Why Do Some Open Businesses Get Marked "Permanently Closed" on Apple Maps?
Some business owners and local SEOs have reported businesses getting marked "permanently closed" on Apple Maps, despite them in fact being open.
Naturally, coming across this issue could be quite concerning — a significant number of users who prefer Apple Maps over Google Maps for finding and getting directions to local businesses would be unlikely to contact or visit your business if it shows up as "permanently closed."
Fortunately, it seems like there is an easy fix for this issue in most cases, involving updating the business info on your Apple Maps listing (formally known as a Place Card) and/or other sites.
Reasons Why Some Open Businesses Are Getting Marked "Permanently Closed" on Apple Maps (And Possible Solutions)
There are a few potential reasons why a business on Apple Maps could be showing up as "permanently closed":
- Business hours are not listed on Apple Maps
- Business information is not listed on company website or third-party sites
- Apple Maps business information is inconsistent with other sites
One potential reason for an open business getting marked as permanently closed on Apple Maps is that the business hours are not correctly listed, which could occur if you have not updated the hours via Apple Business Connect.
In order to fix this, follow the steps for claiming and optimizing your Apple Business Connect listing to update the hours and mark the business as "open."
If your Apple Maps Place Card was already claimed and had the correct hours, or claiming it and updating the hours didn't fix the issue, there might be another issue that's causing your business to get marked as "permanently closed."
According to a thread on Local Search Forum, another possible cause for this issue is that key business information, including business hours and address, is not listed on the business's official website.
The fix for this is pretty straightforward — just add the missing business information to your business site, ensuring it's consistent with the Apple Maps listing.
Apple also recommends ensuring that your hours and other business information, including name, address, and phone number (NAP), are consistent across the web, including on your official site, social media channels, and other third-party listing and review sites, such as Yelp, Tripadvisor, Google Business Profile, etc.
Keeping business information consistent across the web is a local SEO best practice anyway, so doing this will contribute to your overall local SEO efforts in addition to ensuring your business's visibility on Apple Maps.
If you've tried all these fixes and your business is still appearing as "permanently closed" on Apple Maps, contact Apple Support for guidance. Users have reported that the support team typically gets back to them pretty quickly in these cases, so you shouldn't have to wait too long to get help resolving the issue.
How Can You Track Your Business's Performance on Apple Maps?
Once you're sure your business is visible and marked as "open" on Apple Maps, you're going to want to track the performance of your Apple Business Connect listing to help you continue to optimize it and improve its ranking.
Luckily, Local Falcon lets you run local rank tracking scans for Apple Maps the same as it does for Google Maps!
Simply add any Apple Business Connect listings you manage to your locations in Local Falcon, run a scan with your chosen settings, and analyze the results. You'll see metrics for your average ranking (ARP and ATRP) and how often you appear in the top results (SoLV), as well as a full list of competitors and their ranking scores.
Use the data found in your Scan Report to do competitive analysis and identify opportunities to outrank competitors, then keep optimizing your Apple Maps listing to rank higher — and don't forget to continue tracking your progress with Local Falcon to see what's working!