Presence on Google My Business before Public Launch Possible

Google My Business (GMB) Listing before official public launch

How would you wake up to the idea of having a little online publicity and presence before your business actually opens its doors to the general public?

Surely that’s a mouth watering idea for every business owner and entrepreneur! That is exactly what Google My Business (GMB) will have on the table for your business. With a new tweak, GMB will make it possible for business owners to start their GMB listing before their public launch. So, by the time their business opens its shutters for transaction to the customers at large, their business will be able to drum up some online curiosity about this impending launch. It will be good for business when they finally open up to the public.

How do you go about doing this?

As is the case with creating business listings on GMB, you need to visit the page to create it. The only difference is that when the prompt asks you to ‘verify’ your business, you can select ‘Verify Later’.  You need to be careful about this stage of the several prompts that usually appear when you file for listings on GMB. If you click on ‘Verify Later’, your business will be listed without the tag of ‘Open’ that generally appears for businesses that are already up and running.

The next step is to announce an opening date for your business. You can do that by going to the ‘Menu’ option on GMB. Click on ‘Info’ and then select ‘Opening Date’. Follow the usual pattern of selecting the date by clicking on the pencil icon beside this slot. Then you click on ‘Apply’. An opening date of 1 year period is allowed. So, you cannot select an opening date later than 1 year from the date of creating this GMB page.

However, you can start adding content before 90 days of the opening date you have selected. When the opening date is finally done, the listing will show ‘Recently Opened’.