In short and in plain language
You can show short posts in your Google profile. There are updates, offers and events. An offer needs a title, a date and a time.
A post without an end date stays up for a long time. Google only removes it after six months. So delete old posts yourself.
A post can have a button. The button should lead to a page on your website. That page has all the facts about the deal.
Do not write a phone number in the text. Google may reject the post. Use the call button instead.
In Lower Saxony, stores may not open on Advent Sundays on request. A late evening on a weekday is allowed.
From late October, many businesses in and around Hildesheim plan their Advent promotions: a discount on the winter range, a late shopping evening, changed hours between Christmas and New Year. For retail, a lot is at stake: German retailers generate 18.5 percent of their annual revenue in the last two months of the year (HDE). The details live on the website, but many customers see the Business Profile in Google Search or on Google Maps first. There you can publish posts that inform people about news, offers or events (Google Business Profile Help). Each post type has its own fields, and a post without a date range stays up longer than most owners expect: posts older than six months are archived unless a date range is set (Google Business Profile Help). This article shows which type fits which purpose, what a plan from November to January looks like, what to watch for with offers and events in Lower Saxony and how to review the results in January.
Key takeaways
- Google offers the post types update, offer and event. An offer requires a title, dates and a time; an event requires a title plus start and end dates (Google Business Profile Help).
- Posts older than six months are archived unless a date range is set (Google Business Profile Help). An Advent notice without a date range can therefore stay up until spring, so delete it yourself after the holidays.
- In Lower Saxony, Sunday opening on application may not be approved for the Advent Sundays (Section 5 NLöffVZG); on weekdays, goods may generally be sold without time limits (Section 3 NLöffVZG). Late shopping evenings belong on a weekday.
- Every post links to its own page on the website instead of the home page. 73 percent of internet users aged 16 and over want to check online what a local store offers before they visit (Bitkom).
- Anyone announcing a price reduction on goods to consumers states the lowest price of the previous 30 days (Section 11 PAngV). Phone numbers in the post text can lead to rejection.
- Performance data counts views, calls and website clicks and has a separate metric for offers (Google Business Profile Help). Campaign parameters in the post link also show which promotion page received visits.
Update, offer, event: which post type to use
Google distinguishes the post types “update”, “offer” and “event” in the Business Profile (Google Business Profile Help). An “update” shares news and useful information and can include a description, a photo or video and an action button with a link. An “offer” promotes a deal; it requires a title, dates and a time, and Google automatically adds a “View offer” button. A description, photo or video, coupon code, link and terms and conditions are optional. An “event” requires a title, start and end dates and times; if no time is entered, the event shows as all-day on the dates in question.
For the Advent season, this means the nature of the message decides the type, not the design. A discount on the winter range or a gift card promotion is an offer. An Advent evening with a reading, a craft hour for children or an open workshop day is an event. Changed opening hours, a new delivery or the pickup of ordered gifts are updates. If you create an event as an update, you give away the date and time that the profile would otherwise display prominently.
The help center also describes where posts appear: on mobile in the “Updates” or “Overview” tabs of the profile, on desktop in the “From the owner” section, in both Google Search and Google Maps (Google Business Profile Help). Anyone reading a post has already opened the profile: they searched for the business or found it on the map. Posts are therefore less advertising for strangers than information for people who are almost at your door. How the profile and the website work together in local search is covered on our page about local SEO in Hildesheim.
| Post type | Required details per Google Help | Button | Fits during Advent for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Update | no required fields named; description, photo or video and button possible | action button with link | hours between the holidays, pickup, delivery notes |
| Offer | title, dates and time | “View offer” is added automatically | Advent discount, gift card promotion, offers for business customers |
| Event | title, start and end dates, times (all-day without a time) | action button possible | Advent evening, reading, workshop or farm day |
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Run time: why a date range belongs in every post
The key sentence for planning appears as a tip in the help center: posts older than six months are archived unless a date range is set (Google Business Profile Help). For an update without a date range, this means a notice such as “Open until 8 pm on Saturdays during Advent”, published in late November, can remain in the profile until May. Anyone opening the profile in spring reads an announcement that stopped applying months ago, and may call to ask.
