Let your future opening date, engage with customers, and announce when and where you’ll be open for business.

Here are some tips for getting started with Google Business Profile if your business hasn't opened yet.

Create your listing in GBP directly, but verify later.

You will want to create the new listing location directly in your GBP profile instead of LocalClarity as this will give you a few more options. When you create your business listing, be sure to choose the "Verify later" option when you're prompted to verify. Then, set your future opening date before you verify your business. That way, you'll prevent your business from falsely appearing on Google as "open."

To create your business listing, follow these steps. When prompted to choose a verification option, select More options. Then, under "Verify later," click Later.

Note: For bulk verified accounts, it’s especially important to set the future opening date before verification, as your listings are instantly verified.

Set your future opening date.

To enter an opening date:

1. Sign in to Google Business Profile.
2. If you have multiple locations, open the location you'd like to manage.
3. From the menu, click Info.
4. Find the "Opening date" section and click the Pencil icon .
5. Enter your opening date.
6. Click Apply.

Only the year and month of your opening date are required. You can enter a date up to one year in the future.

Once you’ve entered the date and verified your business, it will begin to appear on Google 90 days before the opening date.

Engage with customers.

At the 90-day mark, you can start to engage with your community. To foster relationships with customers, you can use the Google Business Profile features available to you:

• Posts: Use Posts to announce your business opening. Through Posts, you can share an opening day discount or coupon with the community.
• Photos: Post photos of your location, and keep the community up-to-date with the progress of your store from construction to opening day.
• Merchant description: Explain what your business is all about, and let the community learn about your business straight from the source.

Once your business opens, your listing will appear on Google with a "Recently opened" tag.

For additional questions, please contact [email protected]

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