GBP Posts & Social Hub

🛑 Stop Posts After Automation

🛑 Why posts may continue Disabling social post automation stops new automated content from being created. It may not remove posts that were already scheduled before automation was disabled. Those posts can remain in the publishing queue and may still publish unless you cancel or review them. 📅 Cancel scheduled posts 1. Open Social from the left sidebar. 2. Select Calendar. 3. Review upcoming scheduled posts for each connected social account. 4. Open any post you want to replace and cancel or delete its scheduled publication, when available. Repeat these steps for every connected account and date range. Disabling automation alone does not guarantee that previously scheduled posts are removed. ✅ Review pending approvals 1. Go to Social → Pending Approvals. 2. Review posts created by automation or waiting for approval. 3. Reject or delete content you do not want to publish. If your workspace uses approval settings, confirm that unwanted posts are not still approved or queued for publication. ⚙️ Replace your scheduled content After clearing unwanted posts, create replacement content from the Social scheduler. Check the post text, image, destination account, and publication time before scheduling it. If you want to review every post first, keep approval required before publishing. 🔎 Check local posts separately Google Business Profile posts use a separate area. To review them, open Local → Posts from the left sidebar. Check for scheduled or pending posts there as well as in the Social scheduler. 🛡️ If an unwanted post still publishes First confirm that automation is disabled and that the post is not still listed in Social → Calendar or Social → Pending Approvals. Record the post text, publishing time, connected account, and a screenshot if possible. This information helps our team trace and stop remaining queued items. If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be connected with a member of our team.

Managing Your GBP Automated Posting Quota

📋 Overview Google Business Profile (GBP) Automated Posting in Search Atlas is governed by a monthly quota that determines how many posts can be published automatically across your connected locations. This article explains how quotas work, why your quota may appear lower than expected, and how changes to your quota affect your bill. 🔢 How the Posting Quota Works Your GBP Automated Posting quota is tied directly to your current subscription plan. Each plan includes a set number of automated posts per billing cycle. Here is what you need to know: - Quota resets monthly at the start of each new billing cycle. - Plan limits cap the maximum quota available. Your quota cannot exceed the maximum allowed by your current plan tier. ⚙️ Why Your Quota May Be Lower Than Expected If your quota appears to be set to a number lower than what you requested or what your plan should allow, there are a few common reasons: - Manual quota adjustments made by the support team may not always align exactly with the requested value, especially when changes are processed during an active billing cycle. - Plan limits — Your quota cannot exceed the maximum allowed by your current plan tier, regardless of any adjustment request. - Discrepancies between expected and applied quota values — If you believe your quota was set incorrectly, gather your account or project name, the billing cycle in question, and the quota value you expected versus what was applied, then contact our support team for a review. 💳 How Quota Changes Affect Your Bill Reducing your GBP Automated Posting quota does not automatically lower your monthly bill unless the quota change is tied to a plan downgrade. Here is how it works: 1. Quota adjustments within the same plan — Changing your quota between values that fall within your current plan tier will not change your billing amount. Your subscription price is determined by your plan, not by the exact quota number you use. 2. Plan downgrades — To reduce your bill, you need to move to a lower plan tier. A quota reduction alone does not constitute a plan change and will not result in a lower charge. 3. Billing disputes related to quota — If you believe you have been charged incorrectly due to a quota discrepancy, please have the following ready before contacting support: your account or project name, the billing cycle in question, the quota value you expected versus what was applied, and any relevant screenshots or correspondence. 📞 Before You Escalate To help our team resolve your quota or billing dispute as quickly as possible, please have the following information ready: - Your account or project name - The billing cycle or date range in question - The quota value you expected versus what was applied to your account - Any relevant screenshots, confirmation emails, or previous support correspondence Having these details on hand will allow our team to investigate and resolve your case efficiently. If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be connected with a member of our team.

🛑 Stop Automated GBP Posts and Updates

📌 What This Article Covers When an account or location is deactivated, automated features may continue pushing content to your Google Business Profile (GBP). This article walks you through three steps to fully stop that activity: disable scheduled GBP posts, turn off Data Lock, and disconnect Auto-Sync. Completing all three steps ensures Search Atlas no longer publishes posts or sends updates to your locations. ⏸️ Step 1: Disable Scheduled GBP Posts 1. In the left sidebar, click Local, then select GBP Projects. 2. Find the project that contains your locations and click View project. 3. Open the Posts section and go to Post Automation or Scheduled Posts. 4. Toggle post automation off for the project, or turn it off for each individual location. 5. Review the list of scheduled posts and delete or pause anything you no longer want published. Important: When you disable post automation, posts that were created by automation move to Pending Approval and will not publish. However, posts you scheduled manually remain on the schedule, so you must delete or pause them yourself to prevent them from going live. 🔓 Step 2: Turn Off Data Lock Data Lock keeps selected GBP fields matched to the values stored in Search Atlas. Turning it off releases those fields so Search Atlas stops enforcing them on your locations. 1. Inside your GBP project, open the location you want to update. 2. Go to the Data Lock settings for that location. 3. Toggle Data Lock off for each locked field, or turn it off for the entire location. 4. Save your changes. Repeat these steps for every location in the project where you want Data Lock removed. 🔌 Step 3: Disconnect Auto-Sync Auto-Sync pushes updates such as business hours, categories, and services from Search Atlas to your Google Business Profile. Disconnecting it stops all future pushes to Google. 1. In the left sidebar, go to Local and select GBP Projects. 2. Open the project, then go to the Auto-Sync settings. 3. Toggle Auto-Sync off, or select Disconnect to remove the connection for the location or account. 4. Confirm the disconnection when prompted. If you are deactivating the account entirely and no longer need any Search Atlas features, you can also disconnect the connected GBP account from the project connection settings. ✅ Step 4: Confirm Everything Is Stopped After completing the steps above, verify the following: - Post automation shows as off and no scheduled posts remain active. - Data Lock is disabled on all locations in the project. - Auto-Sync shows as disconnected and no sync jobs are queued. - No new posts or profile updates appear on your Google Business Profile. 💡 Notes for Deactivated Accounts - When an account is deactivated, its GBP projects are deactivated automatically, but features you configured beforehand, such as scheduled posts, may still attempt to run. Completing the steps above guarantees nothing publishes. - Deleting a location inside Search Atlas does not remove posts already published to Google. Remove those directly in Google Business Profile if needed. - Changes may take a few minutes to apply across all locations in the project. 🤝 Still Need Help? If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be connected with a member of our team.

🗺️ OTTO: GBP Optimizations

OTTO automates key Google Business Profile (GBP) tasks — posts, Q&A answers, review replies, category updates, and data submissions — directly from your OTTO dashboard. Follow this guide to enable each automation and understand how manual approval and task queuing work. 📡 Data Aggregator & Network Submissions OTTO submits your business information to major data aggregator networks to improve local SEO consistency across hundreds of directories. - Networks available: 5 data aggregators - Cost: $25 per network, or $100 for all 5 - Propagation timeline: 35–38 days across all partner sites Allow the full 35–38 day window before expecting changes to appear across all partner directories. 📝 Automated GBP Posts OTTO generates and publishes GBP posts on a schedule you define. 1. In the left sidebar, go to Local > Posts (GBP Posts). 2. Toggle Automated Posting to ON. 3. Set your preferred posting frequency (e.g., every 3 days). 4. Set the Start Date. Enter today's date (or any past date) to begin immediately; a future date delays all posts until that date. 5. Select your approval preference: Automatic or Manual Review. - OTTO can generate an AI-created image to accompany each post. Confirm this option is enabled in your automation settings before the first post publishes. Posts publish on your configured schedule. If you selected Manual Review, pending posts appear in your My Tasks queue with an Awaiting Approval status. If a post shows Scheduled instead of Awaiting Approval, or posts do not publish within the expected window, verify your GBP connection is active and contact Support — a sync issue with Google Business Profile may be preventing publication. ❓ Automated Q&A OTTO monitors your GBP Q&A section and auto-generates answers to customer questions using AI. 1. In your OTTO dashboard, go to GBP Optimizations. 2. Toggle Automated Q&A to ON. 3. Select your approval preference: Automatic or Manual Review. 4. Save your settings. If Manual Review is enabled, generated answers appear in your My Tasks queue for approval before publishing to your GBP. ⭐ Automated Review Replies OTTO auto-responds to new Google reviews with contextual, professional replies. 1. In your OTTO dashboard, go to GBP Projects > GBP project settings. 2. Open the Reviews tab. 3. Configure your tone and style preferences for AI-generated replies. 4. Toggle Automated Review Replies to ON. 5. Set the Manual Approval toggle — this is a separate setting from the Automated Posts approval preference and only controls review replies. 6. Save your settings. If Manual Approval is enabled, draft replies appear in your My Tasks queue before publishing to Google. 🏷️ GBP Category Management OTTO lets you update your GBP additional categories from the dashboard. Google enforces a hard limit of 10 additional categories per business profile. 1. In your OTTO dashboard, go to GBP Optimizations > Category Management. 2. Review the categories OTTO suggests based on your business profile and local search data. 3. Add or remove categories as needed, staying within the 10 additional category limit. 4. Click Save to submit the update to Google. - If you attempt to save more than 10 additional categories, OTTO displays a validation error and blocks the submission before it reaches Google. - To add a new category when you are at the limit, remove an existing category first, then save. - Your primary category is managed separately and does not count toward the 10-category limit. - Category changes sync to Google through your connected GBP and may take a short time to appear in your live profile. If you exceed the limit, OTTO displays an error — remove one category and save again to continue. ✅ My Tasks Queue If you use Manual Review for any automation, all pending items — posts, Q&A answers, and review replies — appear under Local > My Tasks (My Tasks). 1. Go to Local > My Tasks (My Tasks). 2. Review and edit the pending item as needed. 3. Click Approve to publish, or Reject to discard. Items remain in the queue until you take action on them. 🎯 You now know how OTTO automates GBP posts, Q&A, review replies, and category updates — including Google's hard limit of 10 additional categories per profile. For more on managing your local SEO presence, explore the OTTO Local SEO overview in your dashboard.

🔄 GBP Service Description Sync: Deployment & Approval Timeline

🗺️ Overview When you deploy service descriptions through Search Atlas, they are submitted directly to your Google Business Profile (GBP) via the Google API. Google then reviews each submission before it becomes visible on your profile. This review step happens on Google's side and is completely normal — it does not mean the deployment failed. This article explains the full sync and approval workflow so you know exactly what to expect and how to avoid creating duplicate entries. ⏱️ How Long Does Approval Take? After Search Atlas successfully submits your service descriptions to Google, the typical approval timeline is: - Standard approval: 24–72 hours - Extended review: Up to 7 days in some cases, particularly for new profiles, recently suspended profiles, or descriptions that trigger Google's automated content filters During this window, the descriptions may not appear on your live GBP listing even though the deployment was completed successfully inside Search Atlas. ✅ How to Confirm Your Deployment Was Successful Before assuming something went wrong, verify the deployment status inside Search Atlas by navigating to your GBP project and reviewing the status shown for your service descriptions. If the status indicates the descriptions have been submitted or deployed, the submission reached Google successfully. Visibility on your live listing depends entirely on Google's approval timeline from that point forward. 🚫 Do Not Re-Add Descriptions Manually It is important that you do not re-add or re-enter the same service descriptions directly in your Google Business Profile dashboard or through Search Atlas while an existing submission is still pending. Doing so can cause: - Duplicate service entries appearing on your profile once both submissions are approved - Conflicting data between what Search Atlas manages and what was entered manually, which can disrupt future syncs - Longer review times if Google detects repeated submissions for the same service If you are unsure whether a submission is still pending, check the deployment status in your GBP project before taking any further action. 🔍 What to Check If Descriptions Are Still Missing After 7 Days If your service descriptions have not appeared on your GBP listing after 7 days, work through the following checks: - Google Business Profile status: Log in to your GBP dashboard directly and confirm your profile is verified, active, and not suspended. - Content compliance: Review your service descriptions for any content that may violate Google's guidelines, such as promotional language, URLs, or restricted terms. - Duplicate submissions: Check whether the same service descriptions were re-entered manually, as this can delay or block approval. If everything looks correct on your end and descriptions are still not appearing, the issue may require investigation by the Search Atlas team. If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be connected with a member of our team.

