Google Posts for Colleges and Universities

[DanMyhreVT]

Does anyone have more info on why GBP Posts don't show in SERPs when searching for a college or university? Does anyone know where they do show up?

When you do a search for a college or university, the results typically show info about the school from third party sources, instead of showing GBP info (included a screenshot example below). I can't seem to find any information on where Posts would show up. I checked Google maps results for the university below and they don't show up there.

The only GBP info I can see in results is the website URL under the About title on the right side. I can confirm this because I see the UTM tag in the source code of the URL.

I couldn't find info about this anywhere. Any feedback would be appreciated!

I found this Google Search Help article that talks about where they get info from for search results - Search for colleges & universities - Computer - Google Search Help

 

[ElizabethRule]

I think search intent is at play here. Google is assuming the intent of the search is for information about the school, and thus shows a knowledge panel that highlights info the searcher may be looking for.

I was able to trigger GBP links at the top of the knowledge panel for the search "where is uc merced located" which holds more local intent.

As for where the posts are, I can't get them to trigger so I assume Google doesn't want to show them. Do you have access to a university GBP account that has post ability? I wonder if Universities are able to add posts to their listing.

 

[bearenok]

Hi
Is chat enabled in profile settings?
To keep the chat button active, business owner should respond to all new messages in less than 24 hours.
If owner lose access to chat button, he can turn on chat again

 

[djbaxter]

Hi
Is chat enabled in profile settings?
To keep the chat button active, business owner should respond to all new messages in less than 24 hours.
If owner lose access to chat button, he can turn on chat again

If you mean chat on this site, that feature doesn't exist for several reasons. It's not part of the core Xenforo features for one thing, although there is an addon or two to add it. It's also messy and takes members away from the main forums, plus moderation of the chat content is really not amenable for moderation.

 

[DanMyhreVT]

I think search intent is at play here. Google is assuming the intent of the search is for information about the school, and thus shows a knowledge panel that highlights info the searcher may be looking for.

I was able to trigger GBP links at the top of the knowledge panel for the search "where is uc merced located" which holds more local intent.

As for where the posts are, I can't get them to trigger so I assume Google doesn't want to show them. Do you have access to a university GBP account that has post ability? I wonder if Universities are able to add posts to their listing.

Hello! Thanks for the reply.

I do have access to the GBP account. The Event I posted for UC Merced already happened so the Post won't show up anymore.

However, I did run into the same issue with another school. When doing a search for the school name "The American Musical and Dramatic Academy" the same type of knowledge panel result shows up.

I was able to trigger Posts but only in Google Maps and only for searches with local intent. I added a screenshot below to show you an example.

It's seems like for most Colleges and Universities, this is the only way to trigger Posts. It could really devalue Posts for these schools.

I don't much data to make any conclusions but I'm curious how this impacts views and clicks for Posts. Also curious of how intentional this is on Google's part.

Thanks again for taking a look! Let me know if you have any other thoughts.