A guide to updating your information in Google Business Profile, including changing your opening hours, editing your description and adding Google Posts.
Update 24/03/2020 – Google has now stopped reviews and posting activities on Google Business Profile due to limited resources caused by the Coronavirus. It’s strongly recommended you update your regular or special opening hours, so that people will know if your store is open before they head out.
With the Coronavirus causing many businesses to temporarily close or reduce their opening hours, many people will turn to Google to check what businesses and services are available.
Google Business Profile is a free tool from Google that puts business owners in control of this information. You can set your regular and temporary opening hours, and post messages so your customers will be kept updated. In this guide, we’ll show you how.
Editing your business details in Google Business Profile is pretty straightforward, but there are a few ways you can notify users about changes to make them more obvious:
Your opening hours display prominently in local search and Google Maps but you can also edit your business description to include important information (e.g. delivery service changes due to Coronavirus) and publish posts on your Google Business Profile to notify potential customers.
Most businesses change their opening hours at some point throughout the year, even if it’s only for Christmas and New Year. Your Google Business Profile allows you to keep people into the loop by updating your opening hours so people know when to pay a visit.
To change your opening hours, follow these steps:
To temporarily change your opening hours, click on the Add special hours section under your existing opening times. Here, you’ll see suggestions for special events that might result in unusual opening times – mostly public holidays.
However, you can define your own periods for special opening hours by clicking on Add new date and defining your opening hours for specific days or time periods.
In response to the COVID-19 outbreak, Google has suggested affected businesses update their business description to include any relevant information.
“You can share information about any extra precautions that the business is taking, if you’re providing any extra services to the community or whether you’re experiencing delays.”
You can find in-depth guidelines here on creating a suitable business description in Google Business Profile. The key thing at this stage is to mention any ways in which normal business operations have been affected.
You can also notify users about important changes by creating posts in your Google Business Profile, which display prominently under your local listing. This is a great way to get people’s attention and provide important information.
Image source: Search Engine Land
To create a post in Google Business Profile, log in to your account and click on the Create post tab at the top of the dashboard or click on the left-hand ☰ icon and click on Posts from the menu options.
There are four different types of post that you can create in Google Business Profile – Add Offer, Add Product, Add Update and Add Event.
In this case, you want to select Add Update to post about any changes to opening times, services and business operation. If you happen to have any special offers running as a result of the outbreak or particular products that you want to make people aware of, you can also create Offer and Product posts to raise awareness.
It’s always important to keep your business details up-to-date on Google Business Profile. This is the biggest ranking factor with Google Business Profile and it’s also the information people rely on to find your business.
We’ve already looked at how you can edit your opening hours and you can follow similar steps to change the rest of your business details.
Simply log into your Google Business Profile account and select the location you want to edit. Now, click on the ☰ menu icon and select Info to bring up all of your editable business details. From here you can edit the address of your business location, edit and/or add phone numbers, update your website URL and the rest of your business details.
It may take up to three days for Google to verify and update your information for public viewing.
For more information on optimising your Google Business Profile account, you can take a look at our other posts:
If you need more advice on Google Business Profile, you can speak to our local SEO experts by calling 02392 830 281.
Stuart first joined Vertical Leap over a decade ago and is one of the more experienced members of the team. He started building websites in 1997 and took his first digital roles in 2001 while still at University. With hands-on experience in many areas of wider digital marketing, Stuart understands how your marketing services fit together. He is also obsessed with data, and uses a range of tools such as Excel, Google Data Studio and Power BI to analyse and visualise how his campaigns are performing. Stuart has specialisms within SEO including property, ecommerce, SMBs, reporting and technical SEO. Away from work, Stuart likes dance music, dogs, Dorset and the countryside – all accompanied by a drop of real ale.
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