🔍 Find Any Profile in GBP Galactic Dropdown

Overview When creating a post or managing content in GBP Galactic, you select the target profile from a dropdown menu. If a profile does not appear in the dropdown, it does not necessarily mean the profile is missing — it may not be visible due to how the dropdown loads connected profiles. How to Navigate to GBP Galactic Posts 1. In the left sidebar, click Local. 2. Under the Local section, click Posts. 3. Click the button to create a new post. The profile selection dropdown will appear. What to Do When a Profile Is Not Visible in the Dropdown If you open the profile selection dropdown and cannot find the profile you need, try the following steps before assuming the profile is missing: 1. Open the profile selection dropdown inside the Posts creation screen (Local → Posts). 2. Scroll through the full visible list of profiles in the dropdown to make sure the profile is not present but out of view. 3. If the profile still does not appear, verify that the Google Business Profile account for that location is connected to your Search Atlas workspace. 4. Ensure you are logged in to the correct Search Atlas workspace that owns the profile. 5. If the profile is confirmed connected but still does not appear in the dropdown, contact our support team with the profile name and your workspace details so the team can investigate and resolve the visibility issue on your account. If the Profile Still Does Not Appear If you have completed the steps above and the profile remains missing from the dropdown, this may require a backend check on your account. When reaching out, please have the following ready: - The exact name of the profile that is not visible (for example, Villa Leonidas) - The name of your Search Atlas workspace - The Google Business Profile account the location is connected to - Any screenshot showing the dropdown without the expected profile If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be connected with a member of our team.

🖼️ AI Image Generation Prompts for Google Business Profile Posts

🧭 Overview When using Search Atlas to create and schedule Google Business Profile (GBP) posts, you can pair the AI-written post content with AI-generated images to create visually compelling, on-brand updates. However, the quality of the image depends almost entirely on how well your prompt is written. This article explains how AI image generation works within the GBP posting workflow and how to structure prompts that consistently produce relevant, professional results. 📍 Where GBP Posting Lives in Search Atlas To access your GBP posts, navigate to Left sidebar → Local → Posts (GBP Posts). From there, select View project on the relevant business location. Inside the project you will find your posts dashboard where you can create new posts, review pending tasks, and schedule content for publishing to Google Business Profile. 🤖 Can the AI Create an Image Based on the Content It Writes? Yes — this is a supported and recommended workflow. After the AI generates the written content for a GBP post, you can use that content as the basis for an image generation prompt. The AI does not automatically produce a matching image on its own, so you will need to write a prompt that references the key themes, tone, and subject matter from the post copy. Think of it as giving the image generator the same creative brief the AI used to write the text. This approach works well because the post content already contains the essential details: the offer, the service, the location context, and the tone. Your job is to translate those elements into visual instructions the image generator can act on. ✍️ How to Structure an Effective Image Prompt A strong image prompt for GBP posts includes five components. Combining all five consistently produces images that feel intentional and on-brand rather than generic. 1. Subject: Describe the main focus of the image. This should directly reflect the post topic. For example, if the post is about a seasonal HVAC tune-up promotion, the subject might be "a friendly HVAC technician inspecting an outdoor air conditioning unit." 2. Setting or context: Ground the image in a realistic environment that matches the business type and location. Examples include "in a residential suburban backyard," "inside a modern dental office," or "at a busy urban coffee shop counter." 3. Style or mood: Specify the visual tone you want. For most local business GBP posts, options like "bright and professional," "warm and welcoming," "clean product photography style," or "photorealistic" tend to perform best. 4. Key visual details: Add any brand-relevant specifics such as colors, props, or visual cues. For example, "wearing a blue uniform with tools visible" or "with a chalkboard menu in the background." 5. What to avoid: Optionally include exclusions to prevent unwanted elements. For example, "no text overlays," "no stock photo look," or "no cluttered backgrounds." 💡 Example Prompts Matched to GBP Post Types The following examples show how to match an image prompt to common GBP post categories: - Offer post (plumbing business): "A professional plumber fixing a kitchen sink pipe under a cabinet, realistic photo style, bright and clean lighting, blue uniform, no text overlays, no people in background." - Event post (yoga studio): "A small group yoga class in a serene, sunlit studio with wooden floors and plants, warm inviting atmosphere, photorealistic, no clutter, no text." - Update post (restaurant new menu): "A top-down flat lay of a beautifully plated pasta dish with fresh herbs on a dark wood table, professional food photography style, warm tones, shallow depth of field." - Product post (landscaping company): "A freshly landscaped front yard with trimmed hedges and colorful flowers, sunny day, realistic photo, suburban home in background, no people." ⚠️ Common Mistakes to Avoid - Prompts that are too vague: Phrases like "a nice image for a local business" give the AI almost no direction and produce generic results. Always specify the subject, setting, and style. - Conflicting instructions: Asking for "photorealistic" and "cartoon style" in the same prompt will produce inconsistent or blended results. Choose one visual direction. - Ignoring the post context: The image should reinforce the post message, not just look attractive. Re-read the AI-generated post copy before writing your prompt to ensure the visual subject matches the written subject. - Forgetting to exclude text overlays: AI image generators sometimes add text or logos unprompted. Including "no text, no watermarks, no overlays" in your prompt keeps images clean and Google-compliant. - Over-specifying unimportant details: Very long prompts with excessive detail can confuse the generator. Focus on the five core components and keep each instruction clear and direct. ✅ Quick-Reference Prompt Template Use this template as a starting point and fill in the bracketed sections based on your post content: "[Subject doing something relevant to the post], [setting or location context], [visual style or mood], [key brand or visual detail], no text overlays, no watermarks." Example using the template: "A veterinarian gently examining a golden retriever on an exam table, inside a clean modern veterinary clinic, bright and professional photo style, staff wearing teal scrubs, no text overlays, no watermarks." 🙋 Need Help? If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be connected with a member of our team.

📅 GBP Automated Posting Frequency and Smart SEO Settings

🔍 Overview Search Atlas can automatically create and schedule Google Business Profile (GBP) posts on your behalf. Once you enable automated posting and choose a frequency, the platform generates posts based on your selected cadence. This article explains each frequency option, how the adaptive/optimized cadence option works, and what to expect in your queue. 📋 Available Posting Frequency Options When setting up automated GBP posting, you can choose from the following frequency options: - Daily — One post is created and queued every day. - Every Other Day — One post is created every two days. - Weekly — One post is created once per week. - Bi-Weekly — One post is created every two weeks. - Monthly — One post is created once per month. - An adaptive/optimized cadence option — some accounts have an automatic posting-frequency option that adjusts cadence based on business type, local competition, and SEO signals; the exact label for this option may vary, so check your Local → GBP Projects posting settings for its current name (see below for what to expect from it). ⚡ How the Adaptive Posting Option Works The adaptive/optimized frequency setting is not a fixed schedule. Instead, the platform analyzes ranking data and local SEO factors to determine how often your GBP profile needs fresh content to remain competitive. Here is what you need to know: - Posts are typically created three to four times per week under this setting, but the exact cadence can vary week to week. - The system may post more frequently during periods of increased local competition or ranking fluctuation. - During quieter competitive periods, the frequency may reduce to two posts per week to avoid over-publishing. - Because the schedule is dynamic, you will not always see posts queued up days in advance — the platform often generates and queues posts one to two days before the scheduled publish date. This means it is normal to open your queue and see only one or two upcoming posts rather than a full week's worth scheduled at once. 🗓️ What to Expect in Your Queue Regardless of which frequency you choose, keep these queue behaviors in mind: - Posts are generated on a rolling basis, not all at once. The queue will not show weeks of content in advance. - After enabling automation, allow up to 24 hours for the first post to appear in your queue. - If you enabled automation recently, the system may still be processing your business profile data before generating the first post. - Each queued post will show a scheduled publish date and time. You can edit or delete any queued post before it goes live. ✅ How to Verify Your Automated Posting Is Active Follow these steps to confirm that automated posting is turned on and configured correctly: 1. Navigate to Local → GBP Projects in the left sidebar and open the location's posting settings. 2. Select the business location you want to check. 3. Click on the Auto Posting tab. 4. Confirm the toggle is switched on (highlighted in blue or green). 5. Check that the Frequency field displays your chosen setting. 6. Navigate to Local → Posts (GBP Posts) and use the Status column to view any posts that have already been created. If the toggle is on and your frequency is set correctly but no posts appear after 24 hours, proceed to the troubleshooting section below. 🛠️ Troubleshooting an Empty Queue If automated posting is enabled but nothing has been queued after 24 hours, check the following: - GBP connection status — Go to Account Menu → Settings → Integrations and confirm your Google Business Profile account is connected and the status shows as Active. A disconnected account will prevent posts from being created. - Business profile completeness — The platform requires key business details (name, category, address) to generate relevant posts. Ensure your GBP profile is fully filled out. - Posting content settings — Confirm you have selected at least one post type or topic in the Auto Posting configuration. Without a content direction, the system cannot generate posts. - Subscription plan — Automated GBP posting is available on specific plans. Verify your current plan includes this feature under the top-right avatar → Billing (Plans & Top-ups tab). ✏️ Changing Your Posting Frequency You can update your frequency setting at any time: 1. Go to Local → GBP Projects in the left sidebar and select your location. 2. Click the Auto Posting tab. 3. Open the Frequency dropdown and select a new option. 4. Click Save. The new cadence applies to all future posts. Posts already queued will not be affected. 💬 Still Need Help? If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be connected with a member of our team.