Offers and events come with dates from the start because Google requires them. What the profile shows after the end date, however, the help center does not describe in detail. Your own check is the reliable route: after the last day of the promotion, open the post, see whether it still appears and delete it or replace it with a current one if needed. Editing and deleting after publication work through the three-dot menu next to the post, and if something changes, a post can be edited at any time (Google Business Profile Help).
That leads to a simple rule: every post gets an expiry date in the business calendar when it is created, even if Google does not ask for one. If you publish an update for the time between Christmas and New Year, add an entry for your first working day in January: delete the post, check the opening hours, create the next post.
A post does not replace special hours. The hours themselves belong in the profile’s special opening hours; how to enter them for public holidays and company vacations, and which automatic post appears after a change, is covered in our article company holidays in your Google profile: setting special hours. The update post adds what no time field can hold: when you reopen, how pickups work and where urgent requests should go.
Schedule instead of writing the night before
The post plan from November to January
A plan for three months fits on one page. It starts with the dates that are fixed and assigns post types to them. In 2026 the first Sunday of Advent falls on November 29, Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve on a Thursday, New Year’s Day on a Friday. Two Sundays in November enjoy special protection in Lower Saxony: on National Day of Mourning and on the Sunday of the Dead, November 15 and 22 in 2026, public events are generally prohibited unless they serve spiritual uplift or a higher interest of art, science or adult education and respect the solemn character of the day (Section 6 NFeiertagsG). An Advent kickoff with entertainment therefore does not belong on November 22.
The second limit concerns retail. In Lower Saxony, Sunday opening on application may not be approved for the Advent Sundays, nor for December 27 if it falls on a Sunday (Section 5 NLöffVZG), which it does in 2026. Across a municipality, at most six Sundays per calendar year may be approved, in each local district at most four Sundays, each for no more than five hours a day; recognized excursion destinations have a higher maximum (Section 5 NLöffVZG). On weekdays, by contrast, goods may be sold without time limits (Section 3 NLöffVZG). A late Advent shopping evening is therefore an event on a weekday, not a Sunday opening. On December 24 and 31, opening from 2 pm is only permitted for a few exceptions (Section 3 NLöffVZG).
| Period (sample 2026/27) | Post type | Content | Target on the website |
|---|---|---|---|
| November 2 to 13 | none yet | decide promotions, take photos, create promotion pages | prepare pages |
| from November 16 | Event | announce the Advent evening with date, time and program | event page with program and directions |
| December 1 to 24 | Offer | Advent promotion with title, run time, time and terms, scheduled in advance | promotion page with range and terms |
| from December 21 | Update | hours between the holidays, pickup, availability | page with opening hours and contact options |
| from January 4 | Update | exchanges, redeeming gift cards, inventory days | page on exchanges or gift cards |
| mid-January | none | delete expired posts, review performance data, take notes for next year | review per promotion page |
The dates are a sample for a store. A trade business sets other priorities, such as appointments before the turn of the year or availability between the holidays; a restaurant plans Christmas parties and gift cards. What every plan shares is the order: first the page exists on the website, then the post that points to it. When the website itself should be ready for December is shown in our timeline for the Christmas trade. How a store website presents its range and seasonal promotions on an easily maintained page is described on our page about web design for retail.
Every post needs a target on the website
For the action button, the help center names a clear target: a website where customers can take the action, such as ordering online or getting more information (Google Business Profile Help). A typical everyday mistake is linking to the home page: anyone who taps “View offer” and lands on the general home page has to search for the promotion first. Each promotion therefore gets its own page, and the post links exactly there.
The demand is documented: 73 percent of internet users aged 16 and over want to be able to check online information on the current local product range in advance, and 74 percent want to reserve products online in advance (Bitkom). The survey covered 1,180 internet users in Germany (Bitkom) and asked which services would make brick-and-mortar retail more attractive to them. A post alone cannot meet this expectation because it only holds a few sentences. The promotion page can: range, terms, hours, directions and, where it fits, a reservation.
