Google Verifies That Enterprise “Openness” Is a Problem for Native Ratings

In the eyes of Google Search Liaison, in recent years, openness has meant a greater emphasis on native search.

But even fictitious 24/7 hours can backfire if Google changes rating alerts.

Working hours in Google Profiles for enterprise is important from the perspective of search engine optimization and customer education.

In a post, Joy Hawkins said, “We are seeing the new ranking factor with huge impact on rankings and it’s called HOURS.”

Following this discussion, Google’s Search Liaison indicated that recently “openness” has been a stronger signal for local search.

As far as the team is concerned, openness has been an element of our local search rankings for some time; it recently became a much stronger signal in queries that aren’t navigational. However, in evaluating its worth, this could change many times over.

But it must only be for non-navigation queries.

If you are looking for the name of a business, it means that you would like to look up its specific location or route. If you were looking for a broad topic, it wouldn’t be called navigation.

Hawkins stated, “They’re leaving business when they close their doors. We first noticed this when the core update was released in November 2023. Also, this keeps temporarily closed listings from being ranked.

Recent research carried out by SEO specialists seems to show that Google has changed local search results criteria, and business hours are now an important factor.

How business will respond to the factor of openness is one of fear  

At the X discussion, Sherry Bonelli expressed concern in an update that could cause some companies to declare 24/7 operation hours fraudulently (to increase their local search visibility).

It could give searchers a bad user experience since people might try visiting the company outside of normal business hours.

These worries didn’t escape Google, which advised against changing business hours due to the ever-changing openness ranking signal. Google may also send you a new suspension mail.

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