Local SEO 10 min read

Google Business Profile Posts for Tradies: What to Post Every Week

Your Google Business Profile is usually the first thing a homeowner in your suburb sees when they search for a plumber or a sparky. Most tradies set it up once and never touch it again. A short post every week keeps the listing looking alive, gives people a reason to tap Call, and takes less time than smoko.

Why a busy tradie should bother posting at all

Google Business Profile posts are short updates, usually a photo and a couple of sentences with a button, that sit on your listing in Search and Maps. They are free, they take a few minutes, and they show up right where people are deciding who to ring.

Posts do not push you up the rankings on their own. What they do is make your listing look current and trustworthy next to three competitors who have not posted since 2022. More people tap Call, visit your site or book a time, and those actions are what Google pays attention to over the long run.

Where your posts actually appear (and who sees them)

On a phone, posts show in the Updates area of your profile when someone taps through from Maps or the search results. On desktop they sit further down the listing panel. Recent photos you add to the profile can surface alongside them.

Not everyone scrolls that far. The people who do are comparing two or three tradies before they ring anyone, and that is exactly who should see a job photo from last Tuesday in their own suburb.

  • Homeowners working through a shortlist before calling
  • Repeat customers checking whether you still do a certain service
  • Real estate agents and property managers vetting a new contractor
  • People who found you through a review and want proof you are still trading

The post types Google gives you, translated for the tools

Google offers a handful of post formats. You do not need all of them. Here is what each one is good for on a trade business.

  • Update: the everyday post. Job photos, a quick tip, a service you want to push, or a change to your hours over the Christmas shutdown.
  • Offer: has a start and end date and can carry a code or terms. Good for a seasonal special, say a gutter clean in Logan before storm season or a pre-summer air con service in Joondalup.
  • Event: dated posts for things like a Saturday showroom open day, a community sponsorship or a limited booking window.

Most tradies will live on Updates with an Offer once a month. Events are rarely worth it unless you are sponsoring the local footy club.

A four-week posting rotation you can run from the ute

Most tradies stop posting because they sit down to write one and have no idea what to say. Fix that with a rotation: four themes, one per week, repeat forever.

Week one: the job of the week

Pick one job you finished, take a decent photo, and describe it in two or three sentences: suburb, the problem, what you did. 'Replaced a corroded hot water unit in Frankston South, the old one was leaking onto the slab. New unit installed and running by lunchtime.' That is the whole post.

Week two: the question you got asked three times

Every trade has questions that come up constantly. Do you charge a call-out fee? Can a switchboard upgrade be done in a day? Will insurance cover a roof leak? Answer one a month in plain language. It pre-qualifies enquiries and it uses the exact words people type into Google.

Week three: the offer or the seasonal nudge

This is where the Offer format earns its keep. Tie it to the calendar rather than inventing a discount. Air con tune-ups in October before the first heatwave. Gutter and downpipe checks across south-east Queensland before the storms. A smoke alarm test in the lead-up to daylight saving ending. Give it a date range and a clear price, say $149 for a split system service.

Week four: proof and people

A photo of your apprentice on the tools, a screenshot of a five-star review with the customer's first name only, or the van parked outside a job in Parramatta. This is the post that reminds people there is a real, licensed human behind the listing. Add your licence number to the text if your state requires it on advertising.

  • Post on the same day each week; Monday morning with a coffee works for most
  • Keep a folder on your phone called GBP and drop one photo in it every week
  • Write the post in the app on the way to the first job (passenger seat, not driving)
  • If you miss a week, do not double up, just pick the rotation up again next week

Writing the post: templates you can copy

Google gives you a lot of room but nobody reads a wall of text on a listing. LocaliQ's guide to Business Profile posts suggests keeping each one to roughly 150 to 300 characters, which is two or three short sentences. Lead with the useful bit and finish with what to do next.

Three fill-in-the-blank starters:

  • Job post: '[Job type] done in [suburb] this week. [One-line problem]. [One-line result]. Need the same sorted? Tap Call or book online.'
  • Question post: 'Asked a lot: [question]? Short answer: [one sentence]. [One caveat if needed]. Ring us if you are not sure.'
  • Offer post: '[Service] for $[price] until [date], [service area]. Includes [what is included]. Book through the link before the spots go.'

Use the words a customer would search for: 'blocked drain Frankston', 'switchboard upgrade Logan', 'Colorbond roof repair'. Skip the trade jargon unless the customer would use it too. And do not stuff your phone number into the body; Google may knock the post back because the number already lives on your profile, and the Call button does that job anyway.

