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Best practices for business hours

31 January 2025 by
Best practices for business hours
Doorganiser, Magali Leys

Avoid common mistakes with 
opening hours 

When it comes to running a physical location, optimizing your customer experience is crucial, even online! One often overlooked but critical aspect is accurately displaying your business hours.

Here are some tips to ensure your customers (and Google) always know when you’re open.

Use a week overview 

Create a clear and visually appealing timetable for your website that displays the opening hours for each day of the week. This will enhance readability for your visitors and improve SEO by providing structured data for search engines. 

Below is an example of how you can present the opening hours for the upcoming 7 days, starting with today (assuming today is Tuesday).

Tips for great implementation 

  1. Dynamic dates: If possible, implement a script that automatically updates the dates based on the current day, so your visitors always see the correct information.
  2. Styling: Use CSS to style the table for better visual appeal, ensuring it fits well with your website's design.
  3. Schema markup: Consider adding schema markup for opening hours to help search engines understand your business hours better.

This format not only makes it easy for visitors to find the information they need but also helps with SEO by providing structured data.

Mention special days on your website

Many businesses forget to update their opening hours for special days like holidays, bridge days, or occasional Sunday openings.

If you are closed on uncommon holidays or open on special Sundays, make sure to mention these variations on your website.

This helps avoid confusion and frustration for your customers who may plan their visit based on outdated or incomplete information.

To do: Add your special opening hours on your website, where customers will look for them; contact page, store pages, etc.

Avoid conflicting information 

Having business hours listed prominently on your website is great, but if you mention closures or special hours elsewhere on the same page, it can create confusion. Make sure all information about your hours are visible in the same section. It is not user friendly to make visitors scroll down the fold for special days while opening hours are listed above the fold.

This clarity helps build trust with your customers.

To do: When listing your opening hours, include special days and closures near your regular business hours.

Stop using dedicated pages only 

While having a dedicated page for special hours can be beneficial for SEO, it’s crucial to also include this information on your main shop detail page. Most visitors will look for business hours on your shop’s detail page and will look no further.

Ensure customers can easily find whether you are open or closed today or tomorrow without having to navigate to another section or page.

To do: Make sure to list your opening hours, including any special days, prominently on your shop detail pages. 

Be consistent on the web

Consistency is key. If your website lists different hours than your Google Business profile, customers won’t know which one to trust. In the best case, they’ll call to confirm, but in the worst case, they’ll go to a competitor. Always make sure your business hours are consistent across all digital channels.

To do: Ensure that your business hours are the same on both your website and your Google Business profile.

Confirm your hour on Google Business

Even if your hours remain the same on special days, it’s essential to confirm them on your Google Business profile. Unconfirmed hours can lead to an orange warning for your customers instead of a green check, negatively impacting your Google ranking. Keep in mind, Google is a foot traffic driver!

Oh, and Google sometimes has some uncommon special days. Make sure to check which days they have and confirm or update these too!

Incorrect or unconfirmed hours can severely impact your Google ranking, which is a major traffic driver to your location. Avoid this pitfall by keeping your information up-to-date. Google lists all holidays which need to be reviewed.

To do: Perform a monthly check of your Google listings and confirm or change your opening hours on special days. This small step can significantly improve your Google ranking and ensure customers always have the correct information.

Go for a perfect visualisation

Google’s visual representation of opening hours, showing today’s hours and the next few days, is highly effective.

Implementing a similar system on your website can enhance user experience. 

A good rule of thumb is to be very explicit about your opening hours. What can you do?

  • list the days of the week seperately
  • use a 7-day-timetable instead of just showing your normal schedule
  • add dates (optional)
  • add reason for special hours (i.e. Christmas)
  • use other styling to show irregular hours