Many businesses depend on Google Maps and Search to drive customers to their locations, but during the coronavirus outbreak, many businesses have had to shut down temporarily. Now, Google Maps is adding a “temporarily closed” option for these businesses.
Google announced recently that it would allow business owners to mark their location as “temporarily closed” through the Google My Business portal. This change would, in turn, appear in Google Search results as well as on Google Maps. The company also mentioned that, using government data and other authoritative sources, it would be making this change automatically.
Now, that feature is available to business owners. A new page on Google’s support forums explains how business owners can mark their location as “temporarily closed” in Maps and Search. 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 or local shelter-in-place orders.
Google explains:
To make your profile appear as temporarily closed on Google Maps and Search:
- On your computer, sign in to Google My Business.
- In the menu on the left, click Info.
- To the right, point to the section “Close this business on Google.”
- To expand this section you might need to click the arrow.
- Click Mark as temporarily closed.
SearchEngineLand was also able to capture an image of what this interface looks like, as seen below. If your business is affected by COVID-19, be sure to take the appropriate steps to inform customers through your Maps listing. This new option should be available to all business owners.
More on Google Maps:
- Google limits My Business listings during coronavirus outbreak, affects updates, more
- Google Maps adds COVID-19 warning message when searching for medical locations
- Google encourages businesses to update listings if affected by coronavirus
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