# Keeping Website Facts Accurate for Local Businesses > Keep public business details current with an approval process, a simple fact sheet, and a worked holiday-hours example. Canonical: https://vassalmarketing.com/information/website-stewardship/keeping-website-facts-accurate/ **Maintained by Vassal Marketing** · Last updated on September 26, 2026 Reviewed at least quarterly and whenever a platform or rule it cites changes. General information, not legal or professional advice. Check rules that affect your business with a qualified professional. Customers use your website to decide whether to call, visit, book, or buy. Keep the details behind those decisions current, and make it easy for staff to tell your website provider when something changes. ## Why this matters An old phone number, expired offer, or incorrect holiday schedule can send a customer to the wrong place. The information may appear in several places: a service page, footer, contact form, downloadable menu, or booking tool. Correcting one page can leave the others wrong. Choose an approved source of truth for each important fact. A simple fact sheet can record the wording, who approved it, its effective date, and where it appears. The goal is a dependable update process that connects the people who know the business to the people who maintain its website. ## Responsible practices ### Assign someone who can confirm the fact Identify who approves hours, services, prices, staff details, qualifications, and offer terms. A website editor should not guess. When a consequential claim cannot be confirmed, hold or remove it until the responsible person can supply proof or suitable qualified review. ### Record the change and its timing Capture the old wording, approved new wording, effective date, expiration if relevant, and the places that need updating. A temporary closure needs both a start and a return-to-normal instruction. Keep the approval alongside the request so a future editor can understand why the change was made. ### Update repeated information together Your provider can often maintain repeated facts in one content record and reuse them in headers, footers, and contact blocks. Also check metadata, structured data, generated Markdown, and downloadable files. Structured data is information written for machines; it should describe the same current facts visitors can see. ### Coordinate outside channels Check connected profiles, advertisements, booking tools, menus, and other public materials that carry the same fact. Each channel may have different fields and approval steps. Record pending or rejected updates so someone follows up instead of assuming a bulk change reached every channel. ### Test the affected customer journeys After a phone, location, offer, or booking change, follow the actual link and check where it leads. Review the page on a phone as well as a desktop. A routine review can catch stale content, while business changes should trigger an update as soon as the approved information is available. ## Worked example: Following a holiday-hours change through the website Hypothetical example: a business approves a one-day closure. The regular weekly schedule will resume afterward. ### Owner approval Record the closure date, the customer-facing wording, the normal reopening time, and the person who confirmed them. ### Website update Review the contact page, footer, location blocks, any notice banner, and relevant structured data. Avoid changing the regular schedule permanently for a one-day exception. ### Connected services Have the responsible staff update the business profile and booking availability. Check any appointment confirmations or campaigns that could contradict the closure. ### After publication Inspect the live pages and booking link. Assign the person who will remove the temporary notice and verify the regular schedule has resumed. The same pattern works for a new phone number or discontinued service: approve the fact, find every affected location, publish, and verify. ## Fact sheet checklist ### What you can check 1. Choose who can approve each type of public business detail. 2. Send changes with the exact wording and the date they take effect. 3. Keep a list of website pages and connected tools that repeat those details. 4. Check the published result and confirm temporary changes are removed when they end. ### What to ask your provider to handle 1. Identify all affected page components, structured data, generated files, and customer-action destinations. 2. Publish approved changes together and record any outside channels that still need attention. 3. Verify the live result and preserve enough history to investigate a mistake or restore prior wording. ## Avoid these failures - Publishing an unconfirmed fact because the old page or a third-party listing says it is true. - Updating visible text while leaving downloads, structured data, or booking links inconsistent. - Leaving a temporary notice live without an owner or end date. Good website care lowers risk, but no provider can guarantee uninterrupted service. ## Questions business owners ask ### How often should we review business details? Update approved changes when they happen and keep a recurring review for anything missed. Temporary offers, holiday hours, contact details, and consequential claims deserve particular attention. ### Must the website match the business profile word for word? Both should accurately describe the same business. Their fields and formats differ, so resolve contradictions against approved real-world information rather than forcing identical wording everywhere. ### What if nobody can confirm a claim? Hold or remove it while the responsible person gathers proof. Claims involving credentials, health, safety, financial terms, or other consequential matters may need qualified review. ### Who should tell the website provider something changed? Assign someone at the business who can collect approvals and send a complete update request. Include the exact wording, effective date, temporary end date if relevant, and affected services or locations. ## Primary guidance - [FTC: Advertising FAQs — a guide for small business](https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/advertising-faqs-guide-small-business) - [Google Business Profile: Guidelines for representing your business on Google](https://support.google.com/business/answer/3038177) - [Google Search Central: General structured data guidelines](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/sd-policies) - [Google Search Central: Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/creating-helpful-content) ## Connected guidance - [Google Business Profile accuracy](https://vassalmarketing.com/information/google-business-profile/profile-accuracy.md): Keep business-profile details aligned with approved, current information. - [Ongoing website maintenance](https://vassalmarketing.com/information/website-stewardship/ongoing-website-maintenance.md): Agree on routine care, urgent response, and a report you can understand. - [Content strategy](https://vassalmarketing.com/information/content-strategy.md): Plan useful pages around customer questions and a manageable review process.