When someone searches for a shop near them now, they often get an answer before they see a single link. A short summary sits at the top of the page. It might say the shop is open until six, takes appointments and serves the east side of town. Plenty of people never scroll past it.
That summary has to come from somewhere. Google's AI Overviews pull from websites, and for local searches they also use Google Business Profile data. That includes your categories, service descriptions, reviews and Q&A, as this breakdown from The Ad Firm explains. If your website and your profile disagree, you don't get to choose which version a customer sees.
The mismatch usually happens quietly. Prices go up and the website gets updated, but the profile doesn't. Holiday hours go on an Instagram story and nowhere else. Nobody did anything wrong. The information just lives in too many places.
The 20-minute check
Open your website in one tab and your Google Business Profile in another. Then go line by line:
- Hours. Check regular hours, holiday hours and any seasonal changes. The profile has a separate place for special hours, so use it.
- Prices. If your site lists prices or a "starting at" number, make sure the services or menu on your profile match. An old price is worse than no price.
- Service area. If you travel to clients, list the same towns or neighborhoods in both places.
- Booking link. Click it from the profile. It should land on the actual booking page, not your homepage or a scheduling tool you stopped paying for.
- Name, address, phone. Spell and format them the same way everywhere.
Then search for your business the way a customer would, with something like "[your service] near me" or "is [your shop] open Sunday," and read what comes back. If the summary gets something wrong, find where it came from and fix it there.
Pick one home for the truth
The lasting fix is deciding which place you update first. For most shops I'd make it the website, then copy the change to the profile the same day. Make it part of the same routine as changing the sign on the door.
When I build booking or checkout into a site, I try to keep hours and prices in one spot so every page shows the same thing. That keeps the website consistent with itself, but it won't update Google for you. That part is still a person with two tabs open.
Google is going to describe your shop either way, so make sure it's reading the version you meant.
