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How to Remove Temporarily Closed on Google Maps – Manage Your Google Business Profile Hours
TL;DR
- Google may mark an open business as “Temporarily Closed” because of user edits, conflicting data, or automated signals.
- Website changes, third-party directories, and incorrect business information can trigger the status.
- Businesses can usually remove the label by clicking “Mark as Open” in their Google Business Profile.
- A temporarily closed listing can still appear in Google search and receive new reviews.
- Special hours may be a better option for short-term closures.
What Causes a Google Business Profile to Show as Temporarily Closed?
Quick Answer: A Google Business Profile usually shows as “temporarily closed” because Google’s automated systems, third-party data feeds, or user-submitted edits flagged the business status due to detected information inconsistencies—often without the business owner’s knowledge or consent.
Primary Causes of Unintended “Temporarily Closed” Statuses:
- Automated AI & Web Scraping Updates: Google’s algorithms continuously crawl the web. If they scrape conflicting operating hours or closure notices from your website, social media pages, or online business directories, the AI may automatically update your status to “temporarily closed.”
- User-Submitted Edits & Local Guides: Google allows external users, Local Guides, and even competitors to suggest edits. If a user flags your business as closed or submits a photo of a closed door, Google may accept the edit automatically.
- Connected Feeds (e.g., Google Merchant Center): If your profile is linked to tools like Google Merchant Center or inventory feeds, automated updates or misconfigured store-status settings can mistakenly override your live Google Business Profile status.
- Data Inconsistencies & Unset Holiday Hours: Leaving long gaps in regular operating hours or failing to set special/holiday hours can trigger Google’s automated systems to flag the listing as temporarily closed during suspected holiday periods.
- Support Community Consensus: According to discussions across the Google Business Profile Help Community, these automated status changes frequently occur without direct owner authorization or email notifications, requiring owners to manually revert the status in their dashboard.
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 asking, why is my business showing temporarily closed on Google or ” How to remove ‘temporarily closed’ on Google Maps. 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
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Why is my Google Business Profile showing as temporarily closed?
It can be frustrating to find your Google Business Profile (GBP) marked as Temporarily Closed when you are actively open for business.
Because Google relies heavily on automated algorithms, community reporting, and web scraping rather than waiting for owner confirmation, listings often get updated automatically without the owner’s explicit consent.
Primary reasons this happens
- User / Competitor “Suggest an Edit” Submissions: Anyone on Google Maps can click “Suggest an edit” on a business listing. If a competitor, disgruntled customer, or random user marks your business as temporarily closed, Google’s algorithm may automatically accept the suggestion—especially if the edit is backed by multiple user accounts or local guides.
- Third-Party Directory & Data Aggregator Mismatches: Google continuously scrapes the web for consistency across citations. If another platform (such as Yelp, Apple Maps, Bing Places, Facebook, or Data Axle/ExpressUpdate) has a duplicate listing or lists your status as closed, Google’s systems can pull that signal and override your GBP status.
- Website Crawls & Automated AI Signals: If your website went down temporarily, if you posted a notice on your site about taking a vacation/holiday, or if your website’s schema (structured data) contains contradictory business status code, Google’s automated web crawlers may flag the business as temporarily closed.
- Malicious “Edit & Extort” Scams: A growing trend involves bad actors intentionally spamming “suggest an edit” requests to mark a business closed, then calling the business owner pretending to be “Google Support” to charge a fee to “fix” the issue.
- Outdated Hours or a Temporary Closure Flag – it might be due to outdated hours or a temporary closure flag in your Google Business Profile. This can be corrected by updating the operating status in GBP or using Google Maps to mark the business as open.
Examples from Reddit & Google Business Forums
Example 1: The “Fix-It” Scam (Reddit – r/GoogleMyBusiness)
A business owner shared a story about a local moving company whose Google listing kept flipping to Temporarily Closed. Right after the listing changed, the owner received a suspicious call claiming to be from Google, offering to remove the red banner for $299. After paying, the status was changed back to open—only for it to happen again weeks later when they refused a follow-up call. Community members confirmed this was an edit-manipulation scam where scammers use multiple IP addresses/accounts to force Google’s automated edit approvals.
Example 2: Data Aggregator Conflicts (Reddit – r/GoogleMyBusiness)
A user noticed their business knowledge panel kept reverting to Closed despite manually correcting it. After investigating, they discovered a duplicate profile on Data Axle/MapQuest marked as “Permanently Closed”. Google’s Knowledge Graph was cross-referencing that external directory and repeatedly overriding the real GBP status.
Example 3: Unreviewed Community Edits (Google Help Forum)
Multiple threads on the Google Business Profile Help Community report instances where a local guide or customer incorrectly reported a location closed (often after visiting during a holiday or slightly outside standard hours). Google accepted the edit automatically, sending a delayed or easily overlooked email notification to the owner stating: “Google has updated your business hours/status based on user feedback.”
How to remove temporarily closed on Google Maps
Are you wondering how to remove temporarily closed on Google Maps, or how to remove the temporarily closed label in Google Business Profile (GBP)? There are five steps to get rid of the temporarily closed label in Google Business Profile (GBP). Here’s how to remove the “Temporarily Closed” status 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 temporarily closed Google My Business listing actually marked as “temporarily closed,” you can go into the Google Business Profile dashboard. In 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 that 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 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 for managing temporarily closed Google listings
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.
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.
?♀️
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.
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.
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!
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/
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.