Update your website, business hours and contact information P

This post was originally published on March 27, 2020, and updated on March 1, 2021.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, businesses have to adapt to changing local, state and federal ordinances and as well potential closures due to COVID-19 exposure.

While many of us are staying at home to try to prevent the spread of COVID-19, businesses are having to change the way they interact with customers. As a business owner, you need to keep your customers aware of these changes.

We’ve gathered a few tips that’ll help you keep your customers up-to-date on how your business is dealing with COVID-19.

Continually update and share your COVID-19 response

Whether or not you’ve had to change the way you do business during the pandemic, you should post your company’s response to COVID-19 on your webpage. Some of the questions you can answer with your new page are:

• Are you still open? Have you reduced your hours of operation?
• Can customers still shop at your store?
• Are there any services or products that are currently unavailable during this time?
• Are there any changes in the ways customers can do business with you?
• What safety measures are in place?

Even if there are no changes in how you do business, your customers need to know that. You can create a new page that’s dedicated to providing all these answers to your customers.

If you’re using GoDaddy Websites + Marketing, see Add a page to my site for detailed steps for how to make a new page.

Create links to COVID-19 responses

After you’ve created your COVID-19 response page, it’s time to direct attention to it, especially as your update it to reflect current guidelines or closures. One way to do this is with a banner on your home page. If you’re using the Websites + Marketing builder, follow these steps to create a banner link:

1. While in the builder, click on the header of your home page to bring up the Header menu.
2. Select Promotional Banner. 
3. Turn on Show promotion.
4. Add a custom message for your banner.
5. Turn on Add Link.
6. Select Page.
7. From the Page dropdown, select the new page you created.

Scrub your content for changes

Review any information on your site that might appear tone-deaf, given the current situation. Consider how to update the rest of your site to reflect how your business is affected by COVID-19.

• Is the content on your site appropriate and helpful to your customers?
• Are there products and services that you won’t be able to offer offer during the pandemic?
• Are there new products and services that you now offer?

Scrub your entire site to make sure everything is up-to-date, but also make note of which changes are temporary and which changes are staying in place.

Update contact info and business hours

With many companies reducing their hours of operation, it’s only natural that your customers will want to know if your business hours have changed as well. Be sure to update the business hours on your site to reflect any changes. This is especially important if your hours change temporarily due to exposure at your business and you must close for extensive cleaning and testing.

For Website + Marketing users, check out this article for steps on how to update your site.

Keep in mind, your website isn’t the only place where you might have your business information posted. Review all your social media accounts (Facebook, Yelp and Google My Business) for any outdated business hours or contact information, as well.

Update Google My Business profile

It’s no surprise that most people will use Google to research a company’s business information. That’s why it’s important to make sure your Google My Business profile is always up-to-date.

If your site is linked to your Google My Business profile, your contact information will automatically be updated on your site.

Watch the video below to learn how to link your Google profile to your website.

Summary

As you adjust your business operations, it’s important to keep your customers updated on the changes.

Create a company response to COVID-19 and make sure your customers can easily find your response, especially as it changes to accommodate your business needs and the safety of your employees and customers.. Keep the contact info and business hours on your site up-to-date.

As you update your website, also remember to update your social media accounts. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are great places to share updates about unexpected closures or temporary changes to hours.

Hopefully, these tips will provide answers to your customers as we all try to get through the pandemic.

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