You can use the auto-post feature to automatically publish your latest WordPress posts to Google My Business. To use it, simply tick the Auto-post to GMB checkbox before publishing your WordPress post. As a result the plugin will automatically create a new post on Google My Business when you hit Publish.

Since Google My Business posts do not support rich text formatting, the plugin will automatically remove any HTML code, shortcodes and any other markup from your GMB post.

location of auto-post checkbox

The location of the auto-post checkbox in new Gutenberg blocks editor, and the classic editor

While the Post to Google My Business plugin already makes beautiful GMB posts out of the box, you can tweak it to suit your needs! Lets dive in!

Turning auto-post on by default

The auto-post checkbox is unchecked by default. This prevents accidentally publishing items to GMB that were not supposed to be published. However, if you want the checkbox to be checked by default when you create a new post, you can enable this in the settings. In order to do this, go to Post to GMB > Settings > Auto-post settings and enable Post to GMB by default.

auto-post by default setting

Check the auto-post checkbox by default

To prevent double-posting, the auto-post checkbox will only be automatically checked when the WordPress post is published initially. On updates it will be disabled by default.

Note: When this setting is enabled, posts that are created on your website outside of the editor will also be auto-published to GMB. This can be extremely helpful if you’re using a service such as Zapier, IFTT or Integromat to add content to your WordPress site. But it is also something you should be aware of, as it can lead to “unexpected” posts on your GMB listing.

Auto-post based on categories or tags

Using the Pro package or higher, you can enable auto-post for specific categories or tags. When you assign a WordPress post to a category or tag where this option is enabled, it will be auto-published to GMB. This is a very handy feature to fine-tune what you’re publishing.

Autopost to GMB checkbox

Customizing the auto-post template

You can customize the default auto-post template in the plugin settings. In order to customize it, go to Post to GMB > Settings > Auto-post settings in your WordPress Dashboard.

editing the auto-post template

Auto-post template editor

Changing the default post image

By default, the Featured Image will be used as your GMB post image. However, you can also have the plugin try to fetch an image from the post content. You can do this by enabling Fetch image from post content under the Advanced post settings.

Optionally, you can simply upload a static image to your post that will be used for every post.

To clarify, the plugin will process the images in the following order: custom image > image from content > featured image. So if you haven’t uploaded a custom image, it will try to find one in the post content. If it doesn’t find any, it will use the Featured image (if any). If it doesn’t have a Featured image either, your resulting GMB post will have no image.

What variables can I use?

You can use a multitude of variables in your post template which will be automatically replaced by their corresponding value (if any).

Post Variables

These variables contain details about the WordPress post you are currently editing.

Common variables

  • %post_title% – The post title
  • %post_content% – The Post content
  • %post_excerpt% – The post excerpt
  • %post_date% – The post date in local time
  • %post_date_gmt% – The post date in GMT time

Others

  • %ID% – The post ID
  • %post_author% – The post author ID
  • %post_password% – The post password
  • %post_status%
  • %comment_status%
  • %ping_status%
  • %post_name%
  • %to_ping%
  • %pinged%
  • %post_modified%
  • %post_modified_gmt%
  • %post_content_filtered%
  • %post_parent%
  • %guid%
  • %menu_order%
  • %post_type%
  • %post_mime_type%
  • %comment_count%
  • %filter%

Author variables

These variables contain the details of the author of the current WordPress post

Common variables

  • %author_first_name%
  • %author_last_name%
  • %author_nickname% – The value of the Display name field
  • %author_display_name% – The value of the Display name dropdown box
  • %author_user_email%
  • %author_user_nicename% – Username
  • %author_user_url% – User website

Others

  • %author_description%
  • %author_jabber%
  • %author_yim%
  • %author_aim%

Site variables

These variables contain details about your WordPress website.

Common

  • %site_name%
  • %site_description%
  • %site_url%

Others

  • %site_pingback_url%
  • %site_atom_url%
  • %site_rdf_url%
  • %site_rss_url%
  • %site_rss2_url%
  • %site_comments_atom_url%
  • %site_comments_rss2_url%

Location variables

These variables contain details about the Google My Business location that you are publishing your post to.

  • %location_primaryPhone% – The primary phone number of the business location
  • %location_websiteUrl% – The website of  the business location

Using the auto-post feature in combination with these variables allows you to create unique Google My Business posts without having to write a single word.

The premium version of Post to Google My Business allows the usage of these variables in any text field. Additionally you can use the Spintax feature to make your posts even more unique.

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