Have you ever had it where you've wanted 
to eat out and then when you've got there   and turned up it's been closed and yet you've 
already checked to see what time it was open till   and you had like at least half an hour spare why 
was it that the website set a different time to   the fact that when you get there the shops 
close well that can be really frustrating as   a customer so you'll know that having your 
hours accurately being represented online   is essential and google knows that and so 
Google will reward you if people are happy   and with the consistency of your hours now Google 
My Business has a whole section not just for hours   regular hours but it also covers things like 
holidays and even extra things like opening   times for special occasions happy hours takeaways 
and so on so have you checked your hours are they   regularly being updated do all your holiday's match 
what your hours are for your shop or your business   well this is going to cover all those things 
today plus a load of things that you may not   have considered so here's a few things should i 
always put 24-hour opening is that going to be   an advantage is it an advantage always being open 
even when it's a bank holiday or a public holiday   does it matter if my hours are wrong and if I want 
to change my hours is it really difficult or is it   straightforward what do I do if I'm just away for 
a week and I just got a few special hours for that   week or how do I add my holiday hours so I can be 
away well we're going to cover all those things   it's really quite straightforward it's nothing to 
be worried about but today we're going to check   your hours and we're also going to check to see 
what do all the other websites say and all the   other citations and indexes say about your hours 
because if they're not consistent google will know   and that can also be a negative effect on your 
google my business listing so I'm going to show   you how as a free tool to help you to check those 
things too so questions to be honest about here's   one to think about do my hours actually benefit 
my customers so do you find that a lot of your   customers are contacting you at a certain time and 
actually, that's the time when you're closed i   mean years ago people used to close half day on 
a Wednesday in the UK and also people used to   close for lunch between say one and two but if 
your customers are coming to you at that time   is that the right time to close only you can 
answer that but that's one of those questions to   be honest about today think about your customers 
are they demanding a different type of our set   from you and we're changing without giving you 
more customers for your business now by saying   you're always open and always blasting out 24 hour 
opening when it's not true you could start to look   desperate i've often quoted this and said avoid 
desperation it shows and takes away your dignity   and that would be my advice here a desperate 
business doesn't gain business so how can you   make sure that your hours are the same as all the 
other areas well it's obvious you can check your   your business website and make sure that 
reflects exactly what's on your google my   business that would make sense but what about 
your facebook what about other business pages   what about Bing what about Yell how do you check 
all those things too in an easy way well as always   I've got a free tool for you this time this one's 
going to be bright local let's have a look at it   on this free citation tracker you can see how you 
can check your hours you can make sure as you go   to others that they're also all correct when you 
go to those citations and so it's just a case of   simply doing a scan checking where you're found on 
the internet and then making sure your hours are   consistent you may have heard of NAP name 
address phone number and really you could add   to the hours as well as a few other things just 
check those things make sure they're consistent   and what about 5 p.m is it the same as say 
1700 well as far as Google is concerned   it may just be a little bit fussy sometimes in 
the past we would recommend stick with whatever   google's saying so if it's saying 1700 then put 
1700 if you've got a choice rather than 5 p.m   if it says 5 p.m on both then try and keep that 
consistency too all those little things will add   to what's considered as an authority trust and 
expertise which is what google's looking for   so to add hours to your business you can type 
in your business name into google and then one   of the ways to get there is if you click on edit 
profile and then you'll see hours and then you   can decide on whether these hours are accurate 
you can add various hours you can close or open   but of course, if you're opening or closing because 
of covid then you've got options here as well or   you can click on hours here and again you've got 
exactly the same information so that's one way to   do it the second way is you can actually just log 
in or just check your ads first of all by clicking   on here and you'll see then what's uh some nine 
till five on my business this was updated two   weeks ago which shows again it accuracy to google 
so that's another good important signal let's just   show you if i was a restaurant i can click on 
home in a restaurant and you'll notice if you've   not updated your hours you can click on update 
business hours here so that's another way to do so   if you haven't added ads before which 
in this case on this business i haven't   then ad hours is another option that comes up is 
to complete your business so you really need to   do this if you click on this it just takes you to 
the same place which is info on the left hand here   so i just gets out a different way by click on 
info and then you've got add hours and then you   just got to decide really on what times you're 
opening for now i'm going to pretend that we're   open from eight a.m and i'm also going to show 
you that say we're open from eight til 10 p.m and some of us is it worth having 24 hours 
because that's another option and 24 hours   really isn't helpful because at the end of 
the day if you're not open 24 hours so what   restaurant would be open say 24 hours it's 
unlikely if you're not open 24 hours that's   going to cause disappointment so that's 
why 24 hour opening is only really useful   if that's exactly what you're doing so let's just 
assume then that we've done this now what i'll   also say is you can add more hours and this is 
ideal things like if you do a special happy hour   so let's say for instance in this restaurant we 
had an happy happy hour on mondays um from say six   um six p.m so it'd be four 16 there till seven 
so you can just do that and that will then just   show as an extra hour section and that will show 
as like a an extra happy hour and you have all   these additional things that are known as more 
hours so it comes under the more hours section   so you need to know a bit more about that if you 
feel that would apply and also there are special   hours things like holiday hours that you need to 
consider as well so just go to my zanet design   one so you notice these are my standard hours but 
i also have holiday hours so i've got no special   extra hours like i did with the restaurant but 
here for holidays i can fill these out as well   so things like if it's new year or christmas or 
an easter or a bank holiday then all these things   can be added to and you'll get emails that come 
through to ask for that and again every time you   update it it then just gives a signal to google 
that you're very much ahead of the game and that   you're keeping on top of your hours and there 
have been occasions where google have even shown   that the hours have been updated on a particular 
listing so on the community we recently asked a   question if you were having an option to open 24 
hours would that be the right thing to do is that   true or false opening 24 hours will get you more 
customers well as you can see here 19 are true   81 said false and it is false the the idea of 
getting more customers by going to 24 hour opening   is not going to work on that alone if you are 
opening 24 hours then that's slightly different   but on the whole unless it's true then it's best 
not to put it so if you want to know more about   about more hours then there's a good explanation 
here on the google my business help page where   it explains that these more hours to enable you 
to set things like dining hours take out hours   so you can just make some changes so that 
it's not just about opening but it's also   about special times that are applicable as well 
and so that's literally just a case of going to   your business profile and updating the info under 
more hours so in conclusion what can you do today   well today these are the things you're going to do 
you're going to use that free tool by bright local   and you're going to check to see are your hours 
consistent across all your citations and indexes   the second thing i want you to do is just look at 
your competition and check their hours too and are   you missing a trick are they doing something with 
their hours that you haven't considered do they   have a happy hour do they have a delivery service 
with a special time at a certain time that you   could repeat for your business is there something 
you can learn from your competition so just check   it out do a search and see what their hours are 
too and think about your forthcoming holidays and   your bank holidays your national holidays and just 
make sure they're up to date too on your google   my business listing and that's the three things 
that you need to do today and hopefully you've   really benefited from just seeing that changing 
your hours doesn't take a lot but actually could   make a big difference to how your business is 
viewed by your customers now tomorrow i've got   a really important tip regarding your categories 
and there's lots of questions about categories   categories could make or break your business 
if you get it right or if you get it wrong   so make sure you visit me on day three tomorrow 
and we'll talk about categories i'll see you there you