Google has rewritten the advertising and solicitation section of its Google Maps content policy, and it now lists separate rules for business owners. Search Engine Roundtable spotted the Google Business Profile policy update on October 6, 2026, and published before and after screenshots. The short version: your listing should describe your business, your posts can sell, and contact details or links that point somewhere other than your business don’t belong in your posts.

Our view is that this is mostly Google putting into writing what it has enforced for a while. A well-kept profile won’t need much work. The businesses that should pay attention are the ones whose description reads like an ad, with a price, a seasonal deal or a “call now” line baked in. Those are worth fixing this week, and everything else can wait.

We’d also keep it in proportion. Google hasn’t said how it will enforce the new wording or whether it will review existing profiles. Until we see suspensions tied to it, we’re treating it as a cleanup job.

What changed

Google’s policy page for prohibited and restricted content on Maps has an advertising and solicitation section. It opens with the principle that contributions should reflect genuine experiences or a business’s permanent identity, and that Maps shouldn’t turn into an ad marketplace.

The updated section splits the rules into two groups. For people writing reviews, nothing new: no promotional content, and no email addresses, phone numbers, social media links or links to other websites.

For merchants, Google now names two cases:

  • In the listing itself, promotional or commercial content is out when it contains “time-bound promotions, pricing, or direct calls-to-action.”
  • In posts, email addresses, phone numbers, social media links and links to other websites are out when they aren’t related to your business.
  • Offers and updates that could be read as promotional are otherwise allowed in posts, and Google says so in the same section.

The help page shows no update date, and Google hasn’t published a blog post or announcement about it. Everything here comes from the policy text and the screenshots Search Engine Roundtable published.

What it means for your business

Think of your profile as two layers. The listing is the permanent layer: name, category, hours, address and description. Google wants that layer to say who you are and what you do. Posts are the timely layer, and Google is openly fine with offers there.

The most common problem we find in profiles for contractors, clinics and home service companies is a description written like a flyer. A line such as “Spring AC tune-up at half price, call today” sitting in the description is exactly the pattern the new wording names. It’s a dated promotion and a direct call to action, both in the listing. Business names padded with taglines like “Best Plumber, Call 24/7” have broken Google’s naming guidelines for years and fall in the same bucket.

Posts carry less risk. Our reading is that your own phone number and website are related to your business, so the policy wording doesn’t rule them out. Where we’d be careful is post text that sends people to another company’s site, lists a personal email, or links to a partner as part of a joint promotion. Google hasn’t given examples, so when a link is borderline, such as a third-party booking page, we’d put it on the post’s button and keep it out of the text.

For multi-location brands and agencies running many profiles, this is a template problem more than a profile problem. If one description template carries a promo line, every location has it.

What we’d do this week

  1. Read your business name and description out loud. Remove prices, dated offers and lines like “call now” or “book today”. Keep what you do, where you work and why customers pick you.
  2. Move any current offer into a post. The Offer post type has start and end dates, and posts are where Google says promotional content is allowed.
  3. Check the text of your last few posts for phone numbers, emails or links to sites that aren’t yours. Put the call to action on the post button and keep the text clean.
  4. Fix the template along with the profile. If you manage several locations, update the description and post templates so the same line doesn’t come back next month.
  5. Leave the rest alone. Don’t rewrite categories, delete old posts or rename your business in a hurry. Watch your profile dashboard for rejected posts or edits over the next few weeks, and act on what Google actually flags.

If you’d like a second pair of eyes on your profile, our local SEO service covers business descriptions, posts and categories along with the website side. Our local SEO checklist for service businesses walks through the rest of the profile, and the free SEO audit is the quickest way to get a written list of fixes for your site and listing.