Photos that pass the pub test

A blurry photo of a hole in a wall does nothing for you. A clean before-and-after does a lot, and it only takes a bit of care on site.

  • Wipe the lens; it lives in a pocket full of dust and it shows
  • Shoot in daylight or with the site lights on, and stand so you are not casting a shadow across the work
  • Tidy the immediate area first: tools in the bag, packaging in the bin
  • Landscape orientation crops better in the listing than portrait
  • Get the finished work in frame, not just the mess you started with
  • Ask before photographing inside someone's home, and keep house numbers and faces out of shot

Mistakes that get posts rejected or quietly ignored

Google does bounce some posts. Others go live and simply do nothing. Both are avoidable.

  • Typos and all-caps headlines. It reads as spam to Google and to customers.
  • Phone numbers, email addresses and web links jammed into the body text.
  • Pushy sales language like 'BEST PLUMBER IN MELBOURNE, CALL NOW!!!' Say what you did instead.
  • Posting the same generic stock image every week. Real photos of real jobs win.
  • Promising something the profile cannot back up, like 24/7 service when your listed hours say 7 to 5.
  • Going quiet for three months, then posting five times in one day. Steady beats bursts.

Check the button as well. Every post can carry an action like Call, Book or Learn more. An offer on hot water systems should not land on your generic homepage; send it to the hot water page or straight to a booking form.

The bit that actually makes the post pay

A post is only worth doing if it turns into a conversation. The most common outcome of a good post is someone tapping Call. On a normal Tuesday that call arrives while you are on a roof in Logan with both hands busy, and it goes to voicemail. Most people do not leave one; they go back to the search results and ring the next tradie.

That is the leak to plug. A missed-call text-back service like InstantLead sends an automatic text the moment a call rings out, asks what the job is, and captures the address and details so you can call back at smoko already knowing what you are dealing with. Pair it with a booking link in your Offer posts and after-hours enquiries can lock in a time without you touching the phone.

  • Open Performance in your Business Profile once a month and look at calls, website taps and direction requests
  • Compare the weeks you posted against the weeks you did not
  • Note which theme got the most taps and lean into it
  • Count how many of those calls you actually answered, and fix that number first

Do that for three months and you will know whether posting is worth your Monday coffee. For most trades it is.

Frequently Asked Questions

How often should a tradie post on Google Business Profile?
Once a week is the sweet spot. It is enough to keep the listing looking active without eating into your day, and it lines up neatly with a four-week theme rotation. If weekly is too much, fortnightly still beats silence. What you want to avoid is posting in bursts and then disappearing for months, because the profile looks abandoned again very quickly.
Do Google Business Profile posts help you rank higher on Maps?
Not directly. Google has never treated posts as a ranking factor in their own right. They work indirectly: a listing with fresh photos and updates gets more taps on Call, Website and Directions than a stale one, and that engagement is something Google does notice over time. Treat posts as a conversion tool first and a ranking tool a distant second.
What should I post if I have no new jobs to show?
Use one of the other rotation themes. Answer a common customer question, run a seasonal reminder like a pre-summer air con service, or post a team photo with your licence number. You can also revisit an older job you never shared. Quiet weeks are the reason a rotation exists; you should never be stuck for a topic.
Can I put my phone number or a discount code in a post?
Skip the phone number. Google already shows it on your profile and posts with numbers in the body are sometimes rejected as redundant. Discount or promo codes are fine and the Offer format has a dedicated field for them, along with a start date, end date and terms. Keep the code short and make sure whoever answers the phone knows it exists.
How long does a post stay visible?
Standard updates drift down the profile as newer posts arrive and stop being shown prominently after a week or so, which is why weekly posting matters. Offers and Events stay visible until the end date you set. Older posts remain in your account history, so you can copy and refresh a post that performed well rather than writing it from scratch.
Can my partner or office person post for me?
Yes. You can add another person as a manager on the profile so they can publish posts, upload photos and reply to reviews without having your login. Plenty of tradie businesses run it this way: the tradie sends a photo and a one-line description from site, and someone in the office writes it up and publishes on the set day each week.

Turn profile taps into booked jobs

A weekly post gets more people tapping Call on your Google Business Profile. The hard part is answering when you are on the tools. InstantLead texts back every missed call within seconds, uses AI to capture the job details and address, and lets customers book a time online so after-hours enquiries do not walk to the next listing. It is built for Australian tradies and takes about ten minutes to set up. Your first month is free at portal.instantlead.com.au/register, and if you would rather talk it through first, get in touch and we will show you what it looks like on your own number.

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