🖼️ GBP Galactic Media Library Image Cycling Behavior

🔍 Overview When you use the Media Library as the image source for GBP Galactic automated posts, the system follows a defined cycling behavior — it does not randomly repeat images. Understanding this logic helps you plan your media library to keep your Google Business Profile posts looking fresh and varied. 🔄 How Image Cycling Works GBP Galactic cycles through your Media Library images sequentially when generating automated posts. The key rules are: - 10 or more images available: The system cycles through all available images in order, ensuring no image is repeated until every other image in the library has been used at least once. - Fewer than 10 images available: Because the pool is too small to maintain a fully unique rotation, the system will begin repeating images sooner. Repetition in this scenario is expected behavior, not a bug. In short, repetition only occurs when your Media Library contains fewer than 10 images. If you want to avoid repeated images in your automated posts, keeping at least 10 images in your library is strongly recommended. 📁 How to Check or Update Your Media Library 1. In the left sidebar, click Local. 2. Select Media Library from the sub-menu. 3. Review the images currently available in your library. 4. If you have fewer than 10 images, upload additional images to ensure full cycling without repetition. 💡 Best Practices for Automated Posting Images - Maintain at least 10 images in your Media Library at all times to guarantee a non-repeating rotation across your automated GBP posts. - Refresh your library periodically by adding new images. This keeps your Google Business Profile visually engaging for customers browsing your listing. - Use high-quality, relevant images that accurately represent your business — Google favors posts with authentic, location-specific visuals. - Remove outdated images (for example, seasonal promotions that have ended) so the cycling pool stays relevant and current. ⚙️ Where Automated Posting Settings Live To review or adjust your GBP Galactic automated posting configuration, including the image source selection: 1. In the left sidebar, click Local, then select GBP Projects. 2. Navigate to Posts to view scheduled and published automated posts. 3. Return to Media Library at any time to add, remove, or organize your images. ❓ Frequently Asked Questions - Will the system always repeat images if I have fewer than 10? Yes. With a small library, the system exhausts available images quickly and must reuse them to continue posting on schedule. Adding more images resolves this. - Does the cycling order change over time? The system cycles through images in a defined sequence. Adding new images introduces them into the rotation going forward. - Can I manually control which image appears on a specific post? Automated posts use the Media Library cycling logic automatically. For full manual control over individual post images, create a post manually from the Posts section. 🆘 Need More Help? If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be connected with a member of our team.

✍️ How to Create & Schedule Posts

The Social tool allows you to create, edit, and schedule posts across your connected social media accounts. You can write content manually or use AI to generate captions, add media from your library or AI, and publish immediately or schedule for a later date. This workflow is managed directly inside each project. 🔎 Step-by-Step Instructions Step 1: Open the Post Editor Navigate to: Left Sidebar → Social → All Projects → [click the View button on the desired project] → Create post Step 2: Select Channels Choose where the post will be published: - Facebook - Instagram - X (Twitter) - Google Business Profile (GBP) You can select one or multiple channels. 📌 Channel-specific notes: - Instagram: An image is required to publish. - Google Business Profile: Images are automatically checked and adjusted to meet GBP size and format standards. Step 3: Write or Generate Caption In the caption field: - Enter your content manually or Click: Create with AI Then: - Enter a prompt - Generate caption Step 4: Add Hashtags Add relevant hashtags directly in the caption or in the hashtag field. Step 5: Add Media You can choose one of the following: - Select from Media Library - Go to Local → Media Library and click Upload - Use Create with AI to generate images 📌 Note: Images are required to publish an Instagram post. 📌 Note: Images must be under 5 MB. Files exceeding this limit may cause publish failures. 📌 For Google Business Profile posts, images are automatically checked and adjusted to meet GBP size and format standards. Step 6: Choose Posting Option You have two options: Post Now - By default, Post Now is toggled ON (publishes immediately) Schedule Post mode - To schedule instead, toggle Post Now OFF — this will reveal the Date and Time fields for scheduling - Select: - Date - Time Step 7: Save or Schedule Click: - The Schedule Post button to confirm your scheduled date and time (if scheduled) - or publish immediately (if Post Now is enabled) 📌 What Happens Next - If approval is required: - The post will appear under Pending Review ⚠️ If a scheduled post awaiting approval is not approved before its scheduled date/time, you must re-schedule it before approving, otherwise publishing will fail. - If auto-post is enabled: - The post will be published or scheduled directly 🧠 Key Notes 1. You can post to multiple channels at once 2. AI can generate both captions and images 3. Media can be reused from the Media Library 4. Scheduling depends on your project configuration 5. Approval settings affect whether posts go live automatically 6. An image is required to publish to Instagram 7. Images must be under 5 MB to avoid publish failures 8. For Google Business Profile, images are auto-adjusted to meet GBP standards Creating and scheduling posts in Social allows you to maintain a consistent publishing workflow while combining manual control with AI-powered content generation. Whether you’re posting instantly or planning ahead, this feature ensures your content is delivered on time and aligned with your strategy.

📘 Automated Google Business Profile posts don’t publish immediately

If you set up automated Google Business Profile (GBP) posts and don’t see anything published right away, this is expected behavior. This article explains why posts may not appear the same day you configure them and when they will start publishing. ⚙️ Case Context A user configured automated GBP posts to start publishing the same day, but did not see any posts published or awaiting approval. After reviewing the setup, the team identified the reason and confirmed the expected system behavior. 🧩 What Was Happening The user had enabled Approve before posting. This option requires posts to be approved before they go live. Even if there are no visible posts awaiting approval, the system does not publish on the same day the settings are changed. 🧭 How Automated GBP Posting Works When automated GBP posts are set up or updated, the system saves the new settings. Automated posting does not start the same day the settings are changed, the posting cycle begins the following day. Even if your start date is set to today, posts will not be generated or published until the next day. ✅ Approve Before Posting Enabled If Approve before posting is turned on, posts must be approved before going live. It is normal not to see any posts awaiting approval on the same day, approval requests will appear once the system starts the posting cycle. ⏱️ What to Expect If you set up or changed automated posts today, the system will start tomorrow. No action is required, just allow time for the cycle to begin. ❓ FAQs Why don’t I see automated posts immediately after setting them up? Automated GBP posts do not publish on the same day the settings are changed. Do automated posts start the next day? Yes. Posting usually begins the day after the configuration is saved. Is this expected behavior? Yes. This is normal system behavior for automated GBP posts. If your automated GBP posts were set up today, everything is working as expected. Posts will begin publishing the following day. If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be connected with a member of our team.

💡 GBP Automation Credit Cost Per Post

Overview Google Business Profile (GBP) Automation lets you publish posts to your GBP listing directly from Search Atlas. Each post you publish through this feature consumes credits from your account. This article explains the credit cost per GBP Automation post and how to check your credit usage. Credit Cost Per GBP Automation Post Each GBP Automation post consumes 1 credit per post published. This applies each time a post is generated and published to your Google Business Profile through the GBP Automation feature in Search Atlas. How to Check Your Credit Usage You can monitor your credit consumption directly inside Search Atlas by following these steps: 1. Log in to your Search Atlas account. 2. Click your avatar in the top-right corner and navigate to the Billing section (tabs: Plans & Top-ups, Services, Invoices, Activity Log). 3. Go to Plans & Top-ups (Your Plan and Credits) to see a breakdown of how credits have been spent across categories, including Local. 4. If you want to confirm the per-post cost before publishing, review the credit balance shown on the GBP Automation dashboard before and after a test post. What to Have Ready If You Need Support If your credit usage does not match what you expect, please have the following information on hand before reaching out: - Your account name or the email address associated with your Search Atlas account - The date and time of any GBP Automation posts in question - The exact credit balance before and after the post was published, if available - Any error messages or unexpected deductions you have observed Need More Help? If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be connected with a member of our team.

🖼️ Media Library

The Media Library allows you to store and manage all the media assets used in your social posts. You can upload images and videos, reuse them across posts, and combine them with AI-generated content during post creation. This ensures consistency and efficiency when managing visual content across your projects. 🔎 Step-by-Step Instructions 📂 Step 1: Access Media Library Navigate to: Left Sidebar → Local → Media Library ⬆️ Step 2: Upload Media Click: Upload Or drag and drop files into the upload area. 📋 Step 3: Review Upload Requirements You will see the upload guidelines: “You can upload up to 50 files (JPG, PNG, or MP4 — max 5 MB each)” 🖼️ Step 5: Use Media in Posts When creating a post: - Select media directly from the Media Library - Combine with AI-generated images if needed 📌 What You Can Do from Media Library 1. Upload images and videos 2. Store reusable content 3. Select media for posts 4. Combine with AI-generated visuals 🧠 File Limits and Cross-Post Reuse Rules 1. Media is project-specific 2. Uploaded files can be reused across multiple posts 3. You can combine Media Library assets with AI-generated images 4. File limits apply (50 files, max 5 MB each) The Media Library centralizes your visual content, making it easy to reuse assets and maintain consistency across your social posts. By combining uploaded media with AI-generated visuals, you can streamline your content creation workflow. If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be connected with a member of our team.

🔔 Managing Post Approvals

The approval workflow allows you to control which posts are published to your social media accounts. Depending on your project settings, posts may require approval before being published. All posts that require review are collected in the Pending Approvals section, where you can quickly approve, decline, or manage them. 🔎 Step-by-Step Instructions 🔔 Step 1: Access Pending Approvals Navigate to: Left Sidebar → Social → Pending Approvals 📋 Step 2: Review Pending Posts You will see a list of posts with the following information: - Project - Content - Channels (Facebook, Instagram, X) - Actions ✅ Step 3: Approve a Post Click: Approve The system will confirm: “Post approved successfully” The post will then proceed to publishing or scheduling based on its configuration. ❌ Step 4: Decline a Post Click: Decline The system will confirm: “Post declined successfully” The post will not be published. 🗂️ Step 5: Manage Posts from Project View (Optional) You can also approve or decline posts directly from inside a project: Left Sidebar → Social → Pending Approvals Then: - Pending Posts/Drafts - Click Approve - Click Decline - Use ⋮ (More options) to: - Edit - Delete 📌 How Approval Settings Affect This Workflow Approval behavior depends on your project configuration: - Post automatically (no approval required) → Posts are published without appearing in Pending Approvals - Approve before posting → All posts must be approved before publishing - Approve before posting (only if contains AI Generated images) → Only posts with AI-generated images require approval 📌 What Happens After Approval 1. Approved posts: - Are published immediately or scheduled based on setup 2. Declined posts: - Are not published - Can be edited or recreated if needed 🧠 Key Notes 1. Pending Review indicates a post is waiting for approval 2. Approval is required only if enabled in project settings 3. You can manage approvals globally or within individual projects 4. Toast notifications confirm approval and decline actions The approval workflow gives you full control over your content before it goes live. Whether you want strict review processes or full automation, this system ensures your content aligns with your standards and publishing strategy. If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be connected with a member of our team.

🕐 Understanding OTTO Automated GBP Posting Delays

🔍 Overview If you have set up automated Google Business Profile (GBP) posting through OTTO for one or more clients and no posts have appeared yet, this is often expected behavior — not necessarily an error. OTTO follows a posting schedule that means posts do not publish instantly after setup. This article explains what to expect, how to manage multiple client accounts, and how to confirm everything is configured correctly. ⏱️ Why Posts Don't Appear Immediately OTTO does not publish GBP posts the moment you activate automated posting. It runs on a scheduled cycle, so there may be a delay before the first post appears. This is normal and does not indicate a problem with your account, credits, or quota. 👥 Managing Automated Posting for Multiple Clients OTTO supports automated GBP posting for multiple client accounts. Keep the following in mind when managing several clients: - Each client has a separate schedule. Activating two clients on the same day does not guarantee they will post at the same time. - Posting frequency is configured per client. Review the posting frequency settings individually for each client account to confirm the desired cadence is selected. - First posts may appear at different times. If one client's account was activated before another, expect their first posts to appear at different points. ✅ How to Confirm Your Setup Is Correct Follow these steps to verify that automated posting is properly configured for each client account: 1. Go to OTTO SEO → All Sites (OTTO SEO Projects) and navigate to the client account you want to check. 2. Confirm that the GBP connection is active and that the client's Google Business Profile is successfully linked. 3. Review the posting frequency setting for that client and make sure it is set to your intended cadence. 4. Repeat these checks for each additional client account where you expect automated posts. If you have verified the above and posts are still not appearing after a reasonable delay, escalate the issue. When doing so, have the following ready: the client account name, the date automated posting was enabled, and any error messages or status indicators you see on the OTTO dashboard. If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be connected with a member of our team.

