In July your Google listing should face someone who has never walked down your street, and in September it should turn toward the people who will be around until April. The parts your year-round customers rely on (name, address, phone, category) shouldn't move at all.
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That's the whole answer. The rest of this guide is how to do it without rewriting your listing every other week.
One listing, three crowds
Kingston has three crowds that take turns: the students who arrive for the fall term at Queen's and St. Lawrence College, and the summer visitors who come for the waterfront and the islands. Under both sits the year-round resident who still needs a dentist in March.
A Google Business Profile (the free listing that feeds the map results) shows one face to all three, so the job is to change which crowd it faces, on purpose, at the two points in the year when the crowd changes.
Think of the front hall closet at home. In July the winter coat goes to the back and the sandals come to the front, and in October it swaps again. Whatever you need this month just sits nearest the door. Your listing works the same way: in summer the visitor-facing details move to the front.
Whatever you need this month just sits nearest the door.
The six parts you can change
Picture a bakery a few blocks up from the waterfront that also sells coffee and keeps a few tables.
Hours. In July the bakery stays open until seven on weekends because the foot traffic is there. In September it goes back to closing at five, and maybe opens earlier on weekdays for people walking to an 8:30 class. Those are changes to the regular hours, the weekly pattern that repeats until you edit it. Google says it reviews edits before they show on your profile and doesn't say how long that takes, so make the change a few days before the new pattern starts.
Special hours. These cover a single date. Summer has long weekends and the days a big event fills downtown. The fall term has its own: the weekend students move in, Thanksgiving, Homecoming, the odd Saturday home game. If you open early or close late for one of those days, enter it as special hours for that date and leave the weekly pattern alone.
Description. This is the paragraph a visitor reads when they're deciding between you and the place next door. The July version of the bakery's might lead with "a short walk from the waterfront, with tables inside and coffee to go." The September version might lead with "fresh bread daily, and quiet enough to sit with a laptop." Both are true of the same shop; only the first sentence moves. Keep both versions in a note on your phone so the swap takes two minutes.
Photos. A visitor scrolling the map wants to know what the place looks like from the sidewalk and whether there's somewhere to sit. A student wants to know whether there's a plug near the table. Add a few photos at each switch, taken this season, of whatever that season's crowd is looking for, so the recent set all says the right thing.
Posts. Google lets you publish short updates on the profile, including events and offers. They're the easiest part of the listing to make seasonal, because each one is about this week anyway. July posts can be about the patio or the fruit that's in season; September posts can be about the early opening. Google archives a post after six months unless you set a date range, so a post from last summer can still be sitting at the top of your profile in October, telling a stranger nobody is minding the listing.
Attributes. These are the small labels on the profile, such as outdoor seating, Wi-Fi, wheelchair-accessible entrance or takeout. Which ones you can set depends on your category, and some come from customer input rather than from you. The seasonal job is a quick read-through: if the patio closes in October, "outdoor seating" shouldn't still be promising a table outside in November.
| Part of the listing | July, facing visitors | The fall term, facing students and returning regulars |
|---|---|---|
| Regular hours | Longer evenings and weekends, if you keep them | Earlier weekday opening, back to normal closing |
| Special hours | Long weekends and event days | Move-in, Thanksgiving, Homecoming, home games |
| Description, first sentence | Where you are and how close to the water | What you're known for, what's on every weekday |
| Recent photos | The front and the patio | Inside on a weekday, the seat nearest a plug |
| Posts | What's on this week, what's in season | What's back, what's changed since spring |
| Attributes | Outdoor seating on, if it's true | Outdoor seating off once the patio closes |
The parts that stay put
The year-round customer is the reason the other two seasons are survivable, and they rely on the parts of the listing that never change. Your business name, address, phone number and main category should be identical in July and in February. Seasonal tuning happens in the six parts above and nowhere else.
The same goes for the category: a shop selling coffee to students all winter is still a bakery, and choosing your Google Business Profile category covers how to pick the right one.
A two-date routine
Two calendar reminders carry the whole thing. One goes in late June, before the summer crowd builds. The other goes in the last week of August, before move-in. Each takes about half an hour if your two descriptions are already written.
- Change regular hours to the coming season's pattern, a few days ahead
- Enter the special-hours dates you already know about for the next two or three months
- Swap the first sentence of the description to the version for the incoming crowd
- Add three or four photos taken this season, of what that crowd looks for
- Publish one post that speaks to the incoming crowd
- Read the attributes and switch off anything that stops being true this season
- Search your business on your phone in a private window and read it as a stranger would
If your business barely sees one of the crowds, run only the half of the routine that applies.
Common questions
- Can I schedule the description or photos to change on their own?
- Not that I've found in Google's help pages. Hours have special-hours dates you can enter ahead, but the description and photos are edits you make yourself on the day. Posts are the one part you can line up early: Google lets you schedule a post for a later date, so the June reminder can also set up the September post. That's why the routine lives in your calendar.
- Will changing the description every season hurt my listing?
- Google hasn't published anything saying it does, and I won't claim it either way. Edits do go through a review before they show, so make the change ahead of time and check that it went live.
- I close entirely for part of the year. Is this the right guide?
- Not quite. This one is for shops that stay open and change who they're serving. A full seasonal closure uses different settings on the profile, and it's worth reading Google's help page on closures before you shut the door for the winter.
Where this fits
Seasonal tuning only pays off once the basics hold still. If your address or phone number reads differently on your website than on your listing, start with why your business address needs to match everywhere. What I do for Kingston businesses is on the Kingston page.
If you'd like a second pair of eyes before the next switch, email hello@kingstonseo.com with your business name and I'll read your listing back to you as a September student and a July visitor would see it. Or call 613.480.1345.
Checked against Google Business Profile help pages on October 5, 2026: Edit your Business Profile, Special hours overview, Setting special hours, Posts on your Business Profile, Business attributes, Guidelines for representing your business on Google
