How to write a Google Business Profile post that sounds like a crew

Here is the short answer: a good Google Business Profile post reads like something you would say over a fence. One street or neighborhood, one job you actually did this week, one photo from your phone, and one clear next step. Keep the first line under about 90 characters, leave your phone number out of the text, and use the button instead. That is the whole formula. The rest of this post is how to do it in ten minutes without sounding like a marketing agency.

1. Know what a post is for

Posts show up on your profile in Google Search and Maps. They help the person who already found you decide to call you instead of the next crew down the list. They will not pull in strangers on their own, so treat them as the shop window, not the sign on the highway. Our Google Business Profile playbook covers the setup side: categories, service area, photos and reviews. This post is only about the posts.

Google’s own help page lists three post types worth a lawn crew’s time:

• Update. A short note with a photo and an optional button. Use it for most posts.
• Offer. Requires a title and start and end dates, and adds a “View offer” button. Use it for a dated fall job, like a leaf cleanup window.
• Event. Requires a title and dates. Rarely useful for a mowing crew, unless you are running a neighborhood day.

A 2026 guide on post limits puts the body at 1,500 characters and offer and event titles at 58 characters. Updates stay on your profile until newer posts push them down; offers and events drop off when their end date passes.

2. Write the first line like a crew

Only the first 80 to 100 characters show before someone has to tap “More,” according to that same guide. That first line has to carry the whole post. Compare these two:

• Agency voice: “Transform your outdoor space with our premium, professional lawn care solutions!”
• Crew voice: “Finished leaf cleanup on Maple Court today. Two more October openings on this side of town.”

The second one names a place, a job and a reason to act now. It also sounds like a person wrote it. Words like “premium,” “solutions” and “transform” read as filler, and Google’s own guidance asks for posts without text that adds no value.

A simple test: if you would not say the sentence to a customer standing in their driveway, rewrite it.

3. Use a real photo, framed for the card

One honest phone photo beats a stock image every time. A fresh stripe pattern, a cleared bed, a trailer full of leaves, the crew loading up at the curb. Shoot in landscape and keep the subject in the middle of the frame. Posting guides for 2026 recommend about 1200 by 900 pixels (a 4:3 shape), JPG or PNG, and warn that the top and bottom edges can get cropped on mobile.

Do not put a customer’s house number, license plate or face in the shot without asking. And do not stage a before-and-after you did not do. A plain “after” photo with a true caption is enough.

Do not put a customer’s house number, license plate or face in the shot without asking.

4. Leave the phone number out of the text

This one trips up a lot of crews. Google’s posts content policy says post content may not include a phone number, and its help page warns that posts with a phone number in the description might get rejected. Instead, add the “Call now” button, which uses the verified number on your profile. If you want people to request a quote, point a “Learn more” or “Book” button at the one page on your site that has your quote form. Our post on the one website page that matters covers what belongs on it.

Also skip the ALL CAPS, the strings of emojis and the hashtag piles. Those carry over from Facebook and look out of place on Google.

5. A worked example: one week, three posts

These are example posts, not results. Say you mow in one suburb and you are trying to fill the back half of October.

Monday, Update: “Leaf cleanups on the Oak Hill side this week. Beds, fence lines, and haul-away. If your yard is still under it, tap Call and ask for a walk-by.” Photo: the trailer full of leaves. Button: Call now.

Wednesday, Offer: Title “Fall leaf cleanup, Oct 20–31.” Body: “We are booking cleanups on the streets we already mow. Price is set after a quick walk-by, no guessing by the bag. Last dates before our first freeze week.” Dates: Oct 20 to Oct 31. Button: View offer, linked to your quote page.

Friday, Update: “Last mow of the season on a few lawns along Birch Lane today. If you want weekly service again in April, we are holding spots on these streets first.” Photo: a fresh cut with clean edges. Button: Learn more.

Each post takes about five minutes on the Google Maps app or on Search while you are signed in. Three a week is plenty. Some weeks one is fine. The point is that a person checking your profile sees a recent date and a real job, not a post from April.

How you price that leaf job matters more than the post. If you have not set a method yet, start with how to price a leaf job without guessing.

6. Keep a simple rhythm and check what worked

Pick one day for posts, the same way you pick one day for invoices. Keep a short list of post ideas on your phone so you are never staring at a blank box:

• A job you finished today, with the street or neighborhood name.
• A dated opening (“two Thursday spots left on the north side”).
• A seasonal note that is true where you work (leaves, last mow, spring sign-ups).
• An answer to a question customers keep asking, like weekly versus every other week.
• A thank-you to a customer who sent a neighbor, without naming them unless they said yes.

Google shows basic profile performance numbers, such as calls and website clicks, inside the profile’s performance view. Glance at them once a month. If calls bump the week you post dated offers, keep doing that. If nothing moves, change the first line, not the frequency.

What not to do

• Do not paste the same post every week. It reads as automated, and Google asks for posts without auto-generated content.
• Do not type your phone number into the post body. Use the Call button.
• Do not use stock photos of a lawn you never touched.
• Do not promise results you cannot control, like “greenest lawn on the block guaranteed.”
• Do not post reviews you wrote yourself or offer a discount in exchange for one. Our post on asking for reviews without a bribe explains the honest version.
• Do not stuff a city list into the text (“serving Plano, Frisco, Allen, McKinney…”). Name the one neighborhood you were actually in.

Posts work best next to the jobs you are already running this month, like the leaf work in our leaf pricing guide and the follow-ups in the estimate follow-up most crews never send. If you want a short list of homeowners in one ZIP who have not found your profile yet, look at the free sample, or ask for one through the contact page.