Key Takeaways
- Google My Business Posts appear directly in your local search listing and Google Maps before a user clicks through to your website — prime visibility for Ontario businesses.
- Standard posts expire after 7 days, requiring consistent weekly publishing to maintain a live post on your listing.
- Offer and Event post types include specific date fields and optional coupon codes — use these for seasonal promotions, holiday hours changes, or time-limited service offers.
- Including a CTA button (Call Now, Book, Get Offer) with a specific landing page link, rather than your homepage, produces significantly better click-through performance.
Google My Business Posts — announced in June 2016 and still being rolled out to businesses across Canada — are one of the most immediately useful free features Google has added to local search in years. When you publish a post, it appears directly in your Google listing in both search results and Maps: visible to anyone who finds your business before they've clicked anything. For an Ontario service business, that placement is extraordinary valuable real estate, and most businesses aren't using it yet. I've been testing posts for several local clients since the beta became available. The clearest finding: posts that include a specific, compelling offer and a direct CTA button generate measurable phone call and website click increases within the first week. The businesses that post vague, generic content ('We're excited to announce our fall specials!') see no meaningful impact. The specificity of the content — a named service, a dollar amount, a named location — is what converts the viewer.
Definition: Google My Business Posts
Google My Business Posts are short content updates — text, image, and optional call-to-action — published through the Google My Business dashboard that appear directly within a business's Knowledge Panel in Google Search and its listing in Google Maps. Unlike social media posts, which appear within a separate platform, GMB Posts surface inside the Google search experience itself, appearing to users who search for your business name or category before they've decided to visit your website. Posts are free to create, require no advertising spend, and can be updated on any schedule.
The Three GMB Post Types and When to Use Each
Google My Business offers three post types — What's New, Event, and Offer — each suited to different content and with different display behaviours in search results.
What's New posts are the general-purpose post type, suitable for updates that don't fit a specific event or promotion format. These expire after 7 days and are best used for service announcements, team news, or content you want to surface to anyone searching for your Ontario business during a given week. What's New posts support a CTA button linking to any page on your site — use this to drive traffic to a specific service page rather than your homepage.
Event posts are tied to a specific start and end date and stay visible until the event concludes. An Ontario business running a client appreciation event, an open house, a workshop, or a seasonal promotion with defined dates should use the Event format — the post persists through the event period without needing manual republishing. Events also get slightly enhanced display formatting in some Google interfaces, with the event name and date prominently shown.
Offer posts are specifically for promotions and discounts. They support a title (the offer name), start and end dates, a description, coupon code, link to redeem terms, and a link to claim the offer. For Ontario retailers or service businesses running seasonal promotions — winter HVAC tune-up specials, back-to-school offers, Boxing Day discounts — the Offer format provides the most complete promotional display and is the post type most likely to drive direct conversion action.
- What's New: general updates, expires in 7 days, supports all CTA button types
- Event: tied to specific dates, stays visible until event ends, ideal for workshops/open houses
- Offer: promotional format with coupon code support, start/end dates, terms link
- All post types support one image and one CTA button linking to a URL of your choice
- Posts appear in your Knowledge Panel on desktop and in Google Maps on mobile
What to Post: Content That Actually Drives Engagement
The most effective GMB Posts for Ontario businesses are specific, locally relevant, and include a concrete offer or call-to-action — not general brand messaging.
The most common mistake I see with GMB Posts is treating them like a social media feed — posting generic brand content ('Happy Thanksgiving from our team!') that gives a viewer no reason to take any action. GMB Posts work differently from social because the viewer is already in active search mode; they're looking at your listing because they searched for your service or your business name. That means the most effective posts give them a specific reason to choose you right now.
For Ontario service businesses, the post types that consistently drive the best engagement are: seasonal service offers with a specific dollar amount or percentage off ('$50 off winter furnace inspection, book by November 30'), new service announcements linked to the specific service page, customer result highlights (with permission) that demonstrate a concrete outcome, and answers to common questions we see in our own call tracking. Each of these gives the viewer something useful or actionable, not just brand awareness.
