Google's AI can say you're closed when you're open

A bookshop in Willoughby, Ohio, opened in October 2025. Months later, Google's AI summary at the top of the search page still called it "permanently closed". On the same screen, its own Google profile said open. Customers believed the summary. The owners saw sales drop, fixed their profile, reported the error again and again, and it was still wrong in July 2026 (Hoodline).

A barbershop in Monticello, Minnesota, had the same problem. The owner traced it to an old MapQuest page that had said "closed" for a year (Monticello Times).

Why it happens. The AI summary isn't written only from your Google profile. It reads the whole web, including old directory pages you forgot exist. When those disagree with your profile, the old page can win. New, moved and renamed businesses are hit most, because there's less about them online.

The 2-minute check:

1. On your phone, not signed in, search: Is [your business] in [your town] still open?
2. Ask the same question in ChatGPT.
3. If either says closed, moved or "may be closed", a customer is reading that too.

The fix is usually finding the old page that says closed (MapQuest, Yellow Pages, an old Yelp or Facebook page) and correcting or claiming it. Fixing the source doesn't update the AI overnight, so the sooner it's done, the better.

If you'd like, send me your business name and town. I'll ask Google and ChatGPT for you and tell you exactly what they say and where it comes from. Free.

Remus Baltatu, Sylvania Consulting, Buffalo Grove