Quick question: Have you entered your holiday hours into Google My Business?

If you don’t have a Google business listing, then ignore this message.

Otherwise, you might want to double-check your listing and confirm your open/closed status for the upcoming holidays.

Please let me know if you don’t have access to your business listing. I can help with that.

Google likes to display your open/closed hours on business listings so customers know when they can interact with your business. On holidays, they tend to display a cautionary message in orange font: “hours may differ.”

Since you like to stay on top of things, you should confirm your holiday hours so Google won’t display the hours may differ message, which leaves customers with doubt as to whether or not they can call/shop your business on that day.

Here is the Special Hours guide directly from the Official Google Blog:

“For days when your business has an irregular schedule, like holidays or special events, you can enter special hours in advance. If you schedule special hours, your regular hours remain in place for all other days.

It’s a good idea to confirm your hours for official holidays even if those hours are the same as your regular hours. This way, you’ll make it clear to customers that your holiday hours are accurate.

Special hours can only be entered if you’ve already provided regular hours.”