What Should I Consider When Setting My Business’s Opening Hours on Google Business Profile?

Short Answer: Setting your business hours on Google Business Profile is crucial for your ranking and customer experience. Ideally, businesses should strive to be available 24 hours or have a system like a night dispatch to handle calls and bookings beyond regular hours. However, it is important to ensure you can operate within the hours you set to maintain good reviews.

Full Explanation

The opening hours you provide on your Google Business Profile directly impact your search ranking. Businesses may rank highly during their stated open hours, but once those hours pass, other businesses that remain open might start to outrank them. This shows how important your listed availability is in the eyes of Google and prospective customers.

Because of this, some businesses aim to be available 24 hours or implement solutions such as night dispatch teams to ensure they can accept calls and book appointments even outside of regular business hours. This continuous availability can help maintain stronger rankings throughout the day and night.

However, it’s critical that the hours you set reflect your actual operational capacity. If you state you are reachable at all times but fail to answer calls or handle bookings appropriately, you risk negative customer experiences and bad reviews, which can harm your reputation and ranking over time.

Step-by-Step Breakdown

1. Assess your true operational capacity: Determine if you can genuinely keep your business available 24 hours or have staff to handle calls outside normal hours.
2. Set realistic opening hours: Ensure the hours listed on Google Business Profile align with when you can accept calls and book appointments.
3. Consider implementing night dispatch or similar solutions: If being open 24/7 is challenging, having a dispatch or answering service that can handle calls and schedule bookings for the next day can extend your availability.
4. Monitor your customer interactions: Make sure calls and bookings are handled promptly during stated hours to avoid customer dissatisfaction.
5. Update your hours as needed: Keep your profile accurate to reflect any changes in your operational hours or resources.

Real Examples

While the focus here is on the concepts provided, an example would be a business that operates with regular office hours but has a night scheduling team to take calls after hours. This lets the business maintain visibility and bookings around the clock without physically being open 24 hours.

Common Mistakes

• Listing hours where you cannot realistically accept calls or appointments, leading to missed opportunities and negative reviews.
• Not considering the impact of open hours on Google search ranking and visibility, resulting in lost ranking potential.
• Failing to update opening hours when operational capacity changes, causing confusion for customers.

FAQs

Why does Google rank businesses differently based on opening hours?

Because Google aims to show businesses that are available when customers search. Businesses open longer or 24/7 have an advantage in rankings outside of typical business hours.

Can I set my business as open 24 hours if I am not physically present?

Only if you have a system, such as a night dispatch, to accept calls and handle bookings during those times. Otherwise, it’s better to list realistic hours.

What happens if I list longer hours but can’t handle calls?

This could lead to bad customer experiences and negative reviews, harming your SEO and reputation.

Key Takeaways

• Your Google Business opening hours affect your search ranking and customer visibility.
• Aiming for 24-hour availability or using night dispatch services can improve ranking and customer access.
• Only list hours you can support operationally to avoid negative feedback and customer dissatisfaction.
• Regularly review and update your opening hours to ensure they reflect your actual service availability.