June through November
Hurricane Season Checklist for Your Website and Google Listing
On the Mississippi Gulf Coast, hurricane season is an operations problem that shows up as a search problem. If your site is down, your hours are last year's, or nobody can get the Google login, the people who need you that week call someone else.
Bryan Cirlot · Updated September 2, 2026
Do this in May, not when the cone appears
Print this. Put it with the generator checklist.
- Write down who owns the domain registrar, DNS, hosting, and the Google Business Profile. Two people should be able to get in.
- Confirm backups exist and that a restore has been tested once. A backup you have never restored is a rumor.
- Make sure the site phone is a number that can forward to a cell. Pay-as-you-go VoIP that dies with the office modem is not a plan.
- Save the Google Business app on two phones. Hours and posts can be updated from a hotel in Hattiesburg.
- If you use the Partnership or Care Plan, we already hold hosting and backups. You still need a reachable phone.
The 72 hours before landfall
When the National Hurricane Center puts Harrison, Jackson, or Hancock in the cone, do three things on the listing: hours, a short post ('Closed Saturday. Emergency line: …'), and a photo if the storefront is boarded. Do the same sentence at the top of the website if you can reach it.
Do not disappear. A closed business that says it is closed still gets the callback on Tuesday. A listing that says Open 9–5 on a Monday after landfall looks abandoned.
The week after
Restore hours when they are true. Add a post when you are taking work again. If the shop moved, update the address or service area the same day — not after the insurance adjusters leave town.
Trades will see a spike in 'emergency' searches. That is not a reason to stuff the site with storm keywords in a panic. It is a reason to be reachable and honest.
Next step: Care Plan — $150/month.