Google has intro­duced a way for busi­ness­es to appear in local list­ings even before they open to the public.

Busi­ness­es that are open­ing in the near future can now cre­ate a Google My Busi­ness listing.

The list­ing will appear in Google search results 90 days before the before the open­ing date, giv­ing busi­ness­es an oppor­tu­ni­ty to build an online pres­ence and gen­er­ate cus­tomer interest.

Busi­ness­es can also engage with cus­tomers via the Google My Busi­ness list­ing and answer any ques­tions peo­ple may have before doors open.

Here is a quick walk­through explain­ing how to set up a Google My Busi­ness list­ing for a soon-to-open business.

Creating a Google My Business listing with a future opening date

Step One: Claim Your Listing

The first step is to cre­ate a Google My Busi­ness list­ing by vis­it­ing google.com/business and fol­low­ing the prompts.

When set­ting up a list­ing for a soon-to-open busi­ness select “Ver­i­fy lat­er” when prompt­ed to ver­i­fy the business.

That step is most impor­tant because it will pre­vent a busi­ness from appear­ing as “open” before it actu­al­ly opens.

Step Two: Set Opening Date

Set a future open­ing date by fol­low­ing the steps below:

  • Sign in to Google My Busi­ness.
  • Open the loca­tion you’d like to manage.
  • From the menu, click Info.
  • Find the “Open­ing date” sec­tion and click the pen­cil icon.
  • Enter your open­ing date.
  • Click Apply

Google only requires the year and month of a business’s open­ing date. Busi­ness­es can enter a date up to one year in the future.

Once the date has been set and the busi­ness has been ver­i­fied, the Google My Busi­ness list­ing will start to appear in local search results 90 days before the open­ing date.

Step Three: Create Content

Busi­ness­es can start adding con­tent to their Google My Busi­ness list­ing at the 90-day mark.

At that time busi­ness­es can pub­lish posts, pho­tos, and add a mer­chant description.

After the open­ing date the list­ing will be marked as “recent­ly opened.”

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