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Adding and Removing the Temporarily Closed Label in Google Business Profile
What does temporarily closed mean? The label temporarily closed in Google has been around for several years but is not a very utilized feature currently. It is meant to be used when your business is closing for an extended length of time, but not permanently.
If your business is marked as “Temporarily Closed” on Google, you may be wondering how to remove temporarily closed on Google. It may take a few steps which we outline below, but the short version of how to remove temporarily closed on Google is to click the “Mark as Open” button in your Google Business Profile (GBP).
In this Guide
- How to Remove the Temporarily Closed Label in Google Business Profile
- How do you temporarily close your Google Business Profile listing?
- Does the listing rank when it’s marked “temporarily closed”?
- The label does not automatically sync with Google Ads
- Temporarily closed listings can receive new reviews
- Why Does Google Say My Business Is Permanently Closed?
- Other Options
How to Remove Temporarily Closed in Google Business Profile?
Are you wondering how to remove the temporarily closed label in GBP? There are five steps to get rid of the temporarily closed label in Google Business Profile. Here’s how to remove the Temporarily Closed in GBP:
- Go to the Info tab inside Google Business Profile.
- Right beside where you edit the address, there should be a few buttons off to the right. Click “Mark as Open”.
- If that doesn’t work, click on the Google Business Profile logo in the top left of your screen to be taken back to the overview tab for your account. From there, you should see a list of locations in your account.
- Check the box beside the listing you want to re-open and click the “Actions” drop-down and click “Open” as indicated in this photo:
- Finally, if that doesn’t work, you can go to Google Maps, pull up the business, and click “Suggest an Edit” to mark it as open,
How do you temporarily close your Google Business Profile listing?
To get your Google Business Profile listing marked “temporarily closed” you can go into the Google Business Profile dashboard and on the info tab there should be an option to mark it as closed temporarily:
Does the listing rank when it’s marked “temporarily closed”?
As of March 26th, the “temporarily closed” label does not impact the ranking of the listing (it did previously). Listings with the label added still rank in the 3-pack.
The label does not automatically sync with Google Ads
While searching for examples, I found a restaurant that has the temporarily closed label on it who forgot to shut off their Google Ads account. The ad for this business has the old hours on it showing the business as open. This is likely due to the fact that Location Extensions do not automatically sync with Google Business ProfileGoogle Business Profile
.
Temporarily closed listings can receive new reviews
Originally, during the beginning of COVID-19, Google made it so temporarily closed listings could not receive new reviews.
This is no longer true and a listing would have to be marked as permanently closed to have the review functionality removed.
Why Does Google Say My Business Is Permanently Closed?
If you’re asking yourself, why does Google say my business is permanently closed? Google will label your business as permanently closed usually when a business has relocated and customers are seeing the old location (Google Maps to a closed place) instead of the new location’s address.
Other Options
If you still want to utilize all the Google Business Profile features (like posts or reviews), you can opt to use special hours instead of having your listing marked as temporarily closed. This is a more hands-on approach if you don’t think your business will be closed for very long.
Tip: Do not use the opening date feature if your business is temporarily closed. If you set the opening date to a date in the future, it will cause your listing and reviews to become invisible on Google Search and Google Maps.
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Hi, and what about changing the hours and marked them as close (not the permanently closed)? Or with the temporarily closed is fine. My kind of business don’t have the option of post, or editing the description.
Thanks
Hi Belen, in this case you would need to contact GMB support so there is no need to use Google Posts or update the description.
