a post is a block of keywords. Written for a guest standing on the pavement with their phone, it is tonight's special with a photo, the quiz on Thursday, or the fact that the garden is open again.

## The three kinds of Google post, and how long each one stays up

Google offers three kinds of post: updates, offers and events. Each one behaves differently on your profile. Google's help centre describes each in one line. Updates: "Share info about your business." Offers: "Provide promotional sales or deals from your business." Events: "Promote an event at your business."

**Updates stay on your profile for six months unless a date range is set, while offers and events end on the dates you give them.** That is why the type matters. A Christmas menu posted as an update can still be showing in February, while the same menu posted as an offer or event ends on its date. An event with no start or end time "shows as lasting 24 hours on the event dates."

| Post type | What it needs | What Google adds | How long it shows | Best use at a venue |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Update | Description, optional photo or video and button | Nothing | Six months, then archived | New dish, garden open, holiday hours, a new member of the team |
| Offer | Title, dates and time | A "View Offer" button | Until the offer's end date | A real, dated food or coffee offer |
| Event | Title, start and end dates and times | Nothing | Until the event ends | Quiz night, live music, supper club, tasting |

If you have read that Google posts disappear after seven days, that advice is nearly six years out of date. Claire Carlile, director of marketing at Whitespark, writing in its posting guide in February 2026, puts it plainly: "Google Updates used to expire after 7 days, but since January 2021, they no longer have an expiration date."

## What posts do for you: attention and clicks on the profile

Posts earn their place on the profile itself, where a guest is deciding between you and the place next door. On a phone, Google shows them in the "Updates" or "Overview" tabs on Search and Maps; on a computer, in the "From the owner" section. SevenRooms' 2025 survey of 1,000 UK consumers found "Around 1 in 3 diners use Google" to discover restaurants, so that space gets read.

Google is actively promoting posts, through workshops and new features such as scheduling and view counts. Whitespark's write-up of Google's Posts 101 workshop, published in May 2026, reports that presenter Matt Gnagy said Google was seeing event posts create a 9% lift in user engagement, and that he called them "very high value visual real estate." Speaking to Entrepreneur in September 2026, a Google product manager named there as Michael Gnagy said: "Fresh posts are displayed pretty prominently on Maps." And since September 2026, Search Engine Journal reports, Google has been rolling out view counts on every post again, after removing them in 2023.

**The best data on what works comes from Sterling Sky, which analysed more than 1,000 small-business posts: offer posts averaged 3.06 clicks against 0.76 for plain updates, and posts about specials or discounts averaged 6.04.** The study is observational, its data comes from 2021 and it is not restaurant-specific, so read it as a guide to post design rather than a forecast. It points one way consistently: give people a reason to act.

**Average clicks per Google post by type and design (Sterling Sky, 1,000+ small-business posts)**

| Kind of post | Average clicks |
| --- | --- |
| About specials or discounts | 6.04 |
| Offer post | 3.06 |
| With a call to action | 2.71 |
| Image with text on it | 2.03 |
| Event post | 1.46 |
| Update post | 0.76 |
| Image without text | 0.59 |

*Clicks as reported by Google My Business. Data from a 2021 manual analysis, published by Sterling Sky in 2023; groups overlap and some are small. Source: Sterling Sky.*

Two UK details make posts more visible than they used to be:

- **Featured posts.** Google says posts about "events, deals, or specials" may automatically show on your mobile profile. The feature is "currently available in English for single-location food and drink businesses in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand," and where it is live, "customers find them in place of reviews" on mobile. A good post can lead your profile; a stale one sits where your reviews would have been.
- **Offers get a prominent slot.** Whitespark reported in January 2026 that an offer post is featured "just below the business name, reviews, and today’s hours," and also appears under a new Deals tab on mobile browsers.

The experts agree that this is where posts pay. In Whitespark's 2026 survey, posting frequency ranks 78th of 120 factors for turning profile visitors into customers. That is a modest middle place, and far higher than where posting sits for ranking. Gnagy made one more point that matters to any café living on Instagram: "We don’t get stories." Stories disappear before Google can use them, while a post made directly on your profile can show on Maps. If Instagram takes most of your week, [this week of posts and a Reel from your own photos](/blog/restaurant-social-media-own-photos) shows where one Google post fits beside it.