🌍 GBP Galactic AI Image Geo-Tagging Explained

🖼️ How GBP Galactic AI Generates Images GBP Galactic AI is Search Atlas's built-in tool for creating optimised images for your Google Business Profile (GBP) posts and listings. When you generate an image using this feature, the file is produced programmatically and delivered ready for upload to your GBP listing. A common question from customers is whether these generated images automatically include geo-tagging — that is, GPS or location-based metadata embedded directly inside the image file (typically as EXIF data). 📍 Are Generated Images Automatically Geo-Tagged? No. Images generated by GBP Galactic AI are not automatically geo-tagged with location metadata embedded in the image file. The tool focuses on producing high-quality, visually relevant images for your business, but it does not write GPS coordinates or location EXIF data into the image file itself at the point of generation. This is important to understand so you can set accurate expectations around your local SEO workflow and decide whether additional steps are needed for your strategy. 💡 Why Geo-Tagging Matters for Local SEO Geo-tagging involves embedding GPS coordinates and location data into an image's EXIF metadata. Some local SEO practitioners believe this can provide a relevance signal to Google when images are uploaded to a GBP listing. While Google has not officially confirmed the weight it places on image EXIF data, geo-tagging remains a popular practice in local SEO strategies. Key points to keep in mind: - Google may or may not read or act on EXIF location data when processing GBP images. - Geo-tagging alone is unlikely to be a major ranking factor but can be part of a broader local optimisation approach. - Google's own apps and systems sometimes strip EXIF metadata when images are uploaded, so embedded data may not persist. 🛠️ How to Add Geo-Tags to Your Generated Images If your local SEO strategy includes geo-tagging, you can manually add location metadata to images after downloading them from GBP Galactic AI. Here is a straightforward workflow: 1. Generate and download your image using GBP Galactic AI inside Search Atlas. 2. Open a geo-tagging tool. Free and paid options are available online, such as GeoImgr, Jeffrey's Exif Viewer, or desktop tools like GeoSetter. 3. Enter your business's GPS coordinates. You can find these by searching your business address in Google Maps and copying the latitude and longitude from the URL. 4. Save the updated image file with the embedded location metadata. 5. Upload the geo-tagged image directly to your Google Business Profile. This process gives you full control over the location data attached to each image without affecting the quality of the original file generated by GBP Galactic AI. ✅ Best Practices for GBP Image Optimisation Beyond geo-tagging, there are several well-established practices that can strengthen the impact of your GBP images: - Use descriptive file names that include your business name, location, or relevant keywords before uploading (e.g., best-pizza-downtown-chicago.jpg). - Add alt text and captions where GBP allows, reinforcing your location and service keywords. - Upload images consistently — regular, fresh image uploads signal an active and engaged business profile to Google. - Use high-resolution images that meet Google's recommended dimensions to avoid compression artefacts. - Showcase real, relevant content such as your products, premises, team, and local surroundings to build trust with potential customers. ❓ Frequently Asked Questions Will Search Atlas add automatic geo-tagging to GBP Galactic AI in the future? Feature development is ongoing at Search Atlas. If automatic geo-tagging is introduced as a feature, it will be announced in the platform and in release notes. Keep an eye on platform updates for the latest capabilities. Does Google strip EXIF data when I upload images to GBP? In many cases, yes. Google processes uploaded images through its own systems and frequently removes or ignores EXIF metadata, including GPS coordinates. This is a platform-level behaviour on Google's side and is not something Search Atlas can control. Can I bulk geo-tag images before uploading through Search Atlas? Yes. You can use third-party EXIF editing tools to geo-tag images in batches, then use those files in your GBP workflow inside Search Atlas. 💬 Need More Help? If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be connected with a member of our team.

📅 Understanding Automated GBP Posting Frequency Settings

🔍 Overview Search Atlas can automatically create and schedule Google Business Profile (GBP) posts on your behalf. When you enable automated posting and select the Smart SEO Optimized frequency, the system manages your posting cadence based on SEO best practices — but it is important to understand the timing so you know what to expect. ⚙️ What Is Smart SEO Optimized Frequency? Smart SEO Optimized is an automated posting frequency setting that lets Search Atlas determine the ideal number of GBP posts to generate for your business. Rather than posting at fixed daily or weekly intervals, the system balances posting consistency with content quality to support long-term local SEO performance. - Posting cadence: Under this setting, posts are created once per week. - Queue behaviour: Posts are generated and added to your queue on a rolling weekly schedule, not all at once. - Content type: Posts are optimised for your target keywords and business category automatically. 📋 Why Your Queue May Appear Empty If you have just enabled automated posting with the Smart SEO Optimized setting and your queue looks empty, this is expected behaviour. Here is why: 1. Initial setup delay: After enabling the setting, the system needs time to process your business profile data and generate the first post. Allow up to 24–48 hours for the first post to appear in your queue. 2. Weekly generation cycle: Because posts are created once per week, you will not see a backlog of posts queued in advance. A new post is added to the queue each week. 3. Profile data requirements: The system requires complete business information — including your business category, location, and target keywords — to generate posts. Incomplete profile data can delay post creation. ✅ How to Confirm Your Settings Are Active Follow these steps to verify that automated GBP posting is correctly configured: 1. Navigate to your GBP Automation settings inside Search Atlas. 2. Confirm that the Automate Posting toggle is switched on. 3. Check that the frequency is set to Smart SEO Optimized. 4. Verify that your Google Business Profile is connected and authorised under your account integrations. 5. Ensure your business profile has a category, address, and at least one target keyword saved. If all of the above are confirmed, your first post will appear in the queue within 24–48 hours, and subsequent posts will be added on a weekly basis from that point forward. 💡 Tips for Getting the Most From Automated Posting - Keep your profile complete: A fully filled-out business profile helps the system generate more relevant, targeted post content. - Review queued posts before they publish: You can edit any auto-generated post in the queue before it goes live if you want to adjust the copy or imagery. - Be patient after enabling: The first week is always the quietest — the system builds momentum over time. - Avoid toggling the setting on and off: Repeatedly disabling and re-enabling automated posting can reset the generation cycle and cause further delays. 🛠️ Troubleshooting If it has been more than 48 hours since you enabled Smart SEO Optimized posting and no post has appeared in your queue, try the following: - Disconnect and reconnect your Google Business Profile integration to refresh the authorisation. - Confirm that your GBP account has no active policy violations or suspended status on Google's side, as these can prevent post creation. - Check that your Search Atlas subscription includes GBP automation features. If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be connected with a member of our team.

Managing Your GBP in Search Atlas

Getting to Your GBP Dashboard 1. In the left sidebar, click Local → Posts (GBP Posts) 2. Select the GBP project you want to manage From here you can manage Posts, Reviews, Q&A, and automated publishing. GBP Posts Creating a Post Manually 1. Go to GBP Projects > select your project > Posts 2. Click + Create new post 3. Write your post content or use AI to generate it 4. Add an image (optional but recommended) 5. Click Publish to post immediately, or Schedule to set a future date Automated Posting Search Atlas can automatically create and publish GBP posts on a schedule: 1. Go to GBP Projects > select your project > Posts 2. Click the gear/settings icon (⚙) located to the right of the Automated Posting section header 3. Toggle Automated Posting to ON 4. Configure: - Post Frequency: How often (e.g., every 3 days, weekly) - Start Date: Sets when automated posting begins. If set to a future date, no posts will be generated until that date is reached. For immediate posting, set to today or a past date. - Approval Process: Choose "Automatic" to publish without review, or "Ask before approval" to require manual approval in My Tasks - Image Source: Where images come from (AI-generated, your uploads, or website). Images must be JPEG or PNG format, at least 250×250 pixels, and at least 10KB in file size. When using Media Library as your image source, ensure images are under 5MB — images exceeding this limit may cause automated posts to fail silently. Search Atlas auto-adjusts images to meet Google's standards where possible, but verify your uploads meet these requirements. Note: If using Media Library images with the Approval Process set to "Ask before approval", posts must be approved before their original scheduled date passes. Approving a post after its scheduled date will result in a publish failure. To avoid this, approve pending posts promptly or use Automatic approval. After saving your Automated Posting settings, please allow up to 24 hours for the first post to be generated. This is normal. Troubleshooting automated posts not publishing: - Verify Automated Posting toggle is ON - Check Start Date is not in the future - If using "Ask before approval", check My Tasks for pending approvals and ensure you approve posts before their originally scheduled publish date. Approving after the scheduled date has passed will cause a publish failure. Reviews Auto-Respond to Reviews 1. Go to GBP Projects > select your project > Reviews 2. Enable Auto-Respond to have AI automatically reply to new reviews 3. Customize the tone and style for positive vs negative reviews My Tasks If you have approval-based workflows enabled, pending items appear in GBP Projects > My Tasks. Review and approve or reject each item. Quota Usage Action Cost GBP Post (AI-generated) 4 AI credits Q&A response 1 AI credit Review response 1 AI credit

