Description
GBPoster turns your WordPress posts into a steady stream of Google Business Profile (GBP) updates. It builds the queue, picks slots based on your cadence, formats the caption, prepares the featured image and the tracked link — then you click once to publish in GBP.
Why semi-manual?
Google deprecated the Local Posts API in August 2024. Direct API posting to the GBP Updates section is no longer available for the vast majority of accounts, and the third-party tools that still “auto-post” usually do so by running headless browsers, which violates Google’s Terms of Service and risks getting your profile suspended.
GBPoster takes the safer path: it automates the tedious 80% (scheduling, image, caption, tracked link, queue tracking) and leaves the final ~10-second “Publish” step to you, inside the official GBP interface.
How the handoff works
- New WordPress posts are added to the GBPoster queue automatically (configurable per post type and category).
- The scheduler picks a posting slot using either time-of-day slots or a cooldown window.
- When a slot is due, the next item appears in your Dashboard widget and on the GBPoster Queue screen.
- Click Prepare & open GBP. GBPoster:
- copies the formatted caption to your clipboard,
- downloads the featured image to your computer,
- opens your GBP composer in a new browser tab.
- In GBP: paste the caption, drop in the image, set the call-to-action, click Publish.
- Click Mark posted back in WordPress.
Features
- Custom queue with statuses: Pending Ready Prepared Posted (or Skipped)
- Time-of-day slots OR cooldown-hours cadence, with optional weekend skipping
- Auto-queue on publish, filterable by post type and category
- Per-post opt-out checkbox in the editor sidebar
- Dashboard widget showing the next item ready to send
- UTM-tagged Learn-more links (utm_source / medium / campaign configurable)
- Featured image GBP image, title + excerpt caption, permalink call-to-action
- No external services, no API keys, no recurring subscriptions
- Translation-ready (text domain: gbposter)
Disclaimer
This plugin is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Google LLC. “Google” and “Google Business Profile” are trademarks of Google LLC. GBPoster does not communicate with any Google API; you complete the publishing step manually inside the official GBP interface in your own browser.
External services
GBPoster does not send any data to external services from your WordPress server. No analytics, no telemetry, no third-party APIs.
When you click “Prepare & open GBP” inside the WordPress admin, your browser opens a new tab to the URL you configured in Settings (by default, https://business.google.com/posts — Google’s official GBP interface). That request happens in your browser, on your initiation, exactly as if you had clicked a regular link.
Google’s terms of service: https://policies.google.com/terms
Google’s privacy policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy
Installation
- Upload the
gbposterfolder to/wp-content/plugins/or install via Plugins Add New Upload. - Activate GBPoster for Google Business Profile through the Plugins screen.
- Go to GBPoster Settings and paste the URL of your GBP posts page (e.g.
https://business.google.com/n/{your-id}/posts). - Choose your cadence (slot times or cooldown hours) and which post types or categories should auto-queue.
- Publish a WordPress post — it will appear in GBPoster Queue and surface in your Dashboard widget when its slot is due.
FAQ
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Does this plugin post to Google Business Profile automatically?
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No. Google removed the ability to create new GBP “Local Posts” via API in August 2024. GBPoster prepares everything (image, caption, tracked link, scheduled slot) and you complete the final publish step in your own browser inside the official GBP interface. This keeps you fully within Google’s Terms of Service.
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Does this plugin send any data to Google or to third parties?
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No data is sent from your server. The “Prepare” action opens Google Business Profile in a new tab of your browser — that’s a normal user-initiated browser navigation, just like clicking any link.
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What WordPress fields are used?
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- Featured image the GBP post image
- Title + excerpt (or first ~1400 characters of content if no excerpt) the GBP caption
- Permalink the “Learn more” link, with optional UTM tags
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Can I skip a specific post?
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Yes — the post editor sidebar includes a “Do not send this post to GBP” checkbox.
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What if I miss a slot?
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Items that pass their scheduled time stay in the “Ready” status — they don’t expire. You’ll see them next time you open WordPress.
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Does it support multisite networks?
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The plugin activates per-site. Each site in the network has its own queue and settings. Network-wide activation is not specifically tested in this release.
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Does it work with the block editor (Gutenberg)?
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Yes. The settings meta box appears in the editor sidebar in both classic and block editors.
Reviews
There are no reviews for this plugin.
Contributors & Developers
“GBPoster for Google Business Profile” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.
Contributors
Translate “GBPoster for Google Business Profile” into your language.
Interested in development?
Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.
Changelog
1.0.6
- Security: REST API permission_callbacks now perform per-resource checks. All item-by-id endpoints (/item/{id}, /item/{id}/prepared, /posted, /skipped, /reschedule) verify the current user can edit the related WP post (current_user_can(‘edit_post’, $post_id)), not just edit_posts in general. /enqueue/{post_id} likewise. /next now walks ready items and only returns the first one the user has access to.
1.0.5
- REST: /gbposter/v1/item/{id} and /gbposter/v1/next responses now include
prepared_atandposted_attimestamps. Helps client code (and end-to-end tests) verify queue-item lifecycle without a second DB lookup.
1.0.4
- Fix: corrected the Plugin URI to point to a working URL (https://defyn.com.au/).
- Fix: text domain renamed from “gbposter” to “gbposter-for-google-business-profile” to match the plugin slug, so translations register correctly via the WordPress.org translation tools.
- Security: $_POST input on the settings save handler is now sanitized at the input boundary with map_deep( …, ‘sanitize_text_field’ ) before per-field re-sanitization in GBPoster_Settings::sanitize().
- Security: queue list query() rewritten so the ORDER BY column name uses the %i identifier placeholder in $wpdb->prepare(); the order direction is interpolated only from a strict 2-value (ASC|DESC) allowlist.
1.0.3
- Compliance: tightened phpcs:ignore annotations on the queue list-query (NotPrepared rule).
- Compliance: prefixed all top-level variables in uninstall.php.
1.0.2
- Compliance: rewrote all custom-table queries to use $wpdb->prepare() with %i identifier placeholder.
- Compliance: removed unnecessary load_plugin_textdomain() (WordPress auto-loads since 4.6).
- Compliance: removed Domain Path header (no /languages folder shipped).
- Compliance: bumped Tested up to: 6.9, Requires at least: 6.2 (for %i support).
- Polish: added translators comment for sprintf placeholder.
1.0.1
- Fix: settings save now redirects back to the Settings screen (was landing on admin-post.php).
- Fix: in cooldown mode, the first queued item is now scheduled for “now” rather than waiting one cooldown interval.
- Fix: editor “Add to GBP queue” button now uses a REST endpoint (avoids the nested-form HTML issue inside the post editor).
1.0.0
- Initial release.
- Custom queue table with five-status workflow.
- Time-of-day slot scheduling and cooldown mode.
- Auto-queue on publish with post-type and category filters.
- Dashboard widget and admin Queue screen with the “Prepare next” one-click handoff.
- Per-post opt-out meta box.
- REST API endpoints for the handoff flow (require
edit_postscapability and a valid REST nonce). - UTM tagging for the “Learn more” link.