- Title and run time of the promotion, worded the same as in the post
- What exactly applies: range, terms, exclusions, coupon code
- For price reductions on goods, the lowest price of the previous 30 days (Section 11 PAngV)
- Opening hours on the promotion days and directions
- A contact option that fits the promotion: reservation, inquiry or call
- The end of the promotion, and afterwards a pointer to the next offer
For events, a dedicated page pays off twice. Google Search Central lists Germany, with German as the language, among the regions where the event search experience is available; among the requirements are that each event has a unique URL with markup and that its name, start and location are stated correctly (Google Search Central). Discounts, vouchers and opening hours must explicitly not be marked up as events, the same separation that applies to post types. How structured data works in general is explained in our article on rich snippets for local businesses.
So that the promotion page later shows how many visits came from the profile, add campaign parameters to the link in the post, for example utm_source, utm_medium and utm_campaign. Web analytics tools that evaluate these parameters then report the visits separately. The address of the promotion page stays the same over time; it is refilled every year instead of being created anew. Our web design from Hildesheim helps with building and designing such pages, and conversion optimization with the question of what on the page leads to an inquiry.
Offers: run time, terms and price information
An offer post is quick to create and quick to misunderstand. Title, dates and time are required (Google Business Profile Help); everything else is optional, and that is exactly where questions arise. A title such as “Advent promotion” says nothing about what applies. A better title names the item and the benefit, and the description clarifies the limits: which items, from which purchase value, whether the promotion also applies in the online shop and whether it can be combined with other discounts. For these details the post has its own field for terms and conditions, plus one for a coupon code.
For prices, one rule affects many promotions: anyone obliged to state a total price must, whenever a price reduction for goods is announced to consumers, state the lowest total price they charged within the 30 days before the reduction (Section 11 PAngV). Exceptions include individual price reductions and perishable goods whose price is cut because they are about to spoil. A Business Profile post that names a reduced price for goods can also be such an announcement. If the post names a specific discount, the reference price therefore belongs in the post itself and in full on the promotion page. How to present prices clearly on the website overall is covered in our article on publishing prices on your website. If in doubt, have the wording checked legally in advance.
Prices are on customers’ minds: ahead of the 2025 Christmas season, 83 percent of retailers in a survey of 300 retail companies expected customers to pay more attention to price because of price trends (HDE). At the same time, the association names gift cards as the most popular Christmas gifts (HDE). A gift card promotion is therefore an obvious offer post, especially for businesses that do not want to or cannot discount goods: hair salons, workshops, restaurants or course providers. For restaurants that also host Christmas parties during Advent, our section on web design for restaurants shows how reservations, the menu and a dedicated area for celebrations and events come together on the website.
Hotels and contact details in the text
Events: date, time and holiday law
An event in the profile works like a calendar entry: title, start and end dates, times. Without a time, Google shows the event as all-day on the dates in question (Google Business Profile Help). For an Advent evening that starts in the early evening, this makes a real difference: “all-day” can draw people into the store in the morning, who then find an ordinary shopping day. Times therefore belong in every event post, even if the form does not enforce them.
Multi-day formats such as an Advent weekend get one post with start and end dates. Recurring evenings, for example every Thursday during Advent, are better created as individual events: each evening then carries its own title, date and program, and a canceled date can be deleted without touching the others.
An evening date meets a wish many people express: 50 percent of internet users aged 16 and over say that longer opening hours, for example after 8 pm, would make brick-and-mortar retail more attractive to them, and 40 percent would like to shop in stores more often but cannot because of the opening hours (Bitkom). An Advent evening on a weekday is the chance to invite exactly these people, and the event post tells them when.
Planning also means checking holiday law. Besides National Day of Mourning and the Sunday of the Dead, the Lower Saxony public holidays act protects the hours from 7 to 11 am on Sundays and public holidays: during that time, among other things, events serving entertainment or amusement are prohibited unless a higher interest of art, science or adult education applies or they are specifically permitted (Section 5 NFeiertagsG). On Christmas Eve, public dance events are prohibited (Section 9 NFeiertagsG). For the typical Advent evening on a weekday this does not matter, but it does for an entertainment program on a Sunday morning or a dance event on December 24. If in doubt, ask your town or municipal public order office before the post goes live.