## What posts do not do: move your Maps ranking

Posts are not a proven ranking factor. Google's own page on local ranking names three factors. Relevance is how well your profile matches the search, distance is how far you are from the searcher, and "Prominence means how well-known a business is." Posts do not appear anywhere on that page.

**Whitespark's 2026 survey of 47 experts placed every posting factor in the bottom quarter of 187 local-pack factors, with post quantity at 168th, while primary category came first.** The same survey lists keyword stuffing in posts among its negative factors, so cramming "best brunch Manchester" into every update can hurt.

**Where posting sits among 187 Maps local-pack ranking factors (Whitespark 2026 expert survey)**

| Factor | Rank of 187 |
| --- | --- |
| Primary Google Business Profile category | 1 |
| Proximity of address to the searcher | 2 |
| Social media updates shown on the profile | 147 |
| Frequency of Google posts | 148 |
| Keywords in Google posts | 160 |
| Quantity of Google posts | 168 |

*Ranks reflect the consensus of 47 experts, not a published Google formula. Source: Whitespark Local Search Ranking Factors, published 6 November 2025.*

So for ranking, your category, hours, photos and a steady flow of answered reviews come first. Our [Google Maps ranking playbook for restaurants](/blog/google-maps-ranking-restaurant) sorts those levers by effort, and Super44 can make the category, hours and photo changes for you once your profile is connected. The survey is expert opinion and cannot rule out a small effect from posting. Google does say that "Businesses with complete and accurate info are more likely to show up in local search results," and a profile with current, dated posts is part of looking cared for. That is reason enough to keep posting, with the right expectations.

Your website still matters for anything a post cannot hold, and our comparison of [a restaurant website against a Google Business Profile](/blog/restaurant-website-vs-google-profile) covers when the site earns its keep.

## What a café, pub, restaurant or bakery should post

Post what a guest would want to know before walking in this week, with a photo you took at the venue. Carlile's guide says posts "should be about your services, products, specials, and offers," because a searcher looking up businesses is "looking to buy". Google's Lisa Landsman, presenting the same Posts 101 workshop, summed up the tone: "People want a vibe check, not a documentary."

**Event posts carry the most information for the least upkeep, because Google stops showing them when the event ends.** Use them for anything with a date. Use updates for things that change what a guest gets: a new dish, a seasonal menu, the garden opening, holiday hours. Use offers for real, dated deals on food or coffee, and put the price in the title, since specials and discounts drew the most clicks in Sterling Sky's data.

| Venue | Example event post | Example update post | Example offer post |
|---|---|---|---|
| Café | Latte art class, Saturday 10am | Pumpkin loaf is back, photo of the counter | Coffee and a pastry for £5 before 9am, this week only |
| Pub | Quiz night every Thursday, 8pm | Garden heaters are in, photo of the garden at dusk | Two-course Sunday lunch for £22, until 30 November |
| Restaurant | Supper club with a guest chef, one night | New winter menu, photo of the plate that sells best | Two-course set lunch for £18, weekdays this month |
| Bakery | Christmas order cut-off, with the date | Sourdough out of the oven at 7am, photo of the rack | Day-old loaves half price after 3pm |

The best subject is often something guests already love but rarely mention. Super44 found that a café and events venue in London had a signature courtyard that appeared in only 12% of its reviews, and recommended making it the marketing centrepiece. A courtyard photo on a sunny Friday is a cheap way to start. If the light lets a dish down, [AI can tidy a real photo of the plate](/blog/ai-food-photos-menu), but it should never invent one.

