Do Business Hours Affect Your Rankings on Google Maps?
Your local business rankings on Google Maps can be affected by your business hours, but it can depend on your type of business and your competitors.
Let’s take a look at the graph below. This local business is in a market with a lot of competitors.
On the days the business is open, you see a lot of green, showing it’s ranking high on Google Maps. On days where you see the spikes of orange/red, meaning it’s ranking really low—the business is closed.
This business jumps from ranking in position #1 and #2 for its top keywords to ranking down at position #10 and #24. This local business is basically invisible in searches on the days it’s closed.
Why? Well, depending on the search query, Google often serves up the local businesses that are open at the time of the search. This is great if you are looking to book a service right then.
Unfortunately, for a business that is appointment based, if they are closed on the day someone happens to be researching where to book a service for later that week, the business will appear invisible.
Do Business Hours Affect Organic Ranking?
Now, keep in mind, business hours can have a big impact on how your Google Business Listing rank in Google Maps and the map pack.
It doesn’t affect your organic rankings (the list of blue links in search results) as much. (Not sure what I’m talking about? Go check out my blog post about Organic Search).
Here’s a graph showing really consistent rankings for this same business in ORGANIC google searches.
You see some jumps and drops in organic search, but it’s not as drastic as her rankings in Google Maps. She retains her high ranking pretty well here.
Which Businesses are Impacted the Most by Business Hours
Not all businesses are going have their rankings as affected by their business hours as this example.
You are more likely to see big jumps and falls in your Google Maps rankings if you:
Have a lot of competitors in your market
Have competitors with drastically different business hours than you
If you don’t have many competitors, or your competitors have similar hours, you probably won’t see your rankings affected quite like this business.
For example, here is a business who basically has no competition. She offers a unique service and has a really strong Google Business Profile.
All the green in her chart shows she’s ranking really high across the board and is barely affected by the days she is closed.
Here is another example of a different business with a different situation. In this example, this business has a lot of competition, but they have pretty similar hours.
You can see her rankings have drops and jumps, but not as drastic as the the very first example we looked at.
What Should You do if your Rankings are Impacted by Business Hours?
If your business is being impacted by your rankings dropping during your closed hours, you may want to consider adjusting your hours.
Keep in mind that Google’s guidelines say you should list your customer-facing hours as your business hours.
So, one option is to consider adjusting your business hours to be more in alignment with your competition.
Please note, if you are the type of business where people expect to be able to walk in for help, you don’t want to lie on your Google Business Profile and say you are open when you actually aren’t. You’ll end up with disgruntled clients and bad reviews.
In some industries, however, it’s common to list their business hours as 24/7, even when they aren’t because competition is so high. Think of Plumbers or HVAC companies. These businesses often use a phone answering service when their physical location isn’t open. While I haven’t heard of anyone getting suspended for doing this, I have heard from other SEO experts that it can cause issues with verification and support.
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If you need help improving your small business’s local SEO rankings, Well Crafted Communications can help. Contact me to set up a discovery chat.