Opening date
Definition
An opening date on a Google Business Profile records when a business first opened, or plans to open, at a specific location. Google requires only the month and year, allows a future date up to one year ahead, and says a verified profile with a future date appears on Google 90 days before opening.1,2,3
- Topic
- Google Business Profile
- Updated
- Written by
- By Sergey Sulimko, Founder
What does an opening date describe?
Google's opening-date guidance covers two cases: an unopened business can tell the community when it will open at the given address, and an already-open business can add the date it opened.1 Google's bulk-upload guidance adds the location boundary: the date describes the business's current location, and each location in a multi-location business can have its own opening date.2
The field describes a one-time opening event for that location, not a company-wide date that should automatically be copied to every location.1,2,3 For the entry path and checks, use the Google Business Profile opening-date setup guide; the answer about adding or changing an opening date covers the edit steps.
How precise can an opening date be?
Google requires only the year and month, so the exact day can be omitted when it is unknown. Google's Business Profile API describes openingDate as the date on which the location first opened; the API also allows a date in the past or no more than one year in the future.3
| Business state | What the opening date records | Google boundary |
|---|---|---|
| Already open | The month and year when that location first opened | A past date, with month and year sufficient when the exact day is unknown.1,3 |
| Not open yet | The planned month and year when that location will open | A future date no more than one year ahead. After the date is entered and the business is verified, Google says the profile appears on Google 90 days before opening.1,3 |
How is an opening date different from hours and closure status?
An opening date records a one-time event. Main hours describe the current hours of operation for a normal week, so they answer whether the business is normally open at a given time, not when the location first opened.4
Use the neighbouring controls for changes to availability:
| If you need to record... | Use... | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| When the location first opened or will open | Opening date | A one-time opening event for that location.1,2,3 |
| The normal weekly schedule | Main hours | The business's up-to-date hours of operation for a normal week.4 |
| A brief holiday, event, or other temporary change | Special hours | A short change to the regular schedule. Google's Special hours guidance says a closure can last up to 6 consecutive days.5 |
| A longer, seasonal, indefinite, or uncertain-period closure | Temporarily closed | Google's guidance says to use this status for a closure of 7 or more days or an unknown period, the off-season, or an indefinite closure.5,6 |
Google's current help pages do not give one consistent boundary for exactly 7 days: the Special hours page says up to 6 consecutive days in its main rule and separately directs businesses closed for 7 or more days to Temporarily closed, while the closure page says 7 days or less can use Special hours. That disagreement belongs to the hours and closure controls, not to Opening date.5,6
What happens around a future opening date?
After a future date is entered and the business is verified, Google says the profile can appear on Google 90 days before opening. Before the business is officially open, users cannot suggest edits to its information or post content such as reviews or photos. Once the business opens, Google says the profile shows a Recently opened tag for 90 days.1
An opening date answers when a location first opened or will open. Use main hours, Special hours, or the Temporarily closed status for the location's operating schedule and closure state.
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