📣 Posts: Create, Schedule & Publish

GBP posts appear directly on your Google listing — in search results and on Maps — giving you a real-time channel to share updates, promote offers, and announce events. Regular posting signals to Google that your listing is active, which positively impacts your local ranking. This article covers the full post management workflow for your GBP locations. ⚙️ Accessing GBP Posts You can manage posts for each location inside Search Atlas. 📌 Step 1 Go to Left sidebar → Local → Posts 📌 Step 2 Click the + Create new post button on the Posts (GBP Posts) page. You can also use Atlas Brain to list, create, or manage posts directly. 📋 Post Types Search Atlas supports three types of GBP posts: - Type: Update — Best for: General announcements, news, promotions; Key fields: Content, image, call-to-action - Type: Event — Best for: Time-bound happenings at your business; Key fields: Title, start/end date & time, content, image - Type: Offer — Best for: Discounts, deals, coupons; Key fields: Title, dates, coupon code, terms, redemption link Choose the type that matches your content — Google surfaces each type differently on your listing. 📝 Creating & Editing Posts Posts follow a draft-first workflow — you create and review content before publishing. 🤖 Using Atlas Brain - "Create a new post for my example.com location announcing our summer sale" - "Create an event post for our open house on Saturday July 12th from 10am to 4pm" - "Update the content of my draft post about the weekend promotion" 🖥️ Using the UI Go to Local → AI Automations→ Posts → + Create New Post → select post type → fill in content → Save as Draft You can update the following fields: - Field: Content — Notes: Main body text (up to 1,500 characters) - Field: Post type — Notes: Update / Event / Offer - Field: Image — Notes: Photo attached to the post - Field: Call-to-action — Notes: Learn More, Book, Order, Buy, Sign Up, or Call - Field: CTA link — Notes: URL the button points to - Field: Event title & dates — Notes: For event posts - Field: Offer title & dates — Notes: For offer posts - Field: Coupon code & terms — Notes: For offer posts - Field: Scheduled publish time — Notes: Set a future publish date and time ✅ Approval Workflow Before a post goes live, it moves through a review process: Draft → Approved → Published ↓ Unapproved (back to draft) - Step: Save / edit content — How to do it: Atlas Brain or UI; Requires confirmation?: No - Step: Approve for publishing — How to do it: Atlas Brain or UI; Requires confirmation?: No - Step: Revert approved post to draft — How to do it: Atlas Brain or UI; Requires confirmation?: No - Step: Publish to Google — How to do it: Atlas Brain or UI; Requires confirmation?: Yes - Step: Unpublish from Google — How to do it: Atlas Brain or UI; Requires confirmation?: Yes - Step: Delete permanently — How to do it: Atlas Brain or UI; Requires confirmation?: Yes ⚠️ Publishing, unpublishing, and deleting are visible on Google or irreversible actions — confirmation is required before execution. 📌 Example Workflow "Create a post about our weekend event, approve it, and publish it to Google" The system will draft the post, approve it, and then request confirmation before publishing. 📋 Viewing Your Posts 🤖 Using Atlas Brain - "List all my published posts" - "Show me all draft posts across my locations" - "Get the details for my most recent post" 🖥️ Using the UI Go to Left sidebar → Local → Posts → filter by status (Draft / Approved / Scheduled / Published) 📤 Distributing Posts Across Multiple Locations You can copy a single post across multiple locations instead of recreating it. 🤖 Using Atlas Brain - "Copy this post to all my New York locations as a draft" - "Distribute my summer sale post to locations [A], [B], and [C] and publish immediately" - "Copy this post to all my locations and schedule it for next Monday at 9am" Distribution options: - Option: Copy as draft — What happens: Post is copied for review — must be approved and published per location - Option: Copy and publish — What happens: Post is copied and published immediately - Option: Copy and schedule — What happens: Post is copied and scheduled for future publishing 💡 Pro Tip: Use copy as draft when distributing to multiple locations so you can customize content before publishing. 📦 Bulk Publishing You can publish multiple approved posts at once. 🤖 Using Atlas Brain - "Publish all approved posts for my locations" - "Bulk publish these posts: [list them]" 🖥️ Using the UI Go to Local → GBP Projects → select location → Posts → select approved posts → Bulk Publish ⚠️ Bulk publishing is visible on Google and requires confirmation before execution. 💳 Quota Note Manual posts — created, approved, and published manually — do not consume your GBP Automated Postings quota. That quota applies only to automated posting features. There is no hard limit on the number of manual posts you can create. 🧠 Troubleshooting ❓ Post was rejected by Google - Avoid phone numbers in post content - Do not include URLs in the text (use the CTA link field instead) - Ensure content complies with Google policies - Edit and republish after correcting issues ❓ Image upload issues - Minimum size: 400×300px - Max size: 5MB - Formats: JPG or PNG - Avoid heavy text overlays - Try a different image if upload fails ❓ Scheduled post did not publish - Confirm the scheduled time is correct - Ensure the post status is Scheduled, not Draft - Draft posts will not publish automatically ❓ Posts not appearing after distribution - Draft copies must be approved and published individually - If published, allow 5–15 minutes for Google to display them ❓ Cannot delete a post - Deletion requires confirmation - If the post is published, unpublish it first, then delete If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be connected with a member of our team.

🛑 Stop GBP Posts From a Canceled Account

🔍 Why This Happens When you connected your Google Business Profile (GBP) to Search Atlas, you granted the platform permission to publish posts on your behalf through Google's API. Canceling your Search Atlas subscription does not automatically revoke this permission. As a result, any scheduled or automated GBP posts may continue to publish even after your account is no longer active. To fully stop Search Atlas from posting to your GBP, you need to revoke access at the Google account level. ✅ Step 1: Revoke Search Atlas Access in Google This is the most important step. Revoking access in Google cuts the connection between Search Atlas and your Business Profile. 1. Go to myaccount.google.com and sign in with the Google account connected to your GBP. 2. Navigate to the Security section. 3. Find the section for third-party apps and services that have access to your account. 4. Locate Search Atlas in the list of connected apps. 5. Select Search Atlas and remove or revoke its access permissions. Once completed, Search Atlas will no longer have any authority to read or write data to your Google Business Profile. Any pending or scheduled posts will be unable to publish. 🗑️ Step 2: Delete Any Incorrect Posts Already Published Revoking access stops future posts but does not remove content already published to your GBP. If posts containing false or outdated information are live on your profile, you will need to delete them manually. 1. Go to business.google.com and sign in. 2. Select the Business Profile that was connected to Search Atlas. 3. Navigate to the Posts section. 4. Locate any posts published by Search Atlas. 5. Use the available options on each post to delete it. Repeat this for every post you want to remove. Changes typically reflect on Google Search and Maps within a few minutes. ⚠️ Step 3: Check for Multiple Connected Google Accounts If your GBP was managed under more than one Google account, you may need to repeat Step 1 for each account. Posts will continue if any connected account still has active permissions granted to Search Atlas. To confirm which accounts are linked, review the managers and owners listed in your GBP dashboard at business.google.com and check each account's third-party app permissions. 💡 Preventing This in the Future Before canceling any SEO or marketing platform that connects to your Google account, always revoke third-party app permissions in your Google Security settings as part of your offboarding process. If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be connected with a member of our team.

🗺️ GBP Galactic AI Images and Location Metadata

🖼️ How GBP Galactic AI Generates Images GBP Galactic AI creates original images using artificial intelligence based on your prompts and business details. These images are synthesised entirely by the AI — they are not photographs taken with a camera or GPS-enabled device. 📍 Are AI-Generated Images Geo-Tagged? No. Images generated by GBP Galactic AI do not contain embedded geo-tags or EXIF location metadata. Because the images are created by an AI model rather than captured by a physical device, there is no geographic coordinate data to record. As a result, the image files have no latitude, longitude, or any other location-based EXIF fields embedded in them when they are produced. 🔍 What Metadata Do the Images Contain? AI-generated images from GBP Galactic AI are delivered as clean image files. The metadata they carry is minimal and limited to basic file properties. Specifically: - No GPS coordinates — latitude, longitude, and altitude fields are absent. - No camera or device data — fields such as make, model, and serial number are not present because no physical camera is involved. - No timestamp from a shooting location — capture-time metadata tied to a real-world location does not apply to AI-generated images. - Standard file properties only — information such as image dimensions, colour profile, and file format may be present depending on the export format. ⚙️ Why This Matters for Google Business Profile Google can read EXIF metadata from uploaded images, including location data. Some SEO practitioners manually embed geo-tags into photo files before uploading to Google Business Profile to reinforce local relevance signals. Because GBP Galactic AI images do not include this data by default, you have full flexibility to handle metadata yourself after download. If your workflow includes adding location metadata to images before uploading them to your GBP listing, you can do so with any standard image-editing or metadata tool after downloading the generated file from Search Atlas. The absence of pre-existing metadata means there is nothing to overwrite or conflict with. ✅ Best Practices for GBP Image Uploads 1. Download your AI-generated image from the GBP Galactic AI tool in Search Atlas. 2. Optionally add geo-tag metadata using a tool such as GeoImgr, Adobe Lightroom, or a similar EXIF editor if your local SEO strategy requires embedded location data. 3. Use a descriptive filename that includes your business name or target location before uploading, as filenames are readable by Google even when EXIF data is absent. 4. Upload directly to your Google Business Profile through the GBP dashboard or via Search Atlas's publishing workflow. ❓ Frequently Asked Questions Will the lack of geo-tags hurt my local SEO? Not necessarily. Google uses many signals to determine local relevance, and image geo-tags are just one minor factor. Strong business information, consistent NAP data, reviews, and relevant content have a far greater impact than image metadata alone. Can Search Atlas add geo-tags to images automatically before upload? This is not a feature of the current GBP Galactic AI workflow. If embedding location metadata is part of your process, apply it manually after downloading the image. Does Google strip metadata after upload anyway? Google may process or compress images after upload, which can remove or alter EXIF data. Relying solely on embedded geo-tags as an SEO signal has limited reliability for this reason. 💬 Need More Help? If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be connected with a member of our team.

📊 Understanding GBP Posting and Location Quotas

🔍 Overview Search Atlas Local uses two distinct quota types to manage your Google Business Profile (GBP) activity: GBP Posting quota and GBP Location quota. These quotas are independent of each other, and confusing one for the other is a common reason automated posting fails to activate — even after an upgrade. 📌 The Two Quota Types Explained GBP Location quota controls how many business locations (projects) you can connect and manage inside Search Atlas. Your plan determines how many GBP-connected projects you can add. GBP Posting quota controls how many of those locations are allowed to use the automated posting feature. This is a separate entitlement and is determined by your subscription plan tier — not by your location count. Upgrading your location quota does not automatically upgrade your posting quota. The two are managed independently. ⚠️ Why Automated Posting May Still Be Blocked Here is the most common scenario that causes confusion: 1. Your plan includes a GBP Posting quota that is lower than your total number of connected locations. 2. You have multiple location projects, and automated posting is already active on one or more of them — consuming your available posting slots. 3. You upgrade your GBP Location quota so you can manage more locations. 4. You try to start automated posting on a different or new project — and the system blocks it. The block occurs because your GBP Posting quota has not changed. Upgrading your location count does not change your posting entitlement. You have not exceeded your location limit, but you may have already consumed — or are hitting the ceiling of — your posting quota. 📋 Plan Posting Limitations Your plan tier caps how many locations can run automated posting simultaneously, regardless of how many location projects you have connected. This means: - Only the number of projects permitted by your GBP Posting quota can run automated posting at the same time. - Adding more locations does not increase the number of projects that can post automatically. - To run automated posting on more locations simultaneously, you must upgrade to a higher plan tier that includes a greater GBP Posting quota. ✅ How to Check Your Current Quotas To understand your current posting and location limits, review your plan details inside your Search Atlas account. Look for the distinction between your location allowance and your posting allowance — these are separate entitlements shown on your plan. If you are unsure which quota is limiting your automated posting, our support team can confirm the exact limits on your current plan and advise on upgrade options. If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be connected with a member of our team.