**What should this week's Google post be?** *(interactive decision helper in the web version)*

**Possible routes:**
- **Is the post selling alcohol at a price or as a deal, such as a happy hour or bottomless brunch? — Yes:** Keep the deal off Google. Google restricts promotions for alcohol in any post type, and some drinks deals also breach licence conditions. Next move: Post the event or the food instead; drinks can appear in the photo.
- **Is the post selling alcohol at a price or as a deal, such as a happy hour or bottomless brunch? — No → Is something happening on a specific date or time? — Yes, an event, a class or a fixed night:** Post an event. Add the start and end time so it drops off by itself when it is over. Next move: Use the Repeats setting for anything weekly, such as a quiz.
- **Is the post selling alcohol at a price or as a deal, such as a happy hour or bottomless brunch? — No → Is something happening on a specific date or time? — No → Do you have a real deal on food, coffee or soft drinks with an end date? — Yes:** Post an offer. Give it an end date and a title that names the price a guest will pay. Next move: Check the price is one you charge, and that any "was" price is one you can evidence.
- **Is the post selling alcohol at a price or as a deal, such as a happy hour or bottomless brunch? — No → Is something happening on a specific date or time? — No → Do you have a real deal on food, coffee or soft drinks with an end date? — No:** Post an update. Show the newest thing a guest would notice: a dish, a room, a change in hours. Next move: Use your own photo from this week.

If you want help with the words, our [copy-paste ChatGPT prompts for restaurants](/blog/ki-prompts-gastronomie) include one for social posts, and it works for a Google update if you paste in the fact and the photo description.

### Draft this week's Google post from one photo

Tell Super44 what is on this week, add a photo, and it drafts the post with the right type and dates. Connect your Google profile and your first post is included; on Core it can post every week for you, add photos and videos, and keep your hours and categories current.

[Draft my first Google post](https://app.super44.ai/en-GB?prompt=Draft%20my%20first%20Google%20post)

## How often to post, and when to change course

Post once a week if you can keep it up, and fortnightly if you cannot. Whitespark's write-up says Google's own workshop "repeatedly emphasized making the commitment to posting at least once a week," and Whitespark's guide uses the same rhythm for its clients: "We publish them once a week for our SEO Services clients, which is the cadence we generally recommend." Google sets no cap on update posts, but there is no evidence that a third post in a week earns anything.

**Google now lets you schedule a post and repeat it weekly, monthly or on a custom pattern, so a standing quiz or Sunday lunch needs setting up only once.** Its help centre describes a "Repeats" dropdown for exactly this. With view counts returning on every post, you can also see which kind your guests look at.

The trade-off is your time. Twenty minutes on a post is twenty minutes not spent replying to reviews, and review signals carry 20% of local-pack weight in the same survey. If you have one free half-hour this week, answer your reviews first, using our guide to [replying to Google reviews with AI](/blog/reply-to-google-reviews-with-ai) if it helps. Post second.

**Before you set a posting rhythm**

- [ ] **Basics first**: Primary category, hours including holiday hours, at least a dozen current photos. These outrank any posting habit.
- [ ] **Reviews answered**: Reply to the last month of reviews before you start posting weekly.
- [ ] **One standing event**: If you run anything weekly, post it once with Repeats on and let it run.
- [ ] **One photo a week**: Take the post photo at the venue during service. A real plate beats a stock image.
- [ ] **Dates on everything time-limited**: Post seasonal menus and deals as offers or events with an end date, so nothing outlives what it advertises.

When should you change course? If you cannot keep a weekly rhythm going for more than a month, drop to fortnightly rather than stopping. If post views stay near zero for two months while calls and direction requests come in anyway, your guests are not reading posts, so spend the time on photos and reviews. If views climb on one kind of post, make more of that kind.

What to avoid: paying for a service that pumps out daily keyword posts, offers you would not honour on a busy Saturday, and December's festive menu running into February.

## The posts that get rejected, or get you in trouble

Most rejected posts break one of three rules: a phone number in the text, a promotion for a restricted product, or a link Google does not trust. Google says "Posts that include a phone number in the post description might get rejected" when the number cannot be verified as connected to the business. Use the Call now button, which uses the number already on your profile.

**Alcohol is the rule that catches pubs and bars: Google names it as a restricted product and does not allow deals, coupons or pricing promotions for it in any post type.** A photo of a pint on a busy evening is fine, because Google allows images where alcohol is present but not the main focus. An event post for a two-for-one cocktail night is not.

