GMB Poster

GMB Poster turns your WordPress posts into a steady stream of Google Business Profile (GBP) updates. New posts join a queue, the scheduler picks a slot from your cadence, and at slot time GMB Poster either:

• Auto-publishes the post directly to your GBP location via the official Google Business Profile API (v2.0+), or
• Prepares the caption, image and tracked link and hands it off to you for a one-click publish in the GBP web interface (the original semi-manual mode).

You pick the mode in Settings. You can switch any time.

Auto-publish (recommended, v2.0+)

1. Create a free Google Cloud project, enable the My Business APIs, paste your OAuth Client ID + Secret into GMB Poster Settings. (Step-by-step guide is built into the setup wizard.)
2. Click Connect Google account — Google’s consent screen opens, you pick the Google account that manages your GBP, click Allow.
3. Pick your GBP location from the dropdown.
4. Flip the Auto-publish toggle on.

From then on, every time a queued post hits its scheduled slot, GMB Poster posts it directly to your GBP location automatically. Posted items show a green “Posted” pill and the Google post ID. Failed items show a red “Failed” pill with the Google API error and a one-click Retry publish button.

Why “per-install” OAuth credentials? GMB Poster never embeds a shared Google client — that would leak the same OAuth secret to every installation of the plugin on WP.org and risk Google revoking it for everyone. Instead, each install uses its own free Google Cloud project; the OAuth Client Secret and the refresh token are stored encrypted-at-rest in your WordPress database using a key derived from your site’s AUTH_KEY constant.

Semi-manual mode (original)

If you don’t want to set up a Google Cloud project, the original semi-manual handoff still works:

1. New WordPress posts are added to the GMB Poster queue automatically (configurable per post type and category).
2. The scheduler picks a posting slot using either time-of-day slots or a cooldown window.
3. When a slot is due, the next item appears in your Dashboard widget and on the GMB Poster Queue screen.
4. Click Prepare & open GBP. GMB Poster:
   • copies the formatted caption to your clipboard,
   • downloads the featured image to your computer,
   • opens your GBP composer in a new browser tab.
5. In GBP: paste the caption, drop in the image, set the call-to-action, click Publish.
6. Click Mark posted back in WordPress.

Features

• Auto-publish to Google Business Profile via the official Google API (v2.0+), with a built-in setup wizard
• Per-install OAuth 2.0 credentials — your secret + refresh token are encrypted at rest in your WordPress database
• Semi-manual mode preserved as a fallback for installs that don’t want a Google Cloud project
• Custom queue with statuses: Pending → Ready → Prepared → Posted (or Skipped / Failed)
• 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
• “Publish now” / “Retry publish” buttons per row when auto-publish is on
• UTM-tagged Learn-more links (utm_source / medium / campaign configurable)
• Featured image → GBP image, title + excerpt → caption, permalink → call-to-action
• Translation-ready

Disclaimer

This plugin is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Google LLC. “Google” and “Google Business Profile” are trademarks of Google LLC.

External services

GMB Poster communicates with the official Google Business Profile API when (and only when) you’ve connected a Google account and turned on Auto-publish:

• Google OAuth 2.0 (https://accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/v2/auth, https://oauth2.googleapis.com/token, https://oauth2.googleapis.com/revoke) — used to obtain, refresh and revoke the access token GMB Poster uses on your behalf.
• My Business Account Management API (https://mybusinessaccountmanagement.googleapis.com/) — to list the GBP accounts your Google login can manage.
• My Business Business Information API (https://mybusinessbusinessinformation.googleapis.com/) — to list the locations under each account so you can pick one.
• Google My Business API v4 (https://mybusiness.googleapis.com/) — to create local posts on the location you selected. This is the actual “publish” call.

When and what is sent: * The OAuth handshake sends nothing about your WordPress posts — only your chosen Google account’s permission to act on its behalf. * For each post we publish on your behalf, we send the caption text, the URL of your featured image, the call-to-action button text + URL, and the post’s language code. We do not send any visitor data, analytics, or anything else.

If you do not connect a Google account, GMB Poster never contacts Google. The semi-manual mode opens GBP in your browser as a normal page navigation (your browser, your session — 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