How to Schedule Google My Business Posts (2026 Guide)

Short answer first, because it is the thing most people are looking for. Google Business Profile does not give you a scheduling option inside the dashboard. You can write a post and publish it now, and that is it. If you want to line up next month’s offers today, you need a tool that connects to your profile and publishes on your behalf.

This guide covers both ways of doing it: posting by hand, which is free and slow, and scheduling Google My Business posts with a tool, which is what most businesses move to once they have more than one location or more than one thing to say a month.

Can you schedule posts on Google My Business?

Not inside Google itself. If you open your profile and click Add update, the only button you get is Post. There is no date picker, no queue and no drafts folder. Google has tested a repeat posting feature, but for scheduling ahead you still need something outside the dashboard.

So when people ask whether you can schedule posts on Google My Business, the honest answer is yes, but through a scheduler that talks to the Google Business Profile API rather than through the profile screen.

Why scheduling is worth the trouble

Posting by hand works fine for one shop and one person who remembers to do it. It falls apart quickly after that, and usually in the same three ways.

• It stops. The first month is great. By month three the posting has drifted to whenever someone has a spare ten minutes.
• It goes out at odd times. A Tuesday offer written on Sunday night lands on Sunday night.
• Branches drift apart. One location is posting weekly, another has not posted since spring, and the profiles start to look unevenly maintained.

None of that is about effort. It is about the work sitting in somebody’s head instead of in a calendar.

Method 1: post manually, straight from Google

Free, no tools, publishes immediately. Use this if you have one location and post rarely.

1. Search your business name while signed in to the Google account that manages it, or open the Business Profile Manager.
2. Click Add update, or open the Promote tab if you see one.
3. Pick the type: update, offer, or event.
4. Write the text, add a photo, and add a button such as Call now or Book if it fits.
5. Click Post. It goes live straight away, usually within a few minutes.

That is the whole method. There is nothing to schedule, so if you want a post to appear on the 14th, you have to be there on the 14th.

Method 2: schedule GMB posts with a tool

This is what people mean when they talk about a Google My Business scheduler. You connect the Google account that owns the profiles once, then write and queue posts from one screen. We built our own GMB post scheduler for this, and the steps below are broadly the same whichever tool you pick.

1. Connect the account. Sign in with the Google account that manages the profiles. One approval brings every location you have access to.
2. Choose who the post is for. One location, a group of them, or all of them. Filters by city or label save a lot of clicking at scale.
3. Pick the post type. Update, offer or event. Offers need start and end dates, so decide that before you write.
4. Write it once. Placeholders such as business name, city or phone number let one post adapt itself per branch instead of reading identically everywhere.
5. Add the image and the button. Landscape images work best. Keep text off the image itself.
6. Set the date and time, then save. The tool publishes it for you and reports back if Google rejects anything.

If you would rather not write every post from scratch, a post generator will give you a first draft to edit, which is usually faster than staring at an empty box.

Scheduling Google My Business posts for several locations

This is where scheduling stops being a convenience and starts being the only sane option. Twenty branches posting weekly is eighty posts a month by hand. The same campaign scheduled in bulk is one post, one selection and one date.

Two things to get right when you schedule GMB posts across branches:

• Vary the wording. Identical text on fifty profiles looks like what it is. Placeholders or a few rotating versions fix this without extra writing.
• Watch the local details. Opening times, phone numbers and offer end dates differ by branch more often than head office expects.

If posting is only one of the jobs on your list, it is worth reading how to automate Google My Business posts alongside reviews and profile updates, rather than treating each one as a separate chore.

What you can and cannot schedule

• Updates. General news, a service you want to push, something happening this week.
• Offers. These carry a start and end date and can include a coupon code and terms.
• Events. Title, start and end, and a description.
• Photos and video. Most schedulers handle media on the same queue, which is worth using since profiles with recent photos look maintained.

Before you queue a month of content, skim the Google post guidelines. Phone numbers in the body text are a common reason for a post being rejected, and finding that out after scheduling thirty of them is a bad afternoon.

How far ahead should you schedule?

Two to four weeks is the sweet spot for most businesses. Far enough that nobody is writing posts on a Friday afternoon, close enough that you can still react to the weather, a local event or a supplier problem.

Weekly is a sensible rhythm. Posts stay prominent on the profile for around a week, so posting weekly keeps something current without flooding anyone. Daily posting rarely pays for the effort unless you genuinely have daily news.

Mistakes worth avoiding

• Queueing three months at once. Something always changes. Prices, hours, a product going out of stock.
• Scheduling an offer past its end date. An expired offer sitting on the profile is worse than no offer.
• Forgetting the button. A post without a call or booking link is a leaflet.
• Never checking the results. Views and clicks per post tell you which offers people actually care about.

Does posting help you rank?

On its own, not much. Posting is not a strong ranking factor and anyone promising otherwise is overselling. What it does is keep the profile looking active, give people something to act on, and fill the space a competitor would otherwise own.

Rankings move on categories, reviews, proximity and how complete the profile is. If that is what you are chasing, check where you actually stand first with a free local rank check before you judge posting by it.

Common questions

Can I schedule posts on Google My Business for free?

Not through Google. Some tools include a small free tier, and most charge per location. Posting by hand stays free, it just costs you the time instead.

How do I schedule GMB posts for multiple locations at once?

Write the post once, select the locations by city, label or group, then set one date. Use placeholders so each branch gets its own town name and number rather than the same block of text.

Will scheduling break if Google changes something?

Occasionally a post is rejected, usually for a phone number in the text or an image that breaks the rules. A decent scheduler tells you which post failed and why, so you can fix and requeue it.

Is there an official Google My Business scheduler?

No. Google’s own help page on creating posts covers publishing immediately, and scheduling is left to third party tools built on the API.

How long does a post stay visible?

Updates generally stay prominent for about a week before older posts move behind a More link. Offers and events follow the dates you set.