Using Google Business Profiles with Buffer

Publishing regularly on Google Business Profiles (formerly Google My Business) increases organic reach and engagement, ultimately boosting conversions.

Only 21% of brands post regularly to their Google Business Profile. Will you be one of the ones who see the traffic to their site and their visibility in Google Maps increase (improving your ranking)?

With Buffer, publishing consistently on Google Business Profiles is a breeze. Let’s get started!

In this article:

Connecting and refreshing your Google Business Profile
Scheduling Google Business Profile posts
Image specifications for Google Business Profile
Engaging with Google Business Profile posts
Google Business Profile analytics
Google Business Profile error library
FAQ

These features are available for Google Business Profiles

Publishing	Analytics	Engagement
✓

Connecting and refreshing your Google Business Profile

📝 Connection checklist

Is the Google Business Profile verified? It needs to be!
Are you logged into the Google account linked to your Google Business Profile?
Does the Google Business Profile Manager have "Groups" created? We're currently unable to connect when there are "Groups" created within the Google Business Profile Manager.

As a workaround, please invite a new Google Account without "Groups" established to manage the Google Business Profiles and then try connecting using that Manager account.

You can connect multiple Google Business Profiles to Buffer. To connect a Google Business Profile to your Buffer account, you will need to make sure:

you are logged into the Google account linked to your Google Business Profile
your profile must be verified

To see a step-by-step guide and troubleshooting steps, checkout the article: Connect your channels to Buffer.

If your connected Google Business Profile requires a refresh, check out the article Refreshing a channel in Buffer.

Scheduling Google Business Profile posts

The "best time to post" feature in Analyze is not available for Google Business Profiles at this time.

Features & good-to-knows	Notes
Scheduling posts	Checkout our step-by-step guide to scheduling posts on any social channel or peruse Google Business Profile-specific details below. 📝Good-to-knows We currently support What’s New, Offer, and Event type of posts. It's not possible to include a CTA (call to action) button in your post at this time. Google does not allow phone numbers to be included in posts
Tagging / mentions	Google Business Profiles do not support mentions / tagging. For more information on tagging within other social networks, check out our full guide to adding tags (mentions) here.
Hashtags	Google does not hyperlink hashtags, so hashtags sent to Google Business Profile will not be clickable. Learn more about how hashtags work in Buffer here.
Daily posting limit	50 posts per 24 hours. Learn more about Daily posting limits here.
Character limit	1500 characters per post. Learn more about character limits for each social network here.

Image specifications for Google Business Profile

Google Business Profile supports images. Google Business Profiles do not support GIFs or videos due to API limitations.

	Images
Number allowed per post	1
File size	between 10Kb and 10 MB
File types supported	JPG, PNG, WebP (images uploaded as WebP will be converted to PNG), HEIC
Recommended resolution	720px x 720px
Maximum resolution	10,000px x 10,000px
Minimum resolution	250px x 250px
Canva integration	Yes
Alt text	Yes. Learn more about adding alt text to your images here.

Engaging with Google Business Profile posts

Buffer’s engagement features are only available for Facebook and Instagram. Google Business Profiles are not supported within Buffer's engagement features at this time.

Google Business Profile analytics

We unfortunately don’t offer Google Business Profile analytics at this time.

Google Business Profile error library

If you're (unfortunately) hitting errors in Buffer when trying to connect a Google Business Profile, or publish posts to one, the Google Business Profile error library is the place to go for solutions.

FAQ

What will be the timezone for my Event and Offer posts?

Times for Events and Offers will be the local timezone of your Google Business Profile location. For example, if you create an Event type post and the event is for 2 weeks from now at 7PM, it would be 7PM wherever the location is set for your Google Business Profile.

📝Do you have a Google Business Profile feature suggestion? We’d love for you to submit or upvote it here on our feature suggestions board.