Why aren’t my Google Business Posts showing up?

Google Business posts not showing up are usually still “Pending”, were “Not approved” under Google’s posts content policy, or have been archived because they are older than six months. Pending also covers profiles that are not verified yet. A live post appears in the “Updates” or “Overview” tab on mobile and in the “From the owner” section on desktop, so look there before you publish it again.

Start with the status, because it tells you which of these applies. One thing a post can’t do is replace your opening hours, which is where our client case comes in.

What does the status of your post tell you?

Open your Business Profile, select Posts and look at the status of each post. Google’s help on posts uses three:

• Live: public on Search and Maps.
• Pending: not shown yet. The post is still uploading or processing, or your profile is not verified.
• Not approved: not shown. The question mark next to the status tells you which policy the post broke.

Google reviews each post against its content policy after you publish it, so a post can go out and still end up as Not approved.

Why doesn’t Google approve a post?

• Contact details in the text. According to the posts content policy, Google may remove posts with unverified phone numbers, email addresses or social media handles. Use the Call now button instead; it uses the verified number of your profile.
• Low-value text. Google asks you to avoid misspellings, extra characters, text that adds no value and auto-generated content.
• Regulated products. Businesses in regulated industries, such as alcohol, tobacco, gambling, weapons or financial services, may post, but not about those products.
• Offers from hotels. Hotels can’t publish offer posts or posts that mention deals or discounts.
• Unsafe or offensive content. Links must lead to trustworthy sites, and offensive language, images or videos are not allowed.

Where do posts appear, and for how long?

• On mobile, in the “Updates” or “Overview” tab of your profile, on Search and Maps.
• On desktop, in the “From the owner” section.
• Posts older than six months are archived unless you set a date range. Offers and events carry their own dates; a plain update doesn’t.

One more source of confusion: when you change your opening hours, Google adds a post about the change to the Updates tab on mobile (help on business hours). If you find a post about new hours that you didn’t write, this is where it came from. You can edit or delete it.

Should a short-notice closure be a post or special hours?

A retail client had to close at short notice on a Saturday in October 2026. We added a notice to the website and prepared two things for Google: special hours marking that Saturday as closed, and a short post explaining the closure. We advised the client to treat the special hours as the essential step. They change the hours Google shows for that date; a post appears in the Updates tab or the “From the owner” section and leaves the hours untouched.

In the end only the special hours were set. The post was never published, so we can’t tell you how it would have performed. After saving, the special hours showed as pending, with a note that the review could take up to 10 minutes. Google also offered to copy them to other profiles in the same account, which we skipped. The steps for special hours are in Why can’t I update my opening hours?

Use posts for news, offers and events, and keep everything customers rely on in the profile fields: a one-day closure belongs in special hours, a longer one in the “Temporarily closed” status. Write posts without contact details, add one clear button and check the status a few minutes after publishing.

How do you get a post live?

1. Make sure your profile is verified. Posts on unverified profiles stay pending.
2. Select Posts → Add post and choose Update, Offer or Event. Offers need a title, dates and times; events need a title and start and end dates.
3. Write a specific title and plain text without phone numbers or email addresses. Add a Button if you want calls or visits to your website.
4. For a planned post, turn on Schedule this post. Select Post; if Google offers to share it with your other profiles, select Skip to keep it on this one.
5. Check the status after publishing. If it says Not approved, open the question mark, fix the cause and publish a corrected version.

Sources

• Business Profile Help: Posts on your Business Profile
• Business Profile Help: Posts content policy
• Business Profile Help: Business hours

Want posts that go live and a profile that shows the right information on every day of the year? We look after your Business Profile, from posts and special hours to verification and local rankings. Book a free initial call or see how we approach search engine optimisation for local businesses.