Should you update your Christmas opening hours on Google?

Yes, and do it in November rather than on 23 December. Google already knows Christmas is coming: on a list of dates it publishes, it shows customers a warning that your hours might be different, whether or not you've changed anything. Setting special hours replaces that warning with your real times, and it takes about ten minutes.

Our interest, stated first. We do SEO work, and getting a Google Business Profile right is part of it, so a piece telling you this matters is one that suits us. We'd still tell you to do it yourself: it's free, it takes minutes, and nobody needs to be paid for it.

It's the fourth and last part of our series on Christmas marketing, checked, which sets out what the rules and the platforms say, with a link to each source. It isn't legal advice.

What Google actually does

Google publishes the list of dates it treats this way, country by country. For the United Kingdom it includes Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day, with Boxing Day observed on the Monday when it falls at a weekend. On those dates, Google says, "a warning may appear on your Business Profile that tells users that your opening hours might differ". Its advice is to confirm your hours either way: "It's a good idea to confirm your hours for official holidays, even if they're the same as your regular hours."

That warning is the problem. A customer checking on Boxing Day morning sees doubt rather than an answer, and the shop that confirmed its hours looks open while you look uncertain.

How to set them

Follow Google's instructions: open your Business Profile, go to Edit profile, then Hours, and select Edit next to "Special hours". Pick the date, then either untick the "Closed" box and enter your times, or leave it ticked if you're shut. Special hours only cover a closure of "up to six days in a row", though. If you're shutting for a week or more, or for a period you can't yet put an end date on, you need a different setting.

Getting it done before the rush

• Set them in November, while it's a job rather than an emergency.
• Confirm the days you're open as normal, not just the days you're shut.
• Put the same hours on your website and anywhere else you're listed, so they agree.
• If you're closing for a week or more, use the temporary closure setting rather than special hours.
• Check the profile on your phone on Christmas Eve, as a customer would.

Christmas hours are the small end of being found locally. The rest of the job is setting up a Google Business Profile properly and keeping the listings around it in order, which our local SEO checklist covers. Those details carry more weight than they used to, and why local search matters more than it did five years ago explains why. For the wider picture, our 90-day marketing plan puts it all in order.