Writing for GMB Posts requires a different discipline than blog writing. You have roughly 150–300 words before the post is truncated in most views — the key message and CTA should appear in the first two sentences. Use plain language, specific numbers, and a direct statement of what you're offering. 'Webnixon is now offering WordPress website audits for Ontario small businesses — $150 for a comprehensive SEO and performance review, with a written report delivered within 5 business days' is a post that converts. 'We're pleased to offer website review services' is a post that doesn't.
Building a Sustainable GMB Posting Schedule for Ontario Businesses
A realistic posting cadence for most Ontario service businesses is one to two posts per week — enough to maintain a consistently active listing without requiring a full-time social media effort.
The 7-day expiry on standard posts means a business that posts once a week always has exactly one active post on its listing. A business that posts twice a week always has two. There's no strong evidence that having four or five active posts provides meaningfully more benefit than having one or two well-crafted ones — quality and relevance matter more than volume. For most Ontario service businesses with limited marketing time, one thoughtful post per week is the right target.
Building a posting schedule is easier if you map posts to your existing business rhythm. An HVAC company in Hamilton already knows that furnace season drives business from September through November — scheduling posts about seasonal maintenance checks during those months requires minimal additional planning because the content is obvious from the service calendar. A Kitchener law firm knows that wills and estate planning inquiries peak in January (New Year's resolutions) and in spring. Aligning posts to predictable seasonal demand reduces the creative burden of figuring out what to post.
Batch-creating posts one month at a time is a practical efficiency for busy Ontario business owners. Spend 60–90 minutes per month writing four posts, selecting images, and scheduling (GMB supports scheduling through the app if not the desktop interface). This is less disruptive than trying to find 20 minutes every week and produces more consistent output. Keep a simple document of post topics organised by season or service category — you'll rarely run out of content if you start with the actual questions and objections your clients express on sales calls.
Experience Signal
One of our Guelph clients — a physiotherapy clinic — started posting weekly on GMB in early 2016. Within 90 days, GMB Insights showed their listing was generating 40% more website clicks and 28% more direction requests compared to the 90 days before they started posting. The posts that performed best weren't promotional — they were educational: 'What to expect at your first physiotherapy appointment,' 'How long does a rotator cuff recovery take?' — short answers to questions new patients actually ask. The clinic director was skeptical that posting on their Google listing would matter. She stopped being skeptical when the phone calls increased. The lesson is consistent: local businesses that actively manage their GMB listing — posts, photos, Q&A responses — outperform businesses that set up their listing and forget it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Google My Business Posts expire after 7 days for standard posts, so publishing at least once per week ensures your listing always has fresh, visible content. For Ontario service businesses, a reasonable cadence is one to two posts per week — one evergreen post about a core service and one timely post about a promotion, seasonal offer, or local event. Consistent posting signals an active, engaged business to both Google and prospective customers.
GMB Posts don't directly change ranking position the way citation building or review volume does. Their primary impact is on engagement and conversion once your listing is already visible — a post about a seasonal promotion or a new service can turn a Google listing viewer into a phone call or website visit. Active posting may indirectly benefit rankings by signalling that the listing is actively managed, which Google considers a quality signal. The most immediate and measurable impact is on click-through rate from the listing itself.
Google recommends images of at least 720 x 540 pixels for GMB Posts, with a 4:3 aspect ratio. In practice, using a 1200 x 900 pixel image produces sharper results across all display sizes. Avoid images with significant content at the edges — Google crops posts to a square thumbnail in some views, so the key visual element should be centered. For Ontario businesses, using real photos of your team, location, or completed work consistently outperforms generic stock photography in engagement.
Sources
Want Help Managing Your Ontario Business's Google My Business Listing?
Webnixon handles local SEO and Google My Business optimization for Ontario service businesses — including GMB Posts, listing optimization, and review strategy. Let's talk about your local search presence.
Get a Free GMB ReviewAbout the author
Rutul Shah
Founder & CEO
Rutul founded Webnixon in 2012 and has spent over 15 years at the intersection of technology and digital marketing. He has managed more than $700,000 in Google Ads spend, built local SEO programs for 30+ service businesses, and architected ecommerce platforms on Magento and Shopify for clients across North America. He writes about paid search strategy, SEO, analytics, and emerging technology for business.
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