The mistake almost every local business makes on Google Maps

Someone searches "dentist near me" on a Friday at 7pm. Your practice shows up at the top of the list. It says: Closed. They click the next result and never find out you were actually open until 8.

The fastest test

Open a private browser window, type in your business name, and look at exactly what a stranger searching for you for the first time would see. If it surprises you, it's surprising your customers too.

What is usually wrong

Opening hours are the most expensive mistake, but rarely the only one. These are the details that go stale fastest:

• Holiday hours, which Google highlights separately and gets wrong especially often
• A phone number that no longer rings, or points at an old location
• An address with a misplaced pin, so navigation drops people behind the building
• A profile category describing what you used to be rather than what you do now
• Photos that are several years old

Why your details change without you knowing

A Google profile is not only yours. Users can suggest edits, and Google applies some of those suggestions automatically. So a profile you filled in correctly a year ago can carry somebody elses information today, without a single notification.

What to do today

• Turn on profile notifications so you see when someone suggests an edit
• Enter holiday hours in advance, for the whole year
• Navigate to your own address and check where it actually drops you
• Ask recent customers for a review; a profile with no new reviews reads as closed