The law adds two more lines. In England and Wales, the mandatory conditions on every premises licence ban irresponsible promotions, including unlimited alcohol for a fixed or discounted fee, so a "bottomless" post can be a licensing problem as well as a Google one; Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own licensing law. Across the UK, the ASA expects any "was" price in an offer to be one you charged before. If the offer price is simply your new price, say that instead.

## Where Super44 fits

Super44 connects to your Google Business Profile once and then does the profile work from the chat, posts included. **Your first post, three review replies and one profile change are included before you upgrade; ongoing publishing, photo and video uploads and posting on a schedule come with the Core plan or a trial.**

- **Posts.** Send a photo and a sentence about your week, and Super44 drafts the post with the right type and dates, then publishes it once you approve. A post cannot be edited once it is live, so if something is wrong it takes the post down and puts up the corrected version.
- **Posts on autopilot.** Tell it once, "put our specials up every Friday", and it posts on that schedule and tells you what went up. That standing instruction is your approval for the series, and you can stop it, or have any post taken down, in the chat.
- **Photos and videos.** It adds new photos and videos to your profile and removes old ones, and it can make a promotional image or a short clip from your own pictures.
- **Your listing.** It updates opening hours, closes specific dates for holidays, and changes your description and categories, confirming each change with you first. Those are the fields that carry ranking weight, so this is where it helps with Maps.
- **Reviews.** It drafts replies in your voice and publishes the ones you approve; on Core it can reply automatically once you have approved five.

It will not guarantee a Maps position, because nobody can, and it will not stuff keywords into your posts. If you want to try it on this week's post, open [Super44 with the request ready to send](https://app.super44.ai/en-GB?prompt=Draft%20my%20first%20Google%20post): draft my first Google post.

## FAQ

### Are Google posts worth it for a restaurant or café?

Yes, for the guests already looking at your profile. Google told a workshop reported in May 2026 that event posts were producing a 9% lift in user engagement, and Sterling Sky found offer posts drew about four times the clicks of plain updates. Twenty minutes a week on one good post is a reasonable spend.

### Do Google posts help my restaurant rank higher on Google Maps?

There is no evidence they do. Google's help page on local ranking names relevance, distance and prominence without mentioning posts, and Whitespark's 2026 survey of 47 experts ranks posting frequency 148th of 187 local-pack factors. Post to persuade guests, and fix your category, hours, photos and reviews for ranking.

### How often should a café or pub post on its Google Business Profile?

Once a week is the default Google's own Posts 101 workshop pushed, and fortnightly is fine if that is what you can keep up. Google sets no limit on update posts, but a stale post advertising a finished event does more harm than a quiet week.

### How long does a Google post stay on my profile?

Updates stay for six months unless a date range is set. Offer and event posts follow the dates you give them; an event with no start or end time shows as lasting 24 hours on its dates. The old rule that updates vanished after seven days stopped applying in January 2021.

### Can a pub advertise a drinks offer in a Google post?

Not as a deal. Google's restricted-content policy names alcohol and says posts should not display deals, coupons, pricing or other promotions for a restricted product, whether the post is an offer or an event. A photo where drinks are present but not the main focus is allowed, and food or soft-drink offers are fine.

### Can I just post my Instagram content to Google instead?

Partly. Google says featured posts on UK food and drink profiles can come from Facebook and Instagram, but a Google product manager said in September 2026 that Instagram stories are not picked up, and Entrepreneur reports that posting directly to your profile is what makes content eligible for Maps.

