A Listing for a Shop That Has Not Opened Yet

On the map before the doors open

A new shop has signed a lease, ordered its sign and set a target date. The owner wants it in Google's results and on the map from the start, ideally before the first customer arrives.

That is a reasonable wish with two practical obstacles. Google's guidelines for listings expect a business to be open and serving customers at its address during the hours it shows.

And to verify the listing, Google usually mails a postcard with a code to that address. A unit still being fitted out has no hours to show and often nowhere for mail to land.

The answer is to do each piece at the point where it can be done properly.

What goes wrong when it is rushed

• Hours shown for a closed shop send people to a papered window.
• The postcard arrives before there is a mailbox.
• The first review complains that nobody was there.
• Photos of a building site become the listing's first impression.
• The opening date slips, and every listing needs changing.

The third lasts longest. A review from someone who drove to a locked door stays on the listing after the shop is busy, and new customers will be reading it for months.

Build the website page first

A page on your own site can say what a listing cannot: the target date, what the shop will do and how to reach you before then. And it can change as often as the date does.

Put it up as soon as the lease is signed. Search engines take time to find a new site, and a page live for a month or two is easier to find on opening day than one published that morning.

Give the real address and phone number in text, and a photo of the building as it is, replaced once the sign goes up.

What the opening page should say

The opening date, given honestly as a target until it is certain, then the exact day and time.

What the shop will do, in specific terms: the services, a few prices, what can be done while customers wait.

Where it is and how to get there: the unit number, the nearest landmark, the parking.

A way to hear about the opening: a sign-up for one email on the day, with an unticked box so the consent is real, and a phone number for questions.

The listing, close to opening

Create the Google My Business listing when the shop is about to meet the guidelines and the address can receive mail: the mailbox is installed, the sign is up, and someone checks the mail daily.

Most new businesses verify by postcard. It can take a couple of weeks to arrive, so request it about two weeks before the planned opening, and tell whoever collects the mail to watch for it.

Google My Business is still tied to Google+ pages, so verifying also gives the business a Google+ page, which is where its photos and updates sit for now.

Enter the hours you will keep from opening day, the category that best describes the business, and the address of the opening page, which can become the home page later.

A worked example

A skate sharpening shop signed a lease in July on a unit in a strip mall between two arenas, aiming to open before the minor hockey season. It would sharpen while customers waited and sell laces, guards and insoles.

The owner's first instinct was to get on the map straight away, with the planned hours.

Two things argued against it: the unit had no mailbox, and the fit-out kept slipping, so hours entered in July would have been a guess.

Instead the website went up in July, with a page giving the target opening week, the address, the services and prices, and a sign-up for one email on opening day.

The listing was created two weeks before opening, once the mailbox and sign were in. The postcard arrived in time, and the listing was verified before the doors opened.

The opening date moved once, by a week. Only the website page had to change, and nobody drove to a locked door.

Three places, not seven

Since early August, Google's local results show three businesses instead of seven, with a link to see more.

A new shop with no reviews and no history will rarely be one of those three on a competitive search in its first weeks. The listing is the start of a record, not a launch campaign.

So the opening page, the sign, word of mouth and the opening-day email carry more of the first month than the map does.

Photos and hours for the day

Take the photos the evening before opening: the sign, the entrance, the counter, the work being done. Add them to the listing and the website that morning.

Check the hours in the listing against the hours on the door and on the site, so all three agree from the first day. Bing Places for Business takes the same details and should match too.

After the doors open

On opening day, turn the opening page into the home page, or point it there, and remove anything that still says coming soon.

Ask early customers who are pleased to mention you on Google, without offering anything in return. A few honest reviews in the first weeks do more than any setting in the listing.

Insights in Google My Business then shows how often the listing was seen and how many people asked for directions.

The counter-case

A business that is already trading and moving to new premises is in a different position: it is open, it has a listing, and the work is changing the address at the right moment.

A service business that visits customers rather than receiving them can be listed with a service area and no public address, and its timing depends less on a shopfront.

For a new shop, though, the order holds: website page first, listing close to opening, hours and photos ready for the day.

Before opening day

1. Publish an opening page when the lease is signed.
2. Give a target date and update it honestly.
3. Add a sign-up for one opening-day email.
4. Install the mailbox before requesting the postcard.
5. Create the listing about two weeks before opening.
6. Enter real hours from opening day only.
7. Photograph the finished shop the evening before.

Step four is the one people forget. The postcard is the gate to everything else in the listing, and a code mailed to a building site is easily lost.

The same kind of page for a business that is moving rather than opening is covered in an announcement page for a move to new premises.

Frequently asked questions

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