Google turns on ‘mark a business temporarily closed’ for business owners on GMB
The tool is under ‘Close this business on Google.’
Search Engine Land’s Greg Sterling posted this information earlier this week regarding Google’s new change to help locations temporarily mark their businesses closed during the statewide lockdown.
Roughly a week ago, Google announced that Google Search and Maps will start showing whether a business is temporarily closed in response to the coronavirus crisis. This followed an earlier directive to local businesses to update hours and other relevant content in Google My Business.
Queries related to “opening hours” have been trending up as people try and figure out which businesses near them remain open and what their hours might be. This is especially true for grocery stores such as Trader Joe’s.
How to do it
Today, instructions appeared on how to “mark a business temporarily closed.” The capability is under “Close this business on Google.”
Special COVID Posts
Late last week, a number of local SEOs were complaining about various problems and delays in posting new listings or hours and address updates. Google is operating with reduced support staff and everything appears to be taking longer than normal. And until further notice, the company has also suspended “new reviews, review replies, and all Q&A.”
Earlier this week Google created a new category of Google Posts for COVID-19 related communication. It’s not clear whether the company will allow them to persist on profiles or whether they will need to be reposted or updated weekly.
Read more on Search Engine Land.
Categorised in: The Shoreline Blog
This post was written by Shoreline Content Team
