Google Is Testing Posts Higher on Your Business Panel

What was seen, and what wasn't

Here's the sourced version, kept short because the evidence is short.

Google Posts are the small updates, offers and event notices a business publishes from its profile. In 2018 Google moved that section "to the bottom area of the local knowledge panel," per Search Engine Roundtable's coverage at the time, close to the footer of the panel. Schwartz's October 19 piece says it now seems to be moving back up. Fisher's own report adds the detail that matters most: the position flipped back and forth about every three days.

Schwartz also suggests that a higher spot will probably push more businesses to start posting. That's his read, not a Google statement.

Here's what nobody has: a Google announcement, a rollout date, a share of searches affected, or any number on how much more attention a higher Post gets. The reporting is two people looking at their screens. A test that flips every three days is a test that can end any day.

Why a test still earns ten minutes

Panel position decides what gets read. A section at the footer of a card is a section most visitors never scroll to, which is the likely reason posting felt pointless for years. If the section sits higher, it sits in front of people who are deciding whether to call you.

That matters most for the things a post can say that your description can't. Under Google's updated policy as reported earlier this month, time-bound offers and prices are pushed out of the listing itself, while posts remain the place for offers and updates. A higher Posts section would make that the more visible home for "closed Thursday for the holiday" or "booking open for November."

We covered the other half of this recently too. Google brought back view counts for Posts in September, which means you can now check whether anyone is looking at yours. A possible placement change plus a working counter is the first time in years the feature comes with both a reason and a way to check.

A cheap way to run your own test

You don't need to rebuild a content calendar for a test that might vanish. You need one real post and one number.

1. Publish one post with something true and current in it. Hours for an upcoming holiday, a service you added, an opening in the schedule. Keep contact details and outside links out of it, since the post rules reported this month restrict those.
2. Look at your own panel. Search your business name on desktop and on your phone, and note where the Posts section sits. Do it a few times across a week, since the reported flip is about every three days.
3. Check the view count on that post after a week. Open the Posts section of your dashboard. The count combines Search and Maps views.
4. Write the date and the number down. If you post again in a month, you have something to compare against instead of a feeling.

That's the whole experiment. If the count is low, you've lost ten minutes. If it's decent, you've learned that your customers do read the section, which is worth more than any advice from a blog.

Moves to skip

• Scheduling six months of posts today. A test that flips every few days gives you no basis for a volume decision.
• Paying someone to flood your profile. Higher placement for a section doesn't make filler content perform. Posts still have to say something a customer wants to know.
• Copying your website's ad copy into a post. Prices and calls-to-action are the exact patterns the new policy language targets in the listing, and phone numbers, email addresses and unrelated links are restricted in posts. Read the live policy page before pasting anything.
• Treating one screenshot as a ranking factor. Position on the panel is about display. It says nothing about whether Posts help you rank in the map pack, and nobody has claimed they do.
• Ignoring it entirely because 2018 taught you to. The old advice was sound for the old layout. The layout is the thing that may be changing.

I ran a grooming salon for years, and the profile updates were the task that got done once and then forgotten. That's the normal pattern. A feature that comes back after eight years is a good excuse to check on the thing you set and forgot, and that includes more than Posts. Your hours, your categories and your description deserve the same look, and the fuller list lives in our local SEO guide for small businesses.

FAQ

Is Google officially moving Posts higher on the business panel?

Not as of October 19, 2026. Search Engine Roundtable reported it as something Google "seems" to be doing, and the article doesn't say Google confirmed it. Treat it as a test.

Where did Google Posts used to appear?

In 2017 they sat directly below the address information, per a screenshot Search Engine Roundtable cited. In late September 2018 Google moved them to the bottom of the local panel, near the footer.

Should I start posting weekly because of this?

Not on this evidence alone. Publish one post, watch its view count for a week, and decide from your own number. The test could end before you've built a habit around it.

Can I see how many people viewed my posts?

Yes. Google's September 2026 Small Business Bulletin announced that post view counts are rolling out in the Business Profile dashboard, combining Search and Maps views. Our write-up of that change covers the limits, including the lack of API access.

Do Google Posts help me rank in the map pack?

Nothing in this reporting says so. The change described is about where the Posts section is displayed on the panel, not about ranking.

Can I put my phone number or a discount in a post?

Per the October 2026 policy reporting we covered, offers and updates are allowed in posts, but phone numbers, email addresses, social media links and links to unrelated sites are not. That reporting was a paraphrase of secondary sources, so check Google's live policy page for the exact wording.

Why does the position flip every few days?

Fisher reported it flipping roughly every three days, which is what an experiment being shown to different groups of users or panels would look like. Google hasn't explained it, so that's an inference, not a fact.

If you'd rather someone else watch your listing for changes like this one, that's part of what website care covers.