Google has removed the ability to create Product posts through the Google My Business API. This means you can no longer create “real” Product posts using the Post to Google My Business plugin.
Personally I think Google will be removing the product post type altogether in the near future, in favor of the new Product Collections feature. But it’s also not yet possible to populate that section using the API (I will definitely add that feature to the plugin once that becomes possible!).
If you want to bring your latest products and services to the attention of your (potential) customers, you can simply publish them as What’s new or Offer posts!
After all, the people that search for your business on Google won’t really be aware of the difference between the various Google My Business post types.
All they see is a picture of your shiny new product, with a “Shop now” button beneath it. It will be just as effective!
(Auto-)publishing your latest WooCommerce products to Google My Business is easy!
Visually, the only thing that sets a Product post apart from a regular GMB post is the “Price” field. You can still display the price of the product by including it in your post description.
The plugin can automatically fetch the product price and other details from your WooCommerce product and place them in your GMB post text. You can use the following variables in your post text & auto-post templates:
These variables will be automatically replaced by their corresponding value in your final GMB post:
Here’s a list of all variables you can use in your post
The plugin can be configured to automatically publish your Products to Google My Business when you create (or update) them within WordPress.
Adjust the template so it fits your needs. For example:
New product! %wc_product_name% %wc_product_short_description% Price: $%wc_product_price%
You can also tweak the auto-post template right before publishing, if you need to make product-specific changes. This will only change the auto-post template for that specific product, the global template will be unaffected.
Additionally, you can enable Post to GMB by default in the auto-post settings, so the Auto-post checkbox is checked by default. Note that it will only be checked by default if the product hasn’t been auto-posted to GMB before (to prevent accidentally posting multiple times).
You should now be all set to create beautiful GMB posts from your WooCommerce products, and even be able to automate the whole process! Do you use the auto-post feature in a clever way? I’d love to hear from you in the comments!