Check your listing as a customer sees it every week, because the public can suggest changes to your hours and Google sometimes accepts them. Correct anything wrong at once, and keep the website's hours identical.

Open now, says the listing

A customer searches for your business at half past three, sees Open now on the listing, and drives over. The door is locked and the lights are off.

You did not change your hours. Somebody suggested new ones, Google accepted the suggestion, and nobody at the business saw it happen.

Hours are among the details people check most on a listing, usually on a phone, usually just before setting off. When they are wrong, the cost is a wasted trip and a customer who remembers it.

How hours change without you

The first catches most owners by surprise. Anyone can suggest a change to a business's hours, and if Google is satisfied, the change appears on the listing, sometimes before the owner is told.

Google updates in the dashboard

When Google changes something on a listing, the Google My Business dashboard says so, with a notice that Google has updated some of your information and the changes laid out for review.

From there you can accept them, or edit the information back to what it should be. Google sometimes sends an email as well, but not reliably for every change.

The catch is that the changes are often live before the notice is read, and a notice waiting in a dashboard nobody opens protects nobody.

The hours the public gets wrong

Suggested edits are usually made in good faith, by somebody who saw something and drew a conclusion.

A restaurant that closes between lunch and dinner looks open at four o'clock, because staff are inside preparing.

A shop on summer hours looks as if it has changed for good, and a business open by appointment looks closed when nobody answers the door.

Split days are the most fragile. A listing can show two sets of hours on the same day, and a single suggestion can merge them into one long stretch that was never true.

Why the website matters to the listing

Google compares what different sources say about a business. Your website is one of those sources, and the only one you control completely.

If the footer says one thing, the contact page another and the listing a third, Google has to pick one, and so do your customers.

So the website's hours should match the listing exactly: same days, same times, same format, with the split written out where there is one.

A footer saying open daily from 11:30, on a site whose kitchen closes every afternoon, invites exactly the wrong edit.

A worked example

A twenty-seat ramen shop on a busy street opens for lunch from 11:30 to 2:30, closes while the broth and noodles are prepared, and reopens from 5 to 9:30. It is closed on Mondays.

Its listing had shown the split correctly for two years. Then customers began arriving mid-afternoon and peering through the window at staff working in a closed dining room.

The listing now said 11:30 to 9:30, without a break. Somebody had suggested it, and the dashboard held a notice of the update, unread, from several weeks before.

The website had not helped. Its footer said open daily from 11:30, a line typed when the shop first opened, and said nothing about Mondays.

The owner restored the split hours on the listing, rewrote the footer and contact page to match them exactly, and put the Google My Business app on her phone, so the listing is a tap away whenever she checks it.

Checking as a customer would

The dashboard shows what you entered. A search shows what customers see, and the two are not always the same.

Once a week, search for the business by name on a phone, ideally in a private window, and read the hours for every day, not just today's. Then look it up in Google Maps and check again.

Look for anything else that has moved: the phone number, the website link, the pin on the map. Hours are the most common change, not the only one.

It takes two minutes, and it is the only way to catch a change the dashboard has not flagged.

Correcting it, and keeping it correct

Edit wrong hours in the dashboard as soon as you find them, and look at the updates notice while you are there, accepting what is right and changing back what is not.

Use special hours for holidays and one-off closures rather than editing your regular week, so the normal hours return on their own afterwards.

If the same wrong change keeps coming back, make sure the website, Facebook page and directory listings all agree, since a source that disagrees is often where it starts. Then ask Google My Business support to look at it.

One person, one routine

A listing managed by everybody is checked by nobody. Give one person the job: the login, the weekly search and the dashboard notices.

Make sure at least two people have access, so the listing does not depend on one phone. And remove access from anyone who has left, since a former employee can still edit a listing they once managed.

The counter-case

Some businesses are less exposed. A plumber or painter working from a van has no counter for anyone to arrive at.

A practice that sees people only by appointment can say so on the listing rather than publish opening times.

A business with simple hours, the same every day, gives a well-meaning stranger less to misread.

But every business with a door customers walk through depends on those hours being right on the day somebody checks. Search for yourself weekly, correct quickly, and make the website say exactly the same thing.

Every Monday

  1. Search for your business on a phone.
  2. Read the hours for every day.
  3. Check the dashboard for Google updates.
  4. Correct anything wrong straight away.
  5. Compare the website's hours with the listing.
  6. Use special hours for holidays.
  7. Remove access for anyone who has left.

Step two is where the errors hide. Today's hours may be right while Saturday's are wrong, and the customer who drives over on Saturday is the one who finds out.

Making sure the times a listing offers for booking are real is covered in the booking button on a Google listing.

Frequently asked questions

How can my hours change without me?

Members of the public can suggest edits, Google gathers information from other sources, and staff with access can make changes. Google may accept suggestions before you see them.

Where do I see Google's changes?

In the Google My Business dashboard, which shows a notice when Google has updated your information. You can accept the changes or edit them back.

Why are split hours so often wrong?

Because a business closed between lunch and dinner looks open to passers-by, with staff inside. One suggested edit can merge two periods into a single stretch that was never true.

Does my website affect the listing?

It can. Google compares sources, and your website is the one you control completely. Its hours should match the listing exactly, split hours and closed days included.

How often should I check the listing?

Weekly. Search for the business on a phone, read the hours for every day, and look at the dashboard for updates. It takes about two minutes.

What if the wrong hours keep returning?

Make sure the website, Facebook page and directories all agree, since a disagreeing source is often the cause, then ask Google My Business support to look at it.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

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