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Keep your website online and make the changed way to reach your business easy to find. First confirm the route and entrance with the road project authority or your site contact; then publish a clear notice, update your business listings and hours, and revise the information whenever access changes.
Confirm what customers can actually use
Before publishing directions, check with the road project owner, municipality, property manager, or another responsible site contact. Confirm the construction dates and which approaches are affected, whether local access remains open, which entrance customers should use, and whether pedestrian access, parking, deliveries, pickup, or opening hours have changed. Ask whether an approved detour exists.
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Conditions vary by project, so do not call a route an official detour unless the authority has designated it as one. MnDOT’s business construction guidance discusses access, project contacts, and temporary signage, but it does not establish a route for your business. Record who confirmed each detail and when, then check again when the project schedule or traffic pattern changes.
Publish a prominent, temporary website notice
Keep the site available. Google Search Central advises preserving as much of a site’s standing in Search as possible during a temporary interruption and recommends explaining a temporary situation with a banner or popup. Add a concise notice to the homepage and the location or contact page; put it on any location-specific page customers commonly reach from search, too.
Include only confirmed details:
- What has changed and when the information applies.
- Whether the business is open.
- The confirmed approach and entrance customers should use.
- Any changed parking, accessible entry, pickup, delivery, or hours.
- A working phone number or other contact method for customers who need help.
- A next-update date, if you know when the information will be checked again.
Use landmarks customers recognize. A small map can help if it is accurate and readable on a phone. Do not promise that a route is open, safe, accessible, or suitable for every vehicle unless that has been confirmed.
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Update your business listings and hours
Review your Google Business Profile and make sure the address or service area, phone number, website link, and customer-facing hours match the real-world business. Google’s business representation guidelines cover these details.
Use special hours for temporary changes where appropriate. Google says to mark a business temporarily closed if it will be closed for seven or more consecutive days or for an unknown period; see its special-hours guidance. If your site has Local Business structured data, update its opening hours to match current operations. Search Console can request recrawling for a limited number of updated pages, while sitemaps are an option for larger sets of pages. A recrawl request does not guarantee immediate changes in search results. Google’s temporary business website guidance explains these options.
If you use location-specific business links, check that they lead to the right location information and follow Google’s business links policies.
Coordinate signs at the physical location
If customers might pass the entrance because the normal approach has changed, ask the property owner and project team whether temporary signs are allowed and where they may be placed. MnDOT identifies temporary signage as one possible way to address business impacts; local permissions and placement rules still need to be checked.
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Choose a sign based on whether it is visible from the actual customer approach, legible at the expected viewing distance, stable for the location and weather, and easy to move or update. For a printed route notice, consider whether the route is accurate, readable on mobile if shared digitally, and quick to revise if conditions change. These are practical selection criteria, not measured product comparisons.
Keep the information current
Set a reminder to recheck the notice against the project schedule and actual access arrangements. Change or remove it when the entrance, route, hours, or project status changes. If a date range or next-update date has not been confirmed, do not invent one.
Google Maps has a road-closure data specification for content partners, including direction and temporary timing fields. That is not a general small-business submission channel. Check the road authority and relevant business listing tools for the reporting options available to your business.
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