Set Special Holiday Opening Hours with Google My Business

Google My Business now allows you to set special holiday opening hours as part of your company listing. That means you can make sure potential customers know when you're open for business over Christmas, New Year, and any other public holiday. It's also great to be able to inform customers about limited opening hours if you're taking a break for any other reason.

If you provide special hours for a known holiday in your region, the holiday-specific opening hours will be displayed.

Alternatively, if you don't provide special hours, Google will still add a note to let people know your hours might differ during a public holiday. And you can also schedule your own Special Hours up to 365 days in advance to cover holidays, building work or other disruptions.

After the public holiday or set period has ended, Google My Business will automatically revert to showing your normal business hours.

You'll need to have entered your normal business hours before you're allowed to add any Special information. There are 2 ways to put in your specific times.

1. Use a Bulk Upload Spreadsheet to set your Special Hours
2. Online via your Google My Business Account, using the Special Hours section of the Location Details page.

There are more specific details for your preferred updating method in a Google Help file. It's important to ensure your opening hours are accurate for anyone finding your company via Google Maps, particularly when the pre-holiday rush makes for anxious and stressed customers.

It's also a good idea to regularly check and update your Google My Business listing and ensure it remains active. And to make sure you're not displaying an old logo or cover image, outdated contact details, or even in possession of multiple pages - which is more easily done that you might think.

Although the future of Google+ might be questionable at this point, the Google My Business functions are invaluable to any business, and can clearly affect whether people view more about your company via Google Maps. It also adds to the information shown in general search results, so it's a key place to keep maintained.