Google Posts - Longer Descriptions?

[Scott Rawlins]

Just noticed today that Google Posts content went from 100-300 to max of 1,500 words/characters. Anyone else noticing the same? If so, are you using the max or simply keep it short and sweet?

 

[JoyHawkins]

I'll check with Ben Fisher (the king of posts).

 

[Scott Rawlins]

Also noticing the post I added an hour ago is not going live. It's accepted, just not showing.

 

[BenFisher]

Fantastic spot the Scott. It appears that Google has updated the guidelines to reflect the change, and I can confirm that they are indeed allowing 1500 characters in all post types.

However, the guidelines are stating the ideal length is still 100 - 300 characters.
Make great business posts - Google My Business Help

1. More details: Be clear about the offer/event. You have up to 1,500 characters for the details of your post, but the ideal length is between 150-300 characters.

My take on it is this.
1. 100-300 is still the ideal and suggested way to go. (Actually, we have found 80 to be the sweet spot)
2. I am hoping we do not see people abusing this by copy/pasting articles into Posts, that would not be good for the user experience.
3. More words = more reasons for Google to reject a post. Especially for Lawyers, Insurance and Health Care.

 

[Scott Rawlins]

Thanks @BenFisher. Still not seeing my G Post from a couple hours ago, Hopefully, a temporary bug.

 

[MattPelkey]

I noticed this earlier today as well. Pretty interesting. Thought it was quite the hike from 300 to 1500!

I do agree with what Ben said about keeping the post length in the 100-300 threshold. After that it becomes lengthy, and if someone is going to be reading something longer than that they may as well be doing it on your site via a blog post.

Interesting to see Google make this change. Maybe another step toward turning GMB pages into a one-stop shop source of business info/services without users actually visiting a website

 

[Yan Gilbert]

Kind of strange though to have a post that long while still keeping the listing description shorter. Unless they plan to add some text formatting...

 

[Scott Rawlins]

I agree @Yan Gilbert. In the meantime, I'll stick to short and sweet descriptions.

Also noticing that G Posts are moved further down in the KP.

 

[Phil Rozek]

Great find, Scott, and great color commentary, Ben.

Given that Google didn't allow more GMB post characters to show in the KP (still a very short preview), my guess is this isn't simply an effort to help business owners "say more" with Google My Business posts. Rather, it's probably another way for Google to keep searchers in the search results and not click through to businesses' sites.

 

[GabrielNwatarali]

Awesome find man! I didn't even notice it but I found that less is better because of mobile. Ben's 80 character 'sweet spot' is spot on since Google cuts off some of the text. This way, you can get your message across. Text seems to cut off at 96 characters or after 16 words.

 

[Scott Rawlins]

Yep, I agree. Sticking with shorter is better.