Post to Google My Business (Google Business Profile)

FAQ

Can I use this plugin on a localhost installation?

Yes, but you may run into errors if you add a link or image to your post. Google will try to fetch your image/video, or resolve the link to your website, but if your localhost installation can’t be reached from the outside world, it won’t be able to do so.
The quick post feature will not work at all in that case, because it uses the URL and Featured Image of your post.

Why is/are my location(s) grayed out?

Not every Google My Business listing is allowed to create posts on Google My Business (localPostAPI is disabled). This means the plugin can’t create posts on those locations. First, make sure your location is fully verified & live. Business chains (10+ locations) are normally exempt from creating posts, but are temporarily allowed to create them to share updates about the corona virus.

Why are my scheduled posts being published too late/not at all?

Post to Google My Business relies on the WP Cron system to send out scheduled posts. By default, it is only triggered when someone visits your website. If your site doesn’t get a lot of visitors, your posts may be sent out too late. To make the WP Cron system more dependable, you can hook it into the system task scheduler

Why can’t I create posts with a video?

While GBP itself supports creating posts with video, it’s (currently) not possible to create them through the GBP API. So the plugin can not do it either.

Why can’t I create posts with multiple images?

While GBP itself lets you create posts with up to 10 images, the GBP API (currently) only allows a single image to be uploaded. That’s why you can only upload a single image in the plugin.

Why does the plugin require such extensive permissions on my GBP locations?

While ideally we’d ask for as little permissions as possible to make the plugin work, the Google Business Profile API
oddly enough only has a single permission level. It’s either all or nothing. The idea of giving the plugin permission to edit or delete
your GBP location(s) might sound scary, but rest assured, your access tokens are only stored (securely) within your own website. Nor
are the endpoints to make any bad stuff happen implemented in the plugin backend, or the plugin itself. So even if your site were
to be compromised, the access tokens would be useless.

I’m getting a “Fetching image failed” error when creating posts

When creating a post with an image, Google will try to download the post image directly from your website. Hence, it must be directly
accessible when opening the image URL. When you get a “Fetching image failed” error, it means Google is unable to download the image from your website
Services like CloudFlare may have an impact on this. In CloudFlare, turn off any image hotlinking protection or other features that may interfere
with image accessibility. To further debug the issue, you can use a service like httpstatus. Enter the URL of your image
(it is shown along with the error) into the “URLs to check” field. If the returned status is not 200 – OK, there is something wrong!