(Updated | November 13, 2018)
One of the handiest features of services like Yelp or Google’s business listings is their display of a company’s hours of operation. Seeing that a shop is “about to close” has stopped me from driving across town on several occasions. But what about those days when a cafe may be closed because of a private party? Or perhaps it may have different hours related to the seasons of the year? There are times when the owner of the business needs to change the time of operation for one day only. Some small restaurants close on the weekend, or perhaps on Mondays. In some countries, shops and cafes close during mid-afternoon hours. On some official U.S. holidays, nearly all American businesses close (Thanksgiving, for example). However, there are certain days that aren’t actually holidays, but on which many businesses close (the day after Thanksgiving, for example). Most confusing are the closing times during the end-of-year shopping holidays, (including the Small Business Saturday).
Here’s how to manage special days and times on Yelp and Google’s listings pages. (Tip: You also should also update your website.)
How to change information related to a special date or time on your company’s Google business listings
Before Starting | If you haven’t already claimed your Google Business listing, start with our tutorial on “How to Start Using Google My Business.” If you’d like to learn a lot about using Google My Business, visit the SmallBusiness.com Guide to Managing a Listing on Google Search and Maps.
Start | Sign in to Google My Business
- For a single location:
- From card view, choose the listing you’d like to set special hours for and click Manage location. If you’re viewing your locations as a list instead of cards, switch to card view by clicking the cards icon on the right side above your locations.
- Click Info from the menu on the left side of the page.
- For multiple locations:
- From list view, select the locations you’d like to set special hours for. If you’re viewing your locations as cards instead of a list, switch to list view by clicking the list icon on the right side above your locations.
- Click the pencil icon in the top-right corner of the page.
Click the Special hours section | (You’ll only see this section if you’ve already provided regular hours.)
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- Click Confirm hours next to an upcoming holiday. Or click Add new date to choose a different date.
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- Enter the opening and closing times for that day.
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- Slide the circle to “Closed” to indicate that the location is closed all day.
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- If you’re open 24 hours, click Opens at and select 24 hours from the drop-down menu that appears.
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- If you enter closing hours past midnight, make sure to set them properly.
- When you’ve finished entering all of your special hours, click Apply.
Your special hours will appear to customers on Google only for the designated days.
How to set a special date or time on your Yelp business listing
First things first | If you haven’t done so already, find and claim your Yelp Business Page. (More information about claiming your business.) After you have claimed your Yelp Business Page and have been verified by Yelp, do the following.
Log-in at biz.yelp.com. (You may also want to download the Yelp for Business Owners app for mobile access.)
Log into the Yelp for Business Owners admin page on either the app or your Yelp listings page.
- On “Business Information” select “Special Hours.”
- Mark your business as being closed or opened during a specific window of time.
- Special hours are set on a day-by-day basis, so add each day where your operating hours will be different from the hours regularly listed on Yelp.
Once your hours are set, customers will see a banner highlighting your special hours on your Yelp Business Page as well as call outs in the hours’ section.
istock, yelp.com