I don’t blame them for not updating anything on GMB. In my experience any drastic changes like that will only confuse the latest experiments with the algorithm or whatever else they decide to tinker with to make your business suffer. Closing then re-opening, moving, anything at all really on GMB is a bad experience when it comes to Google. GMB needs to work by itself (maybe one day), human intervention just makes a mess I’ve found. Also notice some noise on Twitter about this. Finally someone agrees with me. I refuse to touch it now. Still recovering from my experiments with it a few months back and no-body even understood what I was trying to say. I un-published my GMB website and refuse to publish it again now. I’m even nervous about posting new photos on there. It constantly grabs old outdated ones to show in SERPS anyway no matter what I do. It’s a tech nightmare, even they can’t make it work. Might be good for a local hairdresser looking for local business and doesn’t have a website. For anyone who sells nationwide or global DO NOT USE IT! Trust me, I tried and almost lost all my business (except for a few orders in town which I NEVER usually get) it makes you too local, I tried fiddling with settings and just made it all worse. Still trying to get back up there after all that.
?♀️
Would you say this useful in terms of Coronavirus and temporary shutting of doors, or is this for more ‘known’ periods of time?
I definitely think it’s useful for the given times depending on the scenario. If the business doesn’t plan on being closed long, I’d use special hours instead.
We are seeing diminished rankings with businesses using temporarily closed. Currently, they are not ranking in the map pack and are ranking below businesses with missing hours, using special hours or businesses that didn’t update their hours in the local finder.
I tested marking a business temporarily closed for 2 months from early Nov 2019 to early Jan 2020. It was a seasonal business that was closing for winter. Rankings strongly diminished, and reviews completely stopped coming in. As soon as I “reopened” the business, everything very quickly came back. Even though the business was still closed, reviews started coming in 1-2x per week. My opinion is not to do this for seasonal businesses, update the business description and add an event post announcing the closure. I also removed the business hours. But, I can see times that this could be very beneficial, especially as it relates to recent events.
Hello! How do you remove the temporarily closed mark from the google listing?
Hey Sarah,
There is supposed to be a button for it inside Google My Business on the info tab. If you don’t see it, contact GMB support here: https://support.google.com/business/gethelp
Sarah,
I actually just updated the article to list a few other ways to accomplish this.
Hi Shelly,
I’m with a seasonal business as well and trying to figure out what will be affected if we use the Google Temporary Close feature – we still need to keep website and phones open. You’ve had a second season since your post. Would you be so kind as to say how you handled it in 2021 and whether you were happy with the results? Did the event post reach the necessary people and keep customers from showing up while you were closed?
Your feedback would be much appreciated.
Thanks!
Hello Joy,
Thank you for writing such informative articles.
My rankings have plummeted since Corona and I am trying to find some answers. Would you be able to tell me whether other businesses are experiencing the same problem?
Thanks.
Hey Niketa,
Not that I have heard of. At least not at scale. There are always businesses that experience ranking drops for various reasons at any given point in time. I’d probably suggest having an audit done if you’re not clear on what to do next. If you’d like us to quote you on that, please fill in the contact form on our site here: https://www.sterlingsky.ca/contact/
Great article Joy, thanks for sharing! With regards to hotels, a world of their own, if you mark the location as “temporarily close” it will stop showing Google Hotel Ads within 24/48 hours (I have some screenshots but could not add them here). I’m still tracking any changes in ranking/visibility, although Google stated that “temporarily close” has no impact on rankings but I’m somehow sceptical on the matter. Do you have any insights on to how it could affect hotels visibility?
I haven’t tracked hotels specifically but I do see temporarily closed listings ranking in the 3-pack now so I believe Google’s statement is accurate.
My kind of business don’t have the option of post, or editing the description. and what about changing the hours and marked them as close (not the permanently closed)? Or with the temporarily closed is fine.
Thanks
Every business type should have the option to add the temporarily closed label.
Joy, we have a somewhat seasonal business as Shelly Cihan does and need to shut down the Showroom for a few months while keeping the phones and website operational. Shelly had issues with the Temporary Closure, but I know Google has changed their programming since Shelly’s post. Would you recommend we use the Temporary Closure or are there downsides I should be aware of in starting it back up again? (ranking? reviews? etc.)
Thanks so much for this informative reference!
It shouldn’t impact your ranking or reviews so I would go ahead and use it.