Google says it can use machine learning and AI to update the business hours of local listings when the listed hours are deemed inaccurate. Google wrote, “We developed a machine learning model that automatically identifies if business hours are likely wrong, then instantly updates them with AI-generated predictions.”
Why is it important?
This is all the more reason to keep your business information consistent across the web. For you as business owners, you need to regularly and consistently review the business hours listed on your business listings but on your Google Business Profile. If Google changes your business details and hours, you can quickly update it in Google Business Profiles. This is generally a good practice for Local SEO, as listing details may change due to changes made by Google’s AI, Google Local Guides, or even suggested by searchers. If you need the complete checklist for local SEO, we’ve covered that before here..How does Google change your business hours with machine learning?
Google says it considers a number of factors to determine if the times listed for a local listing are accurate. These are:
- The last time the business updated their business profile
- The other local business hours in your area
- The Popular Times information for that local listing (real user traffic)
- Street View images look specifically for business hour signs on the door
- Google Duplex, which automatically calls businesses
Then, if there’s conflicting information, Google can go ahead and update the hours automatically.
Google says the company is on track to update business hours for “more than 20 million businesses around the world over the next six months using AI.”