It’s the end of the day. A potential customer leaves work, grabs their smartphone, and looks for a service nearby: a florist for a dinner party, a last-minute hairdresser, or an open bakery.
Most of your competitors display “Closed”. What about you? Indeed, among all the criteria Google uses to highlight your business, opening hours play a major role in your rankings.
⏱️ Google favors open businesses
We often think that to be visible, you need lots of reviews or to be the closest geographically. It is true, distance is important, but Google has an even bigger priority: user experience.
Google doesn’t want to send a user to a closed store. It is frustrating and useless. The search algorithm favors establishments that are open at the exact moment of the search.
This is a powerful lever for local SEO. As soon as your competitors pull down the shutters, they virtually disappear from search results filtered by “Open now”.
💡 The “quarter-hour” strategy to gain Google Maps visibility
You don’t need to stay open until midnight to see results. Sometimes, a strategic adjustment of 15 to 30 minutes is enough.
The majority of businesses close at “round” hours: 6:00 PM, 6:30 PM, or 7:00 PM. Imagine that all the hair salons in your neighborhood close at 7:00 PM.
- At 6:55 PM, competition is fierce.
- At 7:05 PM, if you close at 7:30 PM, you rank much better.
During this time frame, your Google Maps visibility explodes. You become the most relevant result for anyone looking for your services in the area. It’s a simple way to bypass the competition without spending a dime on advertising.
🛠️ How to manage your Google opening hours effectively?
Here is how to proceed simply:
- Analyze your area: Look at what time your direct competitors close.
- Test the extension: Try extending your closing time by 30 minutes on certain evenings (Fridays, for example).
- Update your profile: This is the crucial step. Edit your opening hours directly on your Google profile.
As we often explain, keeping your hours up to date is essential. A customer who travels only to find a closed door will not come back. Be precise, indicate public holidays and your vacations.
⚠️ Warning: do not cheat with your hours
Google and your customers hate bad surprises. If you show as open but you are closed, you risk:
- Negative reviews (“closed even though Google said open”).
- Reports from users.
- A loss of trust… and therefore of local SEO.
It is better to announce realistic hours, and stick to them.
🚀 Ready to climb the rankings?
SEO is not just a complex technical subject. It is often common sense applied to the digital world. By being available when others are not, you send a positive signal to Google and, above all, to your future customers.
Receive other personalized recommendations to improve your SEO.
➡️ Begonia.pro helps you boost your visibility, simply without technical jargon.
