This may seem a simple question, but it has a huge impact on the strategy and visibility of your listing… It’s not for nothing that Google also asks you for the date of creation of your establishment in the form. Here, I’ll go into all the cases in detail, and present my ideal vision.

Create it when the business is signed

You’ve just signed the lease, but you’re not using the premises yet, because it’s being renovated, for example… Have you thought about buying out the previous owner’s listing and putting it under exceptional closure for work? This is an interesting strategy if the previous owner’s listing has good authority and reviews. You don’t have to start from scratch, you’re guaranteed visibility and you can update the listing with your own activity data. Beware of governance too: always 2 administrators on a listing in case a Gmail account gets hacked.

If the previous owner left with his listing to keep his biz and his brand, then yes, you can create it, but don’t mark the establishment as open, because if you do, customers who come in might report/notify Google and your listing will either get bad ratings or be suspended.

Create it as soon as I have the keys to the business premises, but set a future opening date in the file configuration.

So in this context, you’re going to have an existing Googel file in the back-office, but Google won’t display it in the results because the date is in the future! In my opinion, this is the wrong reflex. Unless you’ve got 2 years of work ahead of you and want to take your digital marketing actions slowly.

Create it during construction or redevelopment

Absolutely possible, and if you’re on site during the work, you can even provide a minimum service. Even free of charge during the works, and this can enable you to collect opinions …. an e-reputation pre-opening I’d like to say…

Example: You’re a coworking space or operated office, and you’re just finishing your fit-out. You open :

  • reception to start getting leads
  • a free 1-hour meeting room against the advice of all participants
  • free open space in exchange for reviews

Clearly it smells of paint, the plumber is there, but :

  • the site goes into operation as soon as possible
  • the business card will be at its best when the real thing starts up
  • word of mouth will also have an impact locally

Another point, Google’s rule for reviews is people who have visited your establishment… we don’t specify the state of finish…apart from functional toilets ;-) so you can get reviews from :

  • your service providers on site (during an end-of-site aperitif)
  • your local stakeholders: shopkeepers, neighbors, associations, etc. (During a small end-of-site aperitif).
  • your friends and family (for a little end-of-job aperitif)

>> As you can see, the end-of-job aperitif is a strategic event!

Create a listing after the establishment has opened

You’re in the thick of it with the opening, one more but ultra-strategic constraint… so what’s good is the photo report with life in the place (NB no recognizable faces otherwise google rarely shows the photo in the results). But as you can see, you had so much opportunity in anticipating this that it’s a shame!

My advice:

Digital visibility depends on Google results, and that’s in order:

  • Adwords (paid)
  • Google My Business (Free)
  • The authority of your digital media (your sites, the pages that talk about you) >>> natural referencing
  • social networks (you still need to have a community)

So there’s an opportunity for strong communication actions via Google my business.

If I had to give factual advice on how and when to create your Google listing (and it’s not the same for Tripadvisor, we’ll come back to that) :

  • Anticipate your digital vision as much as possible when acquiring a business,
  • Buy the previous sheet if it’s good (more than 4 stars)
  • Take advantage of the work or pre-opening to glean notes and spread the word.
  • Test your review acquisition scenarios to see which are most effective >>> see my method