🛡️ GMB Optimization Tool Safety, Reliability & Best Practices

🔍 How the GMB Optimization Tool Works Search Atlas updates your Google Business Profile (GBP) data through Google's official Business Profile API. Every change made through the platform is processed by Google in exactly the same way as a manual update made directly inside Google Business Manager. There is no backdoor or workaround involved — the API is the same channel Google provides to all authorized software partners. This means the tool is as reliable and safe as making changes by hand, with the added benefit of consistency, speed, and audit logging across all your locations. ⚠️ Understanding Suspension Risk GBP suspensions are triggered by Google's own policy-enforcement systems, not by the tool you use to make changes. That said, certain types of edits carry higher scrutiny regardless of whether they are made manually or via API. The following factors increase suspension risk: - Changing the business name to include keywords or location modifiers (keyword stuffing) - Editing the primary category to one that does not accurately reflect the business - Updating the address to a virtual office, mailbox, or location where the business does not physically operate - Adding or removing phone numbers at high frequency in a short window - Making multiple critical-field edits simultaneously (name, address, category, phone) on a single listing - Applying bulk edits across many listings in a very short time without staggering Search Atlas does not change any of these fields without your explicit instruction. The tool applies changes you configure, so the risk profile is directly tied to the accuracy and legitimacy of the data you submit. ✅ Best Practices for Sensitive Changes For any edit that touches high-scrutiny fields, follow this workflow to reduce risk: 1. Change one critical field at a time. Avoid editing the business name, address, category, and phone number in the same update batch. 2. Stagger bulk updates. When pushing changes across many locations, spread them over 24–48 hours rather than updating all listings simultaneously. 3. Verify the information is accurate before submitting. Google's systems flag edits that contradict data from authoritative third-party sources (government registries, data aggregators). Inaccurate data increases the chance of auto-rejection or a manual review trigger. 4. Review Google's naming and representation guidelines before changing any business name or category. A change that violates policy will be rejected or may flag the listing for review. 5. Monitor each listing after a sensitive change for 48–72 hours to confirm Google has accepted the edit and the listing status remains active. 📍 Address Legitimacy at Scale For businesses managing multiple physical locations, each address must correspond to a real, staffed, and publicly accessible location during stated hours. Common pitfalls when managing locations at scale include: - Using a single suite number or shared co-working address for multiple distinct listings - Listing a warehouse or storage unit as a customer-facing location - Creating duplicate listings for the same physical address under different business names Search Atlas flags duplicate address entries within your account so you can review them before they are pushed to Google. Always ensure each location in your portfolio meets Google's eligibility standards before activating GBP optimization for that listing. 📈 Lead Integrity and Ranking Impact Optimizing your GBP profile correctly — accurate categories, complete attributes, consistent NAP (name, address, phone) data, and regular posts or photo updates — has a measurable positive effect on local pack rankings and customer actions (calls, directions, website clicks). Conversely, optimizations that violate Google's policies may produce short-term visibility gains followed by listing suppression, ranking drops, or suspension. To protect lead flow: - Keep NAP data consistent across your GBP listing, website, and major citation sources - Use only your real, primary business name — no city names, keywords, or taglines - Select the most accurate primary category, not the most competitive one - Add secondary categories only when they genuinely reflect services you provide 🤖 Hybrid vs. Full-Automation Recommendations Search Atlas supports both fully automated and hybrid (human-reviewed) workflows. The right approach depends on the sensitivity of the changes involved: - Full automation is appropriate for: routine content updates (posts, photos, offers, Q&A responses), business hours adjustments for holidays, and attribute updates that do not affect name, address, or category. - Hybrid review is recommended for: any changes to business name, primary category, address, or phone number — especially at scale. Route these through an approval step before the platform submits them to Google. To enable review queues for sensitive field types, go to Settings → GBP Automation Rules and toggle on Require Approval for Critical Fields. This ensures a team member signs off before the API call is made. 🏢 Managing Multiple Locations at Scale When your portfolio includes dozens or hundreds of locations, consistency and governance matter as much as optimization. Recommended practices include: 1. Maintain a master data source (spreadsheet or CRM) that holds the verified NAP data for every location. Sync the platform from this source to avoid drift. 2. Assign location-level ownership so regional managers can review and approve changes for their locations before they go live. 3. Use bulk audit reports in Search Atlas to identify listings with missing attributes, incomplete categories, or inconsistent hours before running optimization campaigns. 4. Set update frequency limits per location to avoid triggering Google's anomaly-detection systems from high-velocity edits. 5. Document every change using the platform's activity log so you can trace the source of any issue if a listing enters a pending or suspended state. 💬 Need Help? If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be connected with a member of our team.

🛠️ GBP Posts Not Queuing for Scheduling

🔍 What Is This Issue? When creating a Google Business Profile (GBP) post in Search Atlas, the post should automatically enter a queue for scheduling. Some users have reported that posts stop queuing — even when switching to a different computer or browser. This is usually caused by a temporary platform issue or stale browser data interfering with the scheduling process. ⚙️ What Caused This? A known issue affecting GBP post creation was identified and resolved by the Search Atlas development team. If you are still experiencing this problem, leftover browser cache and cookies are the most likely culprit preventing the fix from taking effect on your end. ✅ How to Fix It Follow these steps to restore normal scheduling behaviour: 1. Clear your browser cache and cookies. In most browsers, open Settings and look for a privacy or history section where you can clear cached data and cookies. After clearing, close and reopen your browser. 2. Try again in an incognito or private window. Open a new incognito (Chrome) or private (Firefox/Safari/Edge) window, log back in to Search Atlas, and attempt to create the GBP post again. 3. Navigate to your GBP project. Open the relevant GBP project within Search Atlas. 4. Recreate the post. Attempt to create and schedule your GBP post as normal. It should now enter the scheduling queue correctly. 💡 Additional Tips - If you have multiple GBP locations, check whether the issue affects all of them or just one specific location. - Make sure you are using a supported, up-to-date browser for the best experience with Search Atlas. - If the post shows a Failed or stuck Scheduled status after attempting again, note the post details as this may help our team investigate further. 🆘 Still Having Trouble? If clearing your cache and using an incognito window does not resolve the issue, the problem may require a deeper look from our team. If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be connected with a member of our team.

🛠️ GBP Posts Not Generating Across Multiple Accounts

🔍 Overview Sometimes Google Business Profile (GBP) automated posts may stop generating across several accounts at once, while continuing to work for others. This is typically caused by a platform-level issue — not a problem with your individual settings — and requires our engineering team to resolve it. This article explains what happens during these incidents, how to check whether you are affected, and the fastest way to get your posts recovered. ⚠️ Signs You Are Affected - Automated GBP posts are generating for some accounts but not others. - Posts that were scheduled during a specific window were never published. - There is no error message visible — posts simply do not appear. 🧠 What Causes This Incidents like this are caused by background infrastructure failures that affect the automated post generation pipeline across multiple accounts at the same time. When this happens, the platform may silently skip posts for some accounts while continuing to process others normally. Our engineering team monitors for these failures and works to resolve them as quickly as possible, typically within a few hours of detection. ✅ What Our Team Does to Fix It When a fleet-wide post generation failure is identified, our specialized team takes the following steps: 1. Identifies the affected accounts — the team reviews which GBP automation configurations were impacted during the affected window. 2. Regenerates the missed posts — posts that were skipped are queued for regeneration. 3. Runs a publishing script — a script is initiated to ensure the recovered posts are published correctly to your Google Business Profiles. 4. Confirms completion — the team verifies that all affected posts have been successfully published before closing the incident. Resolution typically takes a few hours once the issue has been escalated to the specialized team. 🚀 What You Should Do Because this type of issue is caused by a platform-level failure, there are no settings changes or manual steps you can take to fix it yourself. The recommended course of action is: 1. Note the affected accounts — make a list of which GBP accounts are missing posts and the approximate dates or time window when posts stopped generating. 2. Check whether posts recover on their own — if an incident is already being resolved by our team, posts may begin appearing within a few hours without any action on your part. 3. Contact support if posts remain missing — if posts have not recovered after several hours, reach out so our team can escalate and apply the regeneration script to your specific accounts. 💡 Tips to Reduce Impact - Regularly review your GBP automation configurations to ensure they are active and correctly set up. - If you manage multiple GBP accounts, periodically spot-check that posts are appearing as expected, even during periods when you have not reported an issue. - Keep a note of which accounts and automation schedules are most critical so you can quickly identify gaps if a future incident occurs. 📞 Get Help If your GBP posts are still not generating after a few hours, or if you need help identifying which accounts were affected, our team is ready to escalate and apply the fix on your behalf. If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be connected with a member of our team.

🛑 Stop Unwanted GBP Posts After Cancellation

🔍 Why This Happens When a Search Atlas subscription is canceled, automated Google Business Profile (GBP) posting configurations may not be deactivated immediately. This can cause scheduled or automation-driven posts to continue publishing to your Google Business Profile even after your account is no longer active. We take this seriously — unwanted posts containing inaccurate information can harm your business reputation, and stopping them quickly is our priority. ⚙️ What Needs to Happen Stopping unwanted GBP posts on a canceled account requires our team to investigate and deactivate the automation on the backend. This is not something that can be resolved through the platform interface alone, as the posting configuration can persist after account cancellation. 🛠️ Information to Provide When Contacting Us To help our team resolve this as quickly as possible, please have the following information ready: - The name of the affected Google Business Profile location - Your Search Atlas account name or ID associated with the canceled subscription - Examples of recent unwanted posts (including approximate dates and times) - Any GBP listing URLs that are affected ✅ What to Expect Once our team receives your report, we will investigate the source of the automated posts on the backend and ensure all posting configurations are fully deactivated. We will confirm with you once the automation has been stopped and no further posts will be published. If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be connected with a member of our team.

🔔 GMB Post Alerts and Rejected Post Resubmission

📌 Overview If you are not receiving email alerts when a Google Business Profile (GMB) post requires your authorization, or if you need to resubmit a rejected guest post to a different publisher, this article explains what to expect and what information to have ready when reaching out to our team. ⚠️ About GMB Post Authorization Alerts Some users have reported not receiving email alerts when a GMB post is pending authorization or has been rejected. If you are experiencing this, our team will need to investigate your specific account configuration and post history to identify the cause and apply a resolution on the backend. 🔄 Resubmitting a Rejected Guest Post If a guest post has been rejected and you need to resubmit it to a different publisher, this action currently requires backend assistance from our team. There is no self-serve workflow available in the platform at this time for reassigning a rejected post to a new publisher. 📋 What to Have Ready When You Contact Support To help our team resolve your issue as quickly as possible, please have the following information available before reaching out: - The name of the project or business profile affected - The exact post title or content snippet for the rejected or undelivered post - The date and approximate time the post was submitted - Any rejection reason or error message you have observed - Confirmation of whether the authorization alert email was expected but not received, or whether the post rejection itself is the primary concern If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be connected with a member of our team.

⚙️ Configure GMB Post Authorization Email Alerts

Overview If you have configured your Google Business Profile (GMB) posts to require authorization before publishing, Search Atlas can send you an email alert each time a post is queued and waiting for your approval. Setting up or adjusting this notification behavior requires a backend configuration change made by the Search Atlas support team. How GMB Post Authorization Alerts Work When post authorization is enabled on your account, GMB posts are held for approval before publishing. Email alerts notify you when a post is waiting for your review. Enabling, disabling, or troubleshooting these alerts is not currently configurable through the platform's self-serve interface — it is handled on the backend by our team. What to Do If You Are Not Receiving Alerts If you are not receiving email notification alerts for pending GMB post approvals, or if you need this feature enabled on your account, please reach out to the Search Atlas support team. To help the team process your request, have the following ready: - Your account email address — the registered email associated with your Search Atlas account. - The business location(s) affected — the name or names of the Google Business Profile locations for which you need alerts configured. - A description of the issue — whether alerts have never been received, stopped arriving, or need to be enabled for the first time. If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be connected with a member of our team.

