Set up regular opening hours accurately across all seven days.
Module 2 · Lesson 6
Opening Hours
Set up accurate opening hours including special hours for holidays and temporary closures.
Learning Outcomes
Add special hours for public holidays, seasonal closures and special events.
Understand how 'Open now' and 'Closed' affect customer behaviour and click-through rates.
Use the temporary closure feature when your business is temporarily closed.
Key Concepts
Why Opening Hours Matter
Your opening hours are among the most searched-for pieces of information on any business profile. Customers routinely search "Is [Business Name] open right now?" or "businesses open near me". Accurate opening hours prevent customers from making wasted trips, build trust, and improve your profile's usefulness — a key factor in Google's engagement signals.
Setting Regular Hours
In your Google Business Profile, navigate to the Hours section and enter accurate hours for each day of the week. If your hours vary — for example, shorter hours on Saturdays or closed on Sundays — enter these correctly for each day. If your business operates 24 hours, select the "Open 24 hours" option. Do not leave hours blank — missing hours are treated as closed by Google.
Special Hours for Holidays
Google provides a Special hours feature for public holidays and exceptional closures. Use this to enter different hours for Christmas, New Year, Easter and other public holidays. Google often prompts business owners to confirm their holiday hours before major public holidays — respond to these prompts to keep your information current. Customers seeing correct holiday hours in advance makes a strong professional impression.
More Hours
Some business categories can add More hours, which are sub-categories of opening hours. For example, a restaurant might have different hours for Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Brunch, Happy hour, Delivery, Drive-through and Takeaway. Adding these gives customers much more precise information and reduces enquiries about when specific services are available.
Temporary Closures
If your business closes temporarily (renovation, illness, holiday, seasonal closure), use the Temporarily closed feature rather than deleting your profile or setting all hours to closed. This preserves your profile, maintains your ranking position, and clearly communicates to customers that you will reopen. Remember to restore your normal hours when you reopen.
Step-by-Step Practice
Log in to Google Business Profile and navigate to Hours.
Enter accurate opening hours for all seven days of the week.
Add special hours for all upcoming public holidays in your country.
Check the More Hours option — are there sub-category hours relevant to your business?
Search for your business on Google and confirm the hours displayed are correct. Test both on desktop and mobile.
Ian's practical tip: My regular opening hours are accurate for all seven days. I have added special hours for upcoming public holidays. I know how to use the Temporary Closure feature. I have verified my hours display correctly in Google Search.
Practical Activity
Complete and record this task
Always update your opening hours before public holidays — do not wait until the holiday arrives. Customers planning visits over the holiday period will check hours in advance. Google also sends reminder prompts to update holiday hours, which you should respond to promptly.