## Sources

1. [Google Business Profile Help: Create and manage posts on your Business Profile](https://support.google.com/business/answer/7342169?hl=en) — Post types and their fields, six-month archiving, where posts appear, featured posts eligibility (UK included), scheduling and the Repeats setting, phone-number rejection. Checked 2 November 2026.
2. [Google Business Profile Help: Posts content policy](https://support.google.com/business/answer/7213077?hl=en) — Posts with unverified contact information may be removed; the Call now button as the alternative.
3. [Google Business Profile Help: Prohibited and restricted content](https://support.google.com/business/answer/7400114?hl=en) — Names alcohol as a restricted product; no deals, coupons or pricing promotions for restricted products; images where alcohol is present but not the main focus are allowed.
4. [Google Business Profile Help: Tips to improve your local ranking on Google](https://support.google.com/business/answer/7091?hl=en) — Relevance, distance and prominence; no mention of posts.
5. [Google Business Profile Help: Business Profile benefits](https://support.google.com/business/answer/10515606?hl=en-GB) — Customers are 2.7 times more likely to consider a business reputable with a complete Business Profile.
6. [Whitespark: The complete guide to Google Posts, by Miriam Ellis](https://whitespark.ca/blog/google-posts-guide/) — Published 22 May 2026. Reports Google's Posts 101 workshop with Lisa Landsman and Matt Gnagy: the 9% engagement lift for event posts, "very high value visual real estate", the push to post at least once a week, and Landsman's "vibe check" line.
7. [Sterling Sky: Google Posts, what we learned from analysing over 1,000 posts, by Joy Hawkins](https://www.sterlingsky.ca/google-posts/) — Dated 1 February 2023; data from a 2021 manual analysis of 1,000+ small-business posts, clicks as reported by Google My Business. Offer 3.06 clicks, event 1.46, update 0.76; specials or discounts 6.04; images with text 2.03 vs 0.59 without. Observational, not restaurant-specific.
8. [Whitespark: 2026 Local Search Ranking Factors](https://whitespark.ca/local-search-ranking-factors) — Survey of 47 local-search experts, published 6 November 2025. Local-pack ranks of 187: primary category 1, proximity 2, social media updates on GBP 147, post frequency 148, keywords in posts 160, post quantity 168. Conversion ranks of 120: post frequency 78, quantity 91, keywords 95.
9. [Whitespark 2026 survey signal-group weights, via Advice Local](https://www.advicelocal.com/blog/2026-local-search-ranking-factors-maps-organic-ai/) — Review signals at 20% of local-pack ranking weight, Google Business Profile signals at 32%.
10. [Whitespark: Google Posts and Updates, by Claire Carlile](https://whitespark.ca/google-business-profile-guide/google-posts-updates/) — Published 11 February 2026. Weekly cadence for Whitespark's own SEO clients, no limit on update posts, the end of seven-day expiry in January 2021.
11. [Whitespark: About us](https://whitespark.ca/about-us/) — Lists Claire Carlile as Director of Marketing.
12. [Whitespark: Offer posts and the Deals tab, by Sydney MacKay](https://whitespark.ca/blog/offer-posts-deal-update/) — Published 19 January 2026. Offer posts featured just below the business name, reviews and hours, and under a Deals tab on mobile browsers; not shown in the From the owner section in Maps.
13. [Entrepreneur: A Google employee shares 2 easy ways business owners can get more traffic for free](https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/tech/a-google-employee-shares-2-easy-ways-business-owners-can-get-more-traffic-for-free) — Shawn P. Walchef, 29 September 2026. Quotes Michael Gnagy, product manager at Google, on posts in Maps and Instagram stories.
14. [Search Engine Journal: Google Business Profile adds post view counts](https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-business-profile-post-view-counts/589128/) — Reported 10 September 2026: per-post view counts return after Google removed the metric in February 2023; past 18 months, rolling out globally.
15. [SevenRooms: 2025 UK Restaurant Industry Trends Report](https://sevenrooms.com/research/2025-UK-restaurant-trends/) — Vendor survey of 1,000 UK consumers and 250+ operators; around one in three diners use Google to discover restaurants.
16. [The Licensing Act 2003 (Mandatory Licensing Conditions) (Amendment) Order 2014, Schedule](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2014/2440/schedule/made) — Mandatory licence condition in England and Wales banning irresponsible drinks promotions, including unlimited alcohol for a fixed or discounted fee.
17. [ASA: Prices overview](https://www.asa.org.uk/advice-online/prices-overview.html) — CAP Code expectations on price claims, including evidence that a "was" price was the usual selling price.