🖼️ GBP Galactic Posts: "No Image Selected" on Automated Posts

A now-resolved platform bug caused some automated GBP Galactic posts to show a "No Image selected" placeholder instead of an image thumbnail. If any of your existing posts still display this placeholder, use the steps below to re-attach the image. 🔍 What "No Image Selected" Looks Like in GBP Galactic In Local → Posts (GBP Posts), an affected post shows a "No Image selected" placeholder in the image field instead of an image thumbnail. The symptom is intermittent — other posts in the same list may display their images correctly while only certain posts are affected, including posts across multiple business locations. ✅ Current Status: This Bug Has Been Resolved This was a confirmed Search Atlas platform bug (internal reference: GBP-1190). The engineering team identified the root cause and deployed a fix. Automated posts created after the fix are not affected. If your automated posts were created before the fix was deployed, some may still show the "No Image selected" placeholder. Use the steps below to correct any affected posts manually. 🤖 "No Image Selected" After Choosing AI Generate (GBP-1182) If you see "No Image selected" after choosing the AI Generate media option (rather than uploading your own image), this was a separate bug (internal reference: GBP-1182) that has also been resolved. Create a new post with the AI Generate option — it should now produce and attach the image correctly. If it still does not, contact Search Atlas support. 🛠️ How to Fix Posts Still Showing "No Image Selected" 1. Go to Local → Posts (GBP Posts). 2. Locate a post displaying the "No Image selected" placeholder in the image field. 3. Click Edit on that post. 4. In the Image field, re-select the intended image from your media library or upload a replacement image. 5. Click Save to update a draft or scheduled post, or click Publish to push the post live immediately. The image thumbnail will now display correctly in the post list, confirming the image has been successfully re-attached. Repeat these steps for each affected post. If the image still does not appear after saving, contact Search Atlas support and reference bug GBP-1190 so the team can investigate your specific post. 📋 How to Verify a Post Has the Correct Image After Saving After saving an edited post, confirm the image is correctly attached before moving on: - Return to Local → Posts (GBP Posts). The corrected post should now show an image thumbnail instead of the "No Image selected" text. - If the post has already published to Google Business Profile, open your Google Business Profile dashboard and check the live post to confirm the image is visible there as well. ⚠️ When to Contact Search Atlas Support Reach out to the Search Atlas support team if any of the following apply: - The "No Image selected" placeholder persists after you re-save the image and refresh the page. - A large number of posts are affected and manually re-editing each one is not practical for your account. - A post that already published to Google Business Profile is missing its image and you need help republishing it correctly. - You see the placeholder after using the AI Generate media option on a newly created post (reference bug GBP-1182). When contacting support, include your account name, the affected business location(s), and the approximate date range of the affected posts so the team can investigate faster. 🎯 You now know how to identify the "No Image selected" bug in GBP Galactic Posts, confirm it has been resolved at the platform level, and fix any posts still showing the placeholder. If re-attaching the image manually does not resolve the issue, contact Search Atlas support with your account details and the relevant bug reference (GBP-1190 or GBP-1182).

🛠️ Stop GBP Posts After Account Cancellation

🔍 Overview When a Search Atlas subscription is cancelled, any scheduled Google Business Profile (GBP) posting or auto-sync that was active at the time of cancellation may continue running if it was not manually turned off beforehand. This article explains what causes the issue and how to get it resolved quickly. ⚠️ Why This Happens If automated GBP posting or Data Lock was enabled on your account before cancellation, the schedule can remain active even after your plan ends. This is a known issue that our engineering team has addressed with several fixes to GBP lock logic and auto-sync behaviour. However, if your account was cancelled while posting was still live, the automation may not have stopped automatically. ✅ What You Need to Do Because your account is no longer active, you cannot log in to turn off the settings yourself. The only way to disable GBP posting, Data Lock, and Auto-Sync after cancellation is to contact our support team so an agent can make the changes directly on your account. Follow these steps to get this resolved as quickly as possible: 1. Confirm your account details. Have the email address associated with your Search Atlas account ready. If you used more than one email (for example, a personal Gmail alongside a business email), note both so the agent can locate the correct account. 2. Contact support. If you still have any access to the platform, open the support chat from within the platform. If you cannot log in at all, ask a colleague who has platform access to open a support chat on your behalf, or reach out via the contact options available at the Search Atlas website. 3. Request the following actions explicitly. Ask the agent to: disable all scheduled GBP posts, turn off Data Lock for your GBP locations, and disconnect Auto-Sync so no further updates are pushed to Google Business Profile. The support agent has the backend access required to make these changes even on a cancelled account — a human agent must action this on your behalf. 4. Verify the change. The agent will confirm once posting has been stopped. Check your GBP dashboard in Google directly to confirm no new posts appear after the agent's confirmation. 🛡️ How to Prevent This Before Cancelling If you are planning to cancel your Search Atlas subscription in the future, take these steps first to avoid unwanted posts continuing after cancellation: - Before cancelling, contact our support team and ask them to disable any active scheduled posting and turn off Data Lock and Auto-Sync for all of your connected GBP locations. - Confirm with the agent that all automation has been stopped before you proceed with cancellation. - Only proceed with cancellation once you have received confirmation that all automation is off. 💡 Notes on Multiple Accounts If your business has more than one Search Atlas account — for example, a main workspace and a secondary account under a different email — make sure to check each account separately. Scheduled posting can be active on any account that has GBP projects connected, regardless of whether that account has an active subscription. If you still need help, please contact our support team and we will be happy to assist you.

🛠️ GBP Automated Posts Stopped Publishing Across Profiles

🔍 What This Article Covers If your GBP automated posts suddenly stopped publishing across most or all of your connected profiles — even though your automation settings appear correct and are configured to post every few days — this article explains what happened, how it was resolved, and what steps to take if you experience this again. ⚠️ Recognising the Issue You may be affected by this type of outage if you notice the following: - Automated posts stopped publishing on a specific date with no changes made on your end. - The issue affects most or all of your GBP profiles, with only one or two continuing to post. - Your automation settings still appear active and correctly configured. - No error message is displayed inside the platform. This pattern — sudden, fleet-wide stoppage across many profiles simultaneously — is a strong indicator of a platform-level issue rather than a misconfiguration in your account. 🧩 What Caused This In the confirmed incident that prompted this article, our engineering team identified a backend platform issue that caused GBP post automation to stop working for all profiles. The issue was not caused by anything in customer accounts or settings — it was entirely internal to the platform. Engineering shipped a fix, and automated posting resumed for all affected profiles once the fix was deployed. ✅ Steps to Take When Automation Stops 1. Check that your automation settings are still active. Navigate to your GBP automation settings within the platform and confirm that automated posting is still enabled for your profiles and that your posting frequency settings are unchanged. 2. Note the date posting stopped. Record the exact date of the last successful post for each affected profile. This information helps our team diagnose the issue quickly. 3. Check how many profiles are affected. If only one profile is not posting, the cause is more likely a profile-specific setting, a Google Business Profile connection issue, or a content generation error. If the majority of your profiles stopped on the same date, it is likely a platform-level issue. 4. Wait briefly if a fix has already been announced. If our team has communicated an active incident or a recent fix, allow 24 hours for the queue to catch up and resume normal scheduling before contacting support. 5. Contact support if the issue persists. If posts have not resumed after 24 hours and no platform-wide incident has been announced, reach out to our support team with the date posting stopped and the number of affected profiles. We will investigate on your behalf.

📊 Inside a Project: Dashboard & Metrics

The Project Dashboard gives you a detailed view of your social media activity within a specific project. From here, you can review publishing workflow counters (scheduled, pending, drafts, and total posts), manage content, and access key tools like the Media Library. Detailed social performance analytics such as reach, engagement, and impressions may live in other sections of the platform. This view centralizes everything you need to operate your social content workflow efficiently. 🔎 Step-by-Step Instructions Step 1: Open a Project Navigate to: Left Sidebar > Social > All Projects, then click the View button next to the desired project in the All Projects list. Step 2: Review Project Overview Metrics At the top of the dashboard, you will see: Tip: The metric tiles for Total Posts, Scheduled, Pending Posts, and Drafts are interactive — clicking the count opens the filtered list of posts for that status so you can review, edit, or take action on them. Note: The Channels tile and the Settings button behave differently — they open their respective configuration panels rather than a post list. Channels Displays a row of platform icons representing the connected social networks for this project (your supported social networks), along with a count of how many are connected. Clicking it opens the channel connection settings, where you can add or manage connected accounts. Note: You may notice platform icons appearing greyed out or showing as "not connected" in several places — including the dashboard header, the post list view (such as on hover), and other channel-icon displays — even when your accounts are properly connected. If posts are still publishing successfully, this is a known visual display issue and your connections are intact. This display inconsistency is a known issue and has been reported to our engineering team for resolution. No action is required on your end if posts are publishing correctly. See the ⚠️ Known Issue: Platform Icon Display Discrepancy callout below for full details. Contact support if publishing actually stops working. Total Posts Total number of posts created across all statuses within this project. This cumulative count gives you a quick sense of overall project activity and content volume. Click the count to view the complete list of posts. Scheduled Posts scheduled for future publishing. These will automatically be sent to their connected channels at the date and time set during scheduling. Click the count to review or reschedule any queued post before it goes live. Pending Posts Posts awaiting approval. Posts in Pending status require approval before they will be published or scheduled. Click the count to view the queue and approve or reject each post. Drafts Unpublished posts that have been saved but not yet submitted for approval or scheduled. Drafts remain available indefinitely so you can continue editing and do not count toward any publishing limit. Click the count to resume editing or move a draft into the approval/scheduling workflow. Settings The Settings button in the top-right of the dashboard header is separate from the metrics above. Click it to open Project Settings, where you can edit your project configuration — including project name, connected channels, notification preferences, and other project-level options. ⚠️ Known Issue: Platform Icon Display Discrepancy There is a confirmed visual/UI bug affecting how connected channel icons render in the Social Project Dashboard. Here is what to expect and how to verify your accounts are still working: - Where it appears: Platform icons can show as greyed out or labelled "not connected" in multiple places — including the dashboard header, the post list view (for example, when hovering over a post's channel icons), and other surfaces that display channel-icon badges. The bug is not limited to the dashboard header. - What it means: This is a known visual display issue and does not reflect your actual connection status. Your social accounts can be fully authorised and working even while the icons display as disconnected. - How to verify: Check whether your most recent scheduled posts are still being published to the connected platforms on time. If they are publishing successfully, your accounts are connected correctly and the icon display is simply a cosmetic bug. You can also confirm the underlying connection status in the channel connection settings. - Engineering status: Our engineering team has been notified and is actively investigating a fix. No action is required on your end if posts are publishing as expected. - When to contact support: If posts actually stop publishing — not just the icons appearing greyed out — contact our support team so we can investigate the underlying connection and assist with reconnecting the affected account.

