Don’t let outdated listings put your local visibility on ice. Get your multi-location Google Business Profiles holiday-ready with GPO’s practical Q4 guide.
The holidays are right around the corner, and while your marketing team is likely busy preparing for Black Friday promotions, holiday campaigns, and year-end reporting, there’s one more very important thing you should add to your Q4 checklist: your Google Business Profiles (GBPs).
Between holiday closures, fluctuating shopping hours, and promotions and offers, keeping your GBPs accurate can get a little tricky, especially when you’re managing hundreds (or thousands) of locations. And with AI playing an increasingly important role in local search, accurate business information is especially valuable.
So, before the holiday rush gets underway, here are six things you’ll definitely want to review across your locations.
Q4 holidays will almost definitely affect your regular operating schedule, and inaccurate Google Business Profile hours can frustrate customers. They can also affect the information surfaced in AI-generated local recommendations, which often reference business listings when answering location-based questions.
Fortunately, Google makes it relatively easy to schedule these hourly adjustments in advance using the Special Hours feature in Google Business Profile. And even if your locations plan to maintain their regular hours, Google recommends confirming them for official holidays.
Psst…If you’re wondering how to update holiday hours on Google Business Profile, head to your profile, select Edit profile → Hours → Special hours, and enter the applicable dates and hours. You can also mark individual dates as closed.
Holiday hours aren’t the only schedules that might change in Q4. Depending on your business, you may also need to adjust delivery availability, pickup times, or service areas to accommodate the holiday rush.
Fortunately, Google’s More Hours feature lets you specify when certain services, like delivery, pickup, and takeout, are available. So, take some time to review these details across your locations. That way, customers have a better idea of what to expect before placing an order or heading to a location.
If you’re already running seasonal promotions, why not give them a little extra exposure through your GBPs? You can share offers, events, and updates directly on your GBPs through Google Post. Think holiday sales, special events, or seasonal services that might interest nearby customers.
If any of your locations will be closed over the holidays, you’ll want to make sure they’re marked correctly. Google offers three ways to communicate closures and recommends using each under different circumstances.
Before the holidays, double-check that each location has the correct hours or closure status. And once business resumes, make sure any temporarily closed locations are marked open again.
Your Google Business Profiles might be in great shape, but what about your listings on other platforms? Apple Maps, Bing, Yelp, and other directories may still be displaying your regular operating hours, even after you’ve updated them on Google. Inconsistent business listings can hurt your local SEO and make it harder for customers to find accurate information about your locations, so as you’re updating your GBPs, make sure those changes are reflected across your other listings, too.
And while you’re at it, give your business names, addresses, phone numbers, and website links a quick review. Q4 is a great time to catch any lingering inaccuracies before heading into the new year.
Speaking of your website, your location pages deserve a quick review, too. If your website says a store closes at 6 p.m. on Christmas Eve, but Google says 9 p.m., you’ve got two different answers to the same customer question.
Review your store locator and location-specific pages for outdated hours, service information, and other seasonal details. Keeping these pages aligned with your GBPs also supports your broader local SEO strategy and gives search engines another reliable source of information about your locations.
Updating a handful of Google Business Profiles before the holidays? Manageable. Coordinating those updates across hundreds or thousands of locations, when each has its own hours, services, and seasonal changes? That’s a considerably bigger undertaking. Fortunately, you don’t have to tackle it all on your own.
GPO’s Listings Management services help multi-location brands maintain accurate, optimized business information across Google and other directories, like Yelp and Apple Business Connect. Our Listings Distribution platform helps streamline bulk updates, distribute consistent location data, and manage Google Posts at scale. Pair that technology with our team’s local SEO expertise, and you’ve got a much more manageable way to keep your locations accurate and discoverable throughout Q4 and beyond.
After all, you’ve got enough on your plate this holiday season. Let us take listing management off your hands. Contact us today to see how we can help.
Don’t let outdated listings put your local visibility on ice. Get your multi-location Google Business Profiles holiday-ready with GPO’s practical Q4 guide.
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