Announcing Post to Google My Business version 3! This major plugin update adds a lot of new features you’ve all been asking for, and also improves the plugin from a technical & usability standpoint.

New features

Publish Products! [All premium versions]

The number one feature request was the ability to publish Products to your GBP listing. Previously, there used to be a “Product” post type in Google My Business, but Google removed it a while ago.  It was replaced by the “Product Collections” section where you can showcase your latest products. However, it is not (yet?) possible to manage that section through the official Google My Business API, so there was no way to add it to the plugin.

I’ve previously recommended a workaround which would publish your WooCommerce products as regular “What’s New” or “Offer” posts, but of course this wasn’t an ideal solution.

But we’ve finally cracked the case and figured out a way to publish actual products to your GBP listing! This new feature is available to all premium users of the plugin.

Evergreen content [Pro and up]

The plugin was perfect for auto-publishing your latest content to your Google Business Profile, but what if you have a lot of preexisting content that you want to publish? Having to manually go into each of your old posts and checking the “auto-post” checkbox is far from ideal. Introducing the “Evergreen content” feature! This lets you select your preexisting content in bulk and the plugin will automatically publish random items from your selection based on a schedule you define. The Evergreen content feature is available in the Pro version and up.

Multiple auto-post templates [Pro and up]

Having a single generic auto-post template was sort of sufficient, but with the advent of Products, having multiple would be handy! You can now create multiple auto-post templates for various occasions and assign them to your posts individually or set a default template for a post type. For example, you can assign a different auto-post template to your WooCommerce products, than you are using for your WordPress pages. The ability to create multiple auto-post templates is available in the Pro version and up.

Multi-account support [Agency]

In a perfect world you’d have all of the GBP locations you manage for your clients within a single Google account (and I’d still recommend you to do that!). That’s why the plugin only allowed you to connect a single Google account to it. However, in some cases it might be handy to be able to manage multiple Google accounts from a single installation of the plugin. In the Agency version of the plugin, you can now connect multiple Google accounts. An infinite amount, in fact.

UI Improvements

Pagination, bulk actions

The list of posts and list of created posts are now paginated, and have bulk actions. While this would not cause any problems when “casually” using the plugin, a lot of you power users had the page overflow with GMB posts, this is now fixed. You can now also delete GMB posts in bulk, or delete them individually from your locations.

Other UI changes

• The post list now shows a text preview so you can easily tell your posts apart
• The Dashboard now has its own page (Post to GMB > Dashboard), instead of being hidden in the Settings page
• Items in the post calendar now show an info & option dialog when clicked instead of going to the post directly

Technical improvements

Connection to Google My Business

The way the plugin “connects” to Google has received a massive overhaul. This should result in a more stable connection between the plugin and your Google account(s). With the old method the plugin would sometimes get randomly disconnected, this should now be fixed. While the plugin will try its best to upgrade seamlessly from the old to the new system, you may have reconnect your Google account after installing the update.

Improved error reporting

The plugin would sometimes leave you in the dark a bit if something went wrong. You’d have to manually go to a post and check if there has been a publishing error. The plugin will now show more descriptive error messages in the WordPress dashboard if there has been an issue.

Other technical improvements

• WooCommerce placeholder variables are now built-in by default
• Redundant debug page has been removed

Installing the update

The version 3 upgrade will gradually be rolled out, and will become available in the plugin updates section of your WordPress dashboard. It should be fully rolled out by the end of February, 2022.

If you already want to give the new version a try, you can also install the version 3 update manually. The free version is available here. If you are using the premium version, you can participate in the beta program to get the update. This is available under Post to GMB > Account > Beta program (in your WordPress dash). Enabling the beta program checkbox will make the version 3 update available in the plugin updates section.

Press, affiliation, business inquiries

There is a press kit available for this update which includes screenshots, animated GIFs and branding assets. The contents in the Press kit can be freely used in your coverage & publications.

Download press kit

The Post to Google My Business plugin has an affiliate program offering 20% commission on new subscriptions and recurring commission on renewals. If you have the plugin installed, you can sign up to the affiliate program through Post to GMB > Affiliation. If you do not have the plugin installed, please contact us and outline how- and on what channels you wish to promote the plugin.

If you have any questions about this release or the plugin in general, don’t hesitate to reach out.