If you run a land clearing or forestry mulching company and you have a Google Business Profile, there is a free feature sitting right in front of you that almost nobody in this industry is using. It takes under 5 minutes to set up, costs nothing, and puts your work in front of every single person who Googles your company name.

It is called the Social Media Updates Carousel.

What Is It?

Google now pulls your recent Instagram and Facebook posts directly into your Google Business Profile and displays them as a scrollable row of visual cards right below your business name, reviews, and contact info in Google Search.

When a homeowner searches “land clearing near me” or a general contractor Googles your company before calling, they do not just see your address and phone number anymore. They see a live feed of your most recent social posts. Before-and-after photos. Equipment in action. Job site videos. Real work.

This started rolling out in March 2024 and has been expanding ever since. As of mid-2025, Instagram officially allowed Google to index public posts from professional accounts. This is not a test feature. It is live and it is here to stay.

Why This Matters for Land Clearing Companies Specifically

Most contractors in this industry are sitting on a goldmine of content they are not using.

Every job site is a proof point. A freshly mulched 5-acre tract. A graded pad ready for a commercial build. A right-of-way cleared for a utility company. Before-and-after shots from the cab of your mulcher.

That is exactly the kind of content Google wants to show to the next person searching for a land clearing contractor.

Here is the reality: your highest-value buyers — developers, general contractors, property managers with 20+ acres — are Googling your company name before they ever call. A Google profile with a live social feed showing real jobs, real equipment, and recent activity looks like a serious operation. A profile with no photos, no posts, and a 2-year-old cover image looks like a guy who might not answer the phone.

Across the 300+ land clearing companies we work with, the pattern is clear: operators with active, visual Google profiles convert more of their leads into booked estimates. Not because Google ranks them higher (more on that below), but because the customer trusts them more before they ever pick up the phone.

What It Does (and Does Not Do) for Your Rankings

Let me be straight about this because there is a lot of bad information out there.

The Social Media Updates carousel is NOT a direct ranking factor. Your Instagram posts will not move you up in the local pack results. The factors that drive local rankings are still: your primary GBP category, keywords in your business name (where accurate), your review count and quality, and whether your business is actively verified.

What the carousel DOES do is increase conversion. It turns profile views into phone calls. It builds trust at the exact moment a potential customer is deciding between you and the next guy.

Think of it this way: rankings get you seen. The carousel gets you called.

There is also an emerging AI search angle that matters. Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, and Perplexity are now pulling from indexed social content when they answer questions like “best land clearing contractor near me.” Posts with service-specific captions and location context get cited by AI search. Generic posts do not.

So when your Instagram caption says “Just finished mulching 8 acres of heavy brush in Chester County — stumps, vines, and overgrowth cleared for new home construction” instead of “Another day on the job!” — that caption gets indexed and potentially cited in AI search results.

How to Set It Up (Under 5 Minutes)

Step 1: Log into your Google Business Profile.

Go to business.google.com and sign into the Google account that manages your business profile.

Step 2: Go to “Edit profile” and find the Social Profiles section.

Scroll down to find the social media links section. If you do not see it, look under “Business information” or “Contact.”

Step 3: Add your Facebook and Instagram URLs.

Paste the direct URL to your Facebook business page and your Instagram profile. Make sure your Instagram is set to a Professional account (Business or Creator), not a personal account. Google cannot index personal/private accounts.

Step 4: Save and wait.

Google typically starts pulling posts within a few days to a couple of weeks. There is no manual publish button. Once connected, it automatically pulls your most recent posts and displays them as cards.

That is it. Under 5 minutes. Zero cost.

What to Post (for Land Clearing Companies)

Not all social content triggers the carousel or performs well in it. Here is what works based on what we see across hundreds of land clearing accounts:

Posts that work:

• Job site photos with location and service context in the caption. “Forestry mulching complete on 5 acres in [County] — ready for residential development.”
• Before-and-after transformations. These are the highest-engagement posts in the land clearing industry and they look great in the carousel.
• Equipment in action. Mulcher heads spinning, excavators pushing trees, dozers grading. Real machines doing real work.
• Short-form video (15-60 seconds). The carousel supports video and it stands out visually.
• Customer testimonial screenshots or quotes with job photos.

Posts that do NOT work:

• Generic motivational quotes.
• Stock photos.
• Holiday greetings with no business context.
• Text-only posts.

The key rule: every post should mention WHAT you did, WHERE you did it, and ideally WHAT the result was for the property owner. That gives Google the semantic content it needs to index your post properly.

The Game Plan: How to Implement This Across Your Business

If you are a land clearing operator reading this, here is your action plan:

This week:

1. Connect your Facebook and Instagram to your Google Business Profile (5 minutes).

2. Make sure your Instagram is a Professional account (2 minutes in Settings).

3. Post one before-and-after photo from a recent job with a caption that names your service, location, and result.

Ongoing (takes 10 minutes per day max):

4. Take 2-3 photos at every job site. Before you start, while the machine is running, and after you finish.

5. Post 3-5 times per week on Instagram and/or Facebook. Same photos, service-specific captions with location.

6. Use this caption formula: “[Service] complete on [X] acres in [City/County] — [what was cleared] for [purpose/customer type]. [Your Company Name].”

Monthly:

7. Check your GBP to make sure the carousel is showing recent posts. If it stops updating, verify your social links are still connected.

8. Ask for Google reviews from every completed job. Reviews + active social = the most trust-building GBP possible.

Why Rise Clients Have an Advantage Here

If you are a Rise Online Advertising client, here is the good news: we are already building this into your marketing system.

Your AMs are working on connecting social profiles to your GBP across all accounts. Your ad creative — the videos and photos we produce for your Facebook campaigns — can be repurposed directly to your Instagram and Facebook page as organic posts, which then automatically feed into your Google profile carousel.

That means the same creative investment that drives your paid leads is now also building your organic Google presence and feeding AI search visibility. One set of content doing three jobs.

If you are not a Rise client and you want help building a marketing system that does all of this — paid ads, organic social, GBP optimization, CRM, and follow-up — that is literally what we do for 300+ land clearing companies across 31 states. Book a call with our team here.

The Bottom Line

The Google Business Profile Social Media Carousel is free, takes 5 minutes to set up, and puts your real work in front of every person who searches for your business. It does not directly improve your rankings, but it dramatically improves whether that searcher picks up the phone and calls you instead of the next guy.

For land clearing companies specifically, this is a no-brainer. You are already doing the work. You are already on the job site. Take the photo. Write the caption. Let Google do the rest.