Repeatedly being marked as open by Google

[aborg]

We've got a Business that's been closed since March due to COVID, and have given zero indication in the profile or on the web that the business would be reopening anytime soon. Recently, we are repeatedly getting marked as open by Google. See Attached. Some of these have happened within hours of marking it as "closed" again.

We cannot figure out why this keeps happening and are curious if any one has any good (or just any) ideas to help figure this out. We've repeatedly raised this with Google's help, but it's always a dead-end (they don't seem to actually read the issue).

Thanks for any ideas to look at.

 

[Phil Rozek]

@aborg, did you mark it as "temporarily closed" (rather than "permanently closed")? That's what I'd suggest first. I'd wager that a confused searcher / customer is the one submitting the changes (that Google accepts), rather than that Google is auto-updating spontaneously or that a ne'er-do-well competitor is doing it.

If that doesn't do the trick, a few other things you might hurl against the wall:

1. Adding "Temporarily Closed" to the GMB name and/or landing page title tag.

2. Doing a GMB post to that effect.

3. Adding some COVID Schema: Add structured data to COVID-19 announcements (BETA).

4. Having other people - preferably higher-level Local Guides - submit Google Maps edits that corroborate the "temporarily closed" status.

 

[aborg]

Hi:

Thanks for the reply:

It had been marked as "Temporarily Closed" since March (not as "closed" as my wording suggested).

Will consider your other suggestions though, as we're kind of out of ideas over here

 

[j_holtslander]

I’ve witnessed that If someone tries to make an edit to a business that is marked as permanently or temporarily closed it will re-open the business in order to submit the edit. It’s stupid I know.