Photos, text and what leads to rejection
Posts can contain text, photos or videos (Google Business Profile Help). For photos in the profile, Google names the JPG or PNG format, a file size of 10 KB to 5 MB and a recommended resolution of 720 pixels in height and width; videos may be at most 30 seconds long and up to 75 MB in size (Google Business Profile Help). The photo should be in focus and well lit, without heavy editing and without too many filters. For Advent, real photos from the business work well: the decorated store window, the table set for the Advent evening, the gift card at the register. Why your own photos build more trust than archive images is explained in our article real photos instead of stock images.
After publication, Google reviews every post against the content policy. The status shows the result: “Live” means publicly visible, “Pending” means the post is still being processed or the profile is not verified, “Not approved” means it violates a policy; the question mark next to the status shows which one (Google Business Profile Help). Check the status on the day of publication so that a rejection does not surface only after the promotion. If a post stays on “Pending”, take a look at the profile’s verification; how it works is described in our article on how to verify your Business Profile.
One restriction hits Advent promotions in particular: for goods and services subject to legal restrictions, businesses may create posts but may not post content related to the products themselves. Google names, among others, alcohol, tobacco, pharmaceutical products, health and medical devices, fireworks and financial services (Google Business Profile Help). A wine shop can therefore announce its Advent evening but should not advertise mulled wine in the post; a retailer selling New Year’s fireworks posts about opening hours, not about the range. The details then go on the website the post links to.
- No phone number, email address or social media handles in the text; use “Call now” or a link instead
- No spelling mistakes, no extra characters, no text without added value
- For products subject to legal restrictions, no reference to the product in the post
- Link only to your own website, to the matching promotion page
- Title, dates and times worded the same as on the promotion page
Review: what the performance data shows
Whether the effort paid off becomes clear in January. The profile provides performance data on views, searches and actions, but only for verified profiles (Google Business Profile Help). For posts, three values are especially revealing: calls through the call button, website clicks and the “Offers” metric, which shows how often users viewed and clicked on offers in the profile. The help center describes website clicks as clicks on the website link in the profile; whether a click on a post’s button counts there, it does not say.
Two details help with reading the data. The “Views” value counts individual visitors: a user can only be counted once per day (Google Business Profile Help). And searches are updated at the start of each month; it can take up to 5 days for them to appear (Google Business Profile Help). The search terms for December are therefore complete in the first days of January at the earliest. For a comparison, choose a period in the report, such as November 1 to January 6, and set it beside the same period of the previous year.
The more precise answer comes from the website. The campaign parameters in the post link show how many visits per promotion page came from the profile and what happened next: a reservation, an inquiry, a call via the page. Add a measurement without any technology: asking at the register or on the phone how someone heard about the promotion. Which numbers Search Console adds is shown in our article on reading Google Search Console data.
After the holidays: clean up and take notes for next year
In January, post plans tend to be left lying around. The Advent promotion is over, the holiday notice is still in the profile and the promotion page keeps advertising offers that no longer apply. A few steps prevent this: delete expired posts, switch the promotion pages to “This promotion has ended” with a pointer to the current offer, and file the performance data with a date.
Then the plan for next year begins, starting with what worked this time. Which promotion brought clicks and inquiries, which post was rejected and why, which promotion page was visited often but rarely used? Anyone who notes this in January has a template in the fall instead of a blank page. January also suits bigger projects: if you want to use the quiet weeks for a new website, you will find the timeline in our article planning a website relaunch: going live in the quiet season.
Posts are only one part of the profile. Categories, photos, reviews and opening hours carry visibility all year; our guide to optimizing your Google Business Profile sums up the basics. If you would rather not maintain the profile yourself, you will find ongoing management with a post plan, photos and replies to reviews on our page about the Google Business Profile.
A post in the profile is information for people who are almost at your door. It should be as precise as the sign on the store door.
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