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The split shift goes in your hours, the holiday goes on its date

You come out ahead when your real hours are loaded in, time slot by time slot, and every holiday of the year is marked one by one, so Google never says "open" when you're actually closed.

By Yodai · Published September 6, 2026 · Updated October 12, 2026

It's three thirty in the afternoon, and someone pulls up outside your salon because Google told them you're "open until 8:00 PM." They ring the bell and nobody answers: you close for lunch every day, and that gap was never in your listing. They don't come back.

The same mistake happens on a local holiday: the doors are closed, but your listing still says "open," because nobody updated the hours for that specific date. It doesn't matter whether the customer is coming to you or you're the one heading to theirs: the hours you show have to match your real hours, time slot by time slot and date by date. The Google guidelines for showing your business call for your regular customer hours and let you set special hours for specific days, like holidays. That said, those same guidelines say businesses with variable hours or that work strictly by appointment shouldn't list hours at all: this lesson is for when you keep fixed hours.

Mark the midday break, don't hide it

When you close for lunch, the temptation is to leave one long block, say 9:00 AM to 8:00 PM, and hope nobody shows up right at that hour. It's the fastest way to fill out your hours, and it's also what sends customers to a locked door: anyone checking your listing at 2:30 PM sees "open" and shows up anyway.

Your listing lets you add two time blocks for the same day: according to Google Business Profile Help, breaks are marked with two separate entries for the same day with different hours, for example 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM and 4:30 PM to 8:00 PM. That's a split shift, and it's the right choice whenever you really do close in between, even if it's just half an hour. If you never close at midday, one straight block is all you need: don't complicate what doesn't need it.

Here's the rule: if you'd lock up between two times on the same day, that gap has to show as "Closed" on your listing. A single continuous block only works when you don't close at all during the day.

If Saturdays follow their own pattern, say a half day with no midday break because you close at 2:00 PM and don't reopen, that day doesn't need a split shift, just a morning block. Treat it separately instead of forcing it into the same template as the rest of the week.

Mark the holiday on its own date, not by changing the whole week

The opposite mistake is changing your weekly hours every time a holiday comes up and forgetting to switch them back afterward. A long-weekend Monday ends up marked closed forever, and months later you're still losing that time slot without even noticing.

That's exactly what Google's special hours feature is for: an entry that only applies to one specific date, without touching your regular weekly schedule. You mark December 25 closed just for that exact day; that same day of the week keeps opening at its usual time the rest of the year.

In Spain, legal holidays can't add up to more than fourteen a year across national, regional, and local ones, and two of those are local, according to the Workers' Statute. There aren't many, and they don't all fall on the same date every year: New Year's Day, May 1, October 12, and Christmas are always observed as national holidays, and each region can swap others for its own local holidays or move one to a Monday. Loading them all in at once covers almost your whole year in one go. For the holidays on Google's list, your listing may show a notice that hours could be different, and Google's help center recommends confirming your hours for those days even if you're open as usual.

It's also worth adding the long weekend you usually take, even if it's not an official holiday. If you close that Friday every year, your listing needs to know it just like it knows you close on Christmas Day.