Check your Business Listing during Coronavirus

Google have started using government data and other sources to review whether or not businesses should be marked in searches as OPEN or TEMPORARILY CLOSED in Google Maps & Search results during COVID Lockdown.

Many businesses depend on Google Maps and Search to drive customers to their locations, but during the coronavirus outbreak many businesses have obviously had to shut down temporarily, so this is why Google Maps is adding a “temporarily closed” option

However, in some cases businesses may have been marked as temporarily closed even though they may still be open, even if it's just for online, collections or deliveries. We would advise to check the status of your business by searching on Google and checking the results to be on the safe side.

If they are incorrect you can correct them.

The Temporarily Closed feature may be helpful to keep customers informed during Lockdown. A new page on Google’s support forums explains how business owners can mark their location as “temporarily closed” in Maps and Search if your business is incorrectly showing as open. This wouldn’t be used by businesses running limited hours as a result of the outbreak, but rather for those that have had to shut down operations entirely in the midst of the outbreak.

Google explains:

To make your profile appear as temporarily closed on Google Maps and Search:

1. On your computer, sign in to Google My Business.
2. In the menu on the left, click Info.
3. To the right, point to the section “Close this business on Google.”
4. Click Mark as temporarily closed.

The Tech giant have confirmed that this new updated feature will not harm the business ranking or visibility. They also said that for now, the most important thing to note is you can mark a business as temporarily closed without consequence and change it back as soon as you are open again.

We hope this information has been useful and we look forward to working with companies like yours in the near future.