🔄 Post Scheduling & Automation

Post scheduling and automation in Social are controlled by your project settings. These settings determine when posts are published, whether approval is required, and how often content is automatically posted. Understanding how these elements work together is key to managing your publishing workflow effectively. 🔎 How Scheduling Works When creating a post, you can choose between two options: 📌 Post Now - The post is published immediately - If approval is required, it will first go to Pending Review 📅 Schedule Post - The post is scheduled for a specific date and time - It will publish at the selected time - If approval is required, it must be approved before it goes live - ⚠️ Schedule Post + Approval Required: If a scheduled post is awaiting approval and its scheduled date passes before it is approved, the approval action will fail. In this case, you must edit the post and set a new future publish date before approving. - Google Business Profile note: For GBP posts, scheduled times must always be in the future at the moment of approval — past datetimes will be rejected by the platform. ⚙️ How Automation Works Automation is defined during project setup under: For new projects: Left Sidebar → Social → All Projects → Create Project → Configure For existing projects: Left Sidebar → Social → All Projects → [Select Project] → Settings → Configure Automation 🔁 Auto Posting Frequency If enabled, the system will: - Automatically generate and publish posts - Follow the selected frequency (e.g., “Post every 3 days”) - Available frequency options typically include daily, every 2 days, every 3 days, weekly, and bi-weekly. The full list of options is shown in the frequency dropdown during project configuration. If disabled: - All posts must be created manually 🖼️ Image Source Behavior Depending on your selection: - AI Generate all images → All posts will include AI-generated images. Note: Generated images are automatically adjusted to meet platform image standards (e.g., Google Business Profile requirements). Images that fail to meet these standards may not publish successfully. - Select only from Media Library → Only uploaded media will be used. ⚠️ Warning: Media Library images must be under 5 MB. Images exceeding this limit may cause publish failures for automated posts, particularly on Google Business Profile. - Hybrid (Media Library + AI) → The system first attempts to use images from your Media Library. If no suitable image is available, it automatically generates one using AI. Google Business Profile callout: GBP posts have additional platform-specific constraints, including image size limits (under 5 MB) and image dimension/quality requirements. Make sure your media meets these standards to avoid publish failures. 🔔 Approval Settings Approval settings determine whether posts are published automatically or require review. There are two main options: - Post automatically: Posts publish immediately or at their scheduled time with no intervention required. - Requires Approval: Posts enter Pending Review and must be manually approved before they will publish. ✅ Post automatically (no approval required) 1. Posts are published immediately or at scheduled time 2. No approval step 🛑 Approve before posting - All posts go to Pending Review - Must be manually approved before publishing ⚠️ Approve before posting (only if contains AI Generated images) 1. Only posts with AI-generated images require approval 2. Other posts publish automatically 🔄 End-to-End Flow Here’s how everything connects: 1. Create or generate a post 2. Add media (AI or Media Library) 3. Choose Post Now or Schedule 4. System checks approval settings Then: - If approval required → goes to Pending Review - If no approval → publishes automatically 📌 Common Scenarios ❓ Why is my post not publishing? Possible reasons: - Approval is required and the post is still in Pending Review - Scheduled time has not been reached - Automation is turned off and no manual publish was triggered ❓ Why did my post publish automatically? 1. Project is set to Post automatically 2. No approval requirement is active ❓ Why are only some posts requiring approval? Approval is set to: Approve before posting (only if contains AI Generated images) 🛠️ Troubleshooting Common Issues If a post fails to publish, the most common causes are oversized images or stale scheduled dates. Use the steps below to resolve each issue. - Media Library image over 5 MB (publish failure, especially on GBP): Open the post, remove the oversized image, and replace it with one under 5 MB (or compress the original). Re-save the post and retry publishing. - AI-generated image does not meet platform standards: Regenerate the image so it can be re-adjusted to platform requirements, or replace it with a compliant image from your Media Library. - Approval failed with “Must be a future datetime” (HTTP 400): The post’s scheduled date passed while it was awaiting approval. Edit the post, set a new future publish date, and then approve it again. - Scheduled post never published: Confirm the scheduled time has been reached, that the post is not stuck in Pending Review, and that automation is enabled at the project level. 🧠 Key Notes 1. Scheduling and automation are controlled at the project level 2. Approval settings override publishing behavior 3. Auto posting generates content automatically based on frequency 4. Media source settings affect how content is created 5. Google Business Profile posts have additional constraints — images must be under 5 MB and meet GBP image standards, and scheduled times must always be in the future at the moment of approval Post scheduling and automation give you full control over how your content is published. By combining scheduling options, automation frequency, and approval workflows, you can create a system that balances efficiency with control. Understanding these rules helps ensure your content is published exactly when and how you expect.

⚠️ GBP Address Pin Move Alerts: Email Notifications for Suggested Edits

Search Atlas automatically emails you whenever someone attempts to move your Google Business Profile (GBP) address pin or suggests an edit to your business address — giving you a chance to review and act before any unauthorized change takes effect. ⚠️ What Triggers an Address Pin Alert Search Atlas monitors your connected GBP listings and sends an alert email when either of the following events occurs: - Address pin move: Someone submits a request to reposition the map pin associated with your business location. - Suggested address edit: A user submits a proposed change to your business address through Google's "Suggest an edit" feature on your listing. Both events trigger an immediate notification to the email address on your Search Atlas account. 📧 What the Address Pin Alert Email Contains The alert arrives in a Search Atlas-branded email. It includes the information you need to identify the affected listing and take action: - The type of change attempted (address pin move or suggested address edit) - The affected GBP business listing - A prompt to log in to Google Business Profile and review the pending suggestion Check your inbox — and your spam folder — if you expect an alert but do not see it within a few minutes of the triggering event. ✅ How to Respond to a Suggested Address Edit When you receive an alert, follow these steps to review and resolve the suggestion: 1. Open the alert email from Search Atlas. 2. Log in to your Google Business Profile dashboard. 3. Select the affected listing and locate the pending suggested edit. 4. Accept the change if it is accurate, or mark it as incorrect to have it removed. Responding promptly protects your listing from inaccurate address data that can affect local search rankings and customer navigation. ⚙️ Which Account Email Receives the Alert Alerts are sent to the email address associated with your Search Atlas account. If you manage multiple GBP locations, each connected listing is monitored independently — you will receive a separate alert for each location where a pin move or address edit is submitted. 🎯 Search Atlas address pin alerts give you real-time visibility into changes that could affect your local search presence — act on each alert promptly by reviewing the suggestion directly in Google Business Profile to keep your location data accurate and trustworthy.

⚠️ GBP Posts: "Post Updated Successfully" Appears But Changes Are Not Saved

We previously identified an issue where GBP Posts displayed a "Post updated successfully!" message even though changes were not saved. While this has been resolved, if you experience similar failures, use the workaround steps below to ensure your intended content goes live. 🔍 What's Happening When you edit a published GBP post — for example, removing an image or changing the post body — and click Update Post, a green "Post updated successfully!" notification appears. Despite this message, the update is rejected and your changes are discarded with no visible error. This means a post can appear updated when it has not actually changed. This issue primarily affects published GBP posts. In some cases, draft posts may also experience similar save failures, particularly when images are involved. 🛠️ Workaround Steps Follow these steps to ensure your updated content goes live: 1. After clicking Update Post, navigate away from the post and return to it to confirm whether your changes appear. 2. If your changes are not visible, do not retry editing the published post — it will fail silently again. 3. Delete the published post, then recreate it from scratch with your updated content. This bypasses the issue and ensures your intended content is published correctly. 🔧 Engineering Status This issue has been identified and resolved. If you continue to experience save or update failures when editing GBP posts, please contact our support team for assistance. 📞 When to Contact Support If you are unable to delete and recreate the post, or if the workaround does not resolve your situation, contact our support team for direct assistance. Include the name of the affected post and your GBP account details so we can investigate quickly. 🎯 If you continue to encounter issues with saving or updating GBP posts, our support team is ready to help. Please reach out with details of the post and your account information, and we'll assist you promptly.

📋 GBP Automated Posts: Approval Status and AI Image Generation

Enable team approval and AI image generation for GBP Galactic Automated Posting, and resolve posts that show the wrong status or are missing a generated image. Manual-post image issues are called out separately in the relevant troubleshooting sections. 📋 How the Approval Workflow Works in GBP Galactic Automated Posting When Approve before posting is enabled in your Automation Settings, every automated post enters a review queue before it publishes to Google Business Profile. The post displays Awaiting Approval status until a team member reviews it. - Awaiting Approval — the post is generated and held for review. It will not publish until someone approves it. - Scheduled — the post is approved (or approval is not required) and will publish automatically at the configured time. If a post shows Scheduled when approval is enabled, see the Troubleshooting section below for the resolution. ⚙️ How to Enable "Approve Before Posting" in Automation Settings 1. Go to GBP Galactic and select the location you want to configure. 2. Open Automation Settings. 3. In the Approval section, toggle Approve before posting to On. 4. Click Save. All automated posts for that location will now appear as Awaiting Approval in the post list until a team member approves them. 🖼️ How to Enable AI Image Generation for Automated Posts GBP Galactic can attach an AI-generated image to each automated post. Configure this in Automation Settings before your next post is generated. 1. Go to GBP Galactic and select the relevant location. 2. Open Automation Settings. 3. Locate the Image Generation section. 4. Select AI Generate as the image source. 5. Enter a prompt describing the image style or subject you want generated for each automated post. 6. Click Save. The next automated post for that location will include an AI-generated image based on your prompt. You'll see the image attached when the post appears in your post list under Awaiting Approval or Scheduled. Note: This setting applies to automated posts only. If you create posts manually and AI Generate is not producing an image, see the manual post note in the Troubleshooting section below. ✅ How to Approve or Reject a Post in the GBP Galactic Approval Queue 1. Go to GBP Galactic and open the Posts list for the relevant location. 2. Filter by Awaiting Approval to see all posts pending review. 3. Click the post you want to review. 4. Select Approve to queue it for publishing, or Reject to remove it from the queue. Approved posts move to Scheduled status and publish automatically at the configured time. Rejected posts are removed from the queue and will not publish. 🛠️ Troubleshooting: Automated Post Shows "Scheduled" Instead of "Awaiting Approval" A platform bug (GBP-508) patched in May 2026 caused automated posts to display Scheduled instead of Awaiting Approval even when approval was enabled. If you observe this symptom on newly generated posts after the May 2026 release, re-apply your Automation Settings: 1. Go to GBP Galactic → Automation Settings for the affected location. 2. Confirm the Approve before posting toggle is On. 3. Make no changes and click Save. Saving without changes refreshes the configuration and corrects the status display for new posts. 4. Wait for the next automated post to generate, then check its status in the post list. The new post should display Awaiting Approval. If posts continue to show Scheduled after re-saving, contact Search Atlas Support with the affected location name and post ID. 🛠️ Troubleshooting: AI Image Not Generated for an Automated Post If an automated post is missing its AI-generated image, verify your settings and trigger a new post: 1. Go to GBP Galactic → Automation Settings for the affected location. 2. Confirm the Image Generation source is set to AI Generate and a prompt is entered. 3. Make no changes and click Save to re-apply the configuration. 4. Wait for the next automated post to generate, then open the post and confirm the image is attached in the post preview. If the image is still missing after following these steps, contact Search Atlas Support and include the location name, post details, and a screenshot of your Automation Settings page. 🛠️ Troubleshooting: "No Image selected" on Automated Posts (GBP-1190) Some automated posts previously showed No Image selected even when AI Image Generation was enabled. This intermittent issue has been resolved in production, and posts generated after the fix release should attach images correctly. - For older affected posts: re-trigger the automated post, or open the post and manually edit the image to attach one. - For new posts still showing the symptom: contact Search Atlas Support with the location name and post ID. 🛠️ Troubleshooting: "Cannot Approve Post" Error on Twitter/X Posts (GBP-1207) If approving a Twitter/X post returned a Cannot approve post error, this was caused by automation appending extra characters that pushed the post past Twitter's character limit. This issue has been resolved in production. If you still see this error, contact Search Atlas Support and include the affected post ID. 🛠️ Troubleshooting: AI Generate Shows an Empty Image on Manual Posts (GBP-1182) This article covers image generation for automated posts. If you create a post manually in GBP Galactic Posts and the Step 2 preview shows an empty placeholder when you select AI Generate, this is a separate known issue. - The fix has been released to staging — ensure you are on the latest platform version. - If the empty placeholder persists on the latest version, contact Search Atlas Support with the location name and a screenshot of the Step 2 preview. 🎯 You can now enable team approval and AI image generation for GBP Galactic Automated Posting, and resolve the most common post status and image issues. For a broader overview of GBP Galactic features and post management, visit the Search Atlas Help Center.