Why is it important for you to set holiday hours online?
Earlier this year, BrightLocal shared a report asking people about what issues would make them lose trust in a business when searching online. Over 50% of the respondents said that incorrect business hours would make them lose trust. This is why it’s important to keep your business hours updated in all of the major search engines. Another reason, when you interreact with your profiles on Google, Bing, Yelp, etc. the algorithms see “New Information” which is a positive metric for local SEO.
How to Add Holiday Hours on Your Google My Business Page
Login to your Google My Business account, click on the Info section, and scroll down to see your normal business hours and your special hours. Click the Edit button/pencil and you can choose which days you are open, which days you’re closed, and if you have special hours on any of those days as well.
Google does a great job of actually prompting you to fill out your holiday hours on Google My Business. They’ll send you email to remind you and when you log in they’ll even suggest certain days you might want to consider for holiday hours.
You can set them in the Google My Business app if you have that app on your mobile phone or tablet.
How to Post your Holiday Hours on Yelp
On Yelp, you will log into biz.yelp.com, go to Manage Your Listing, go to the Business Information section and scroll down to the hours. You’ll see normal business hours and your special hours. You can click on Add Special Hours.
Like Google, Yelp is getting good at predicting the days you may have special hours and you can verify them or you can enter your own days and hours right there. You can also set your hours in the Yelp for Business app.
How to Update Hours on Bing
In Bing, you can go into your listing on bingplaces.com and there’s a place to Edit Special Hours. Check the box that says, “Yes I want to provide working hours for special days”. You can choose dates you are closed or you can actually put in special hours for that specific day. When you’re done click Submit.