Why does Google say my business is closed (when it isn't)?

It happens more than you'd believe. A business trading six days a week, good reviews, queue on a Saturday, and somewhere online a listing says "permanently closed". We've found it on thriving Perthshire businesses this year, and the owners had no idea.

Where the wrong information comes from

Your business doesn't have one listing online. It has dozens: Google, Apple Maps, Bing, Facebook, Yell, Cylex, TripAdvisor, sat-nav databases, and directories you've never heard of that copy from each other. Anyone can "suggest an edit" on most of them, and a single wrong suggestion, a confused customer, a competitor, an automated system noticing your website hasn't changed in years, can mark you as closed or moved.

Worse, these listings feed each other. Google reads directories to check its facts. Sat-navs buy directory data. And AI assistants, which more and more people use to find businesses, read all of it. One wrong "closed" flag spreads.

Why you never see it

You don't google your own shop; you know where it is. The customer deciding whether to drive twenty minutes to visit you does, and if anything they find says closed, they don't ring to check. They just go somewhere else. The lost trade is invisible.

How to check in five minutes

Search your business name in a private browser window and read everything on the first page as a stranger would. Check the Google panel on the right: hours, phone, address, "open now". Then search your name plus your town on Bing and Apple Maps. If you find anything wrong, that's revenue leaking.

How it gets fixed

Claim the listings you can (Google Business Profile first, it's free and matters most), correct the facts, and remove or fix the stragglers. The awkward part is the long tail of small directories, which each have their own process, and staying claimed, because wrong edits can come back. That's why listing checks are part of our monthly care rather than a one-off.