Great California ShakeOut Website Checklist for Local Businesses

Put customer safety and official instructions first

The Great California ShakeOut is drawing attention to earthquake preparedness activity, including a San Diego tour stop and discussion of a phone earthquake test alert. It is a drill and preparedness effort—not an actual earthquake and not a prediction that a damaging event is imminent. CBS 8 and KQED provide additional context on the activity and alert discussion.

If an actual emergency affects your area, customers should follow directions from local emergency-management authorities and first responders. Your website should not replace official safety information or make claims about evacuation status, hazards, warning time, or conditions you cannot verify.

For local businesses, the useful preparation is simpler: make it easy for customers to see whether you are open, how to contact you, what services remain available, and when you expect to post another update.

Table of contents

• What to prepare before an earthquake-related disruption
• Homepage banner checklist
• What to update if operations change
• Keep Google Business Profile and your website aligned
• Make phone calls and forms easier to manage
• Prepare reopening information before you need it
• A simple update workflow for your team
• Key takeaways

What to prepare before an earthquake-related disruption

A drill is a good time to review website information while your team is not under pressure. You do not need to publish an emergency notice because of a drill. Instead, prepare the pages, access, and short messages you may need if a real operational interruption occurs.

1. Confirm who can update the website

Choose at least two people who can publish a homepage notice, edit business hours, and update your contact information. Confirm that they can access the website without relying on one employee’s device or password.

Keep a short internal note with:

• Website login location and recovery contact
• The person authorized to approve public updates
• A backup person who can publish updates
• Your Google Business Profile access process
• The business phone number and voicemail access details
• The social accounts customers are most likely to check

Avoid placing passwords in shared documents that too many people can access. See Local Business Website Security: How to Avoid Exposing Passwords in Shared Google Docs for safer website-access practices.

2. Identify the pages customers will check first

In an interruption, customers generally need answers faster than they need a full explanation. Review these pages before you need them:

• Homepage
• Contact page
• Hours or location page
• Service pages
• Booking or quote-request page
• Online ordering page, if applicable
• Google Business Profile
• Social-profile bios and pinned posts, if your business uses them for updates

Make sure the homepage clearly links to your contact page and that the contact page works well on a phone. A customer checking whether you are open may be doing so from a mobile device with limited time and connectivity.

3. Write short update templates now

Prewritten templates can reduce confusion later. Keep them as drafts, not live notices, and edit every placeholder before publishing.

Temporary closure template

Temporary closure update: [Business name] is currently closed due to [brief operational reason]. We will post our next update by [date and time]. For existing appointments or orders, please [contact method]. Please follow local emergency authorities for safety information.

Limited-service template

Service update: [Business name] is currently operating with limited availability. We can currently assist with [services or areas], while [unavailable services or areas] are temporarily paused. Call [phone number] or submit the form below, and we will confirm availability before scheduling.

Reopening template

Reopening update: [Business name] is open as of [date and time]. Our current hours are [hours]. If you had an appointment, order, or request affected by the interruption, please contact us at [phone number or email] so we can help confirm next steps.

Do not include estimated reopening times unless someone with authority has confirmed them. A precise but inaccurate promise can create more customer frustration than a brief status update.

Homepage banner checklist

Your homepage is the right place for a time-sensitive operational update because it is likely to be the first page customers visit. Keep the message visible, short, dated, and easy to remove when it is no longer relevant.

A useful banner includes:

1. Your current status Open, temporarily closed, limited hours, limited service, or unavailable by phone.
2. A timestamp For example: “Updated Tuesday at 2:00 p.m.” Customers need to know whether information is current.
3. The customer action Call, submit a request, check back at a stated time, or visit a specific update page.
4. A direct link or phone number Do not make visitors hunt through your navigation for an answer.
5. A clear next-update commitment when possible “We will update this page by 5:00 p.m.” is more useful than “Check back later.”

Example banner copy

Service update — updated [day, time]: We are currently [open / temporarily closed / operating with limited availability]. For [appointments, orders, service requests], call [phone number] or use our contact form. We will post another update by [day, time].

Avoid banners that are vague, overly long, or permanent. “Due to circumstances beyond our control” does not tell customers whether they can reach you or receive service.

Also avoid publishing safety directions, local hazard details, or claims that an alert means a particular level of risk. Link customers to official local sources if you choose to mention that they should seek emergency information.

What to update if operations change

A real earthquake-related disruption can affect different parts of a business differently. Your website should reflect the actual limitation, rather than treating every change as a full closure.

If your location is closed

Update:

• Homepage banner
• Hours shown on your website
• Contact page
• Booking or ordering flow
• Google Business Profile hours or temporary status, where appropriate
• Any location-specific landing pages

Tell customers what happens to existing appointments, pickups, deliveries, or orders. If you do not know yet, say when you will provide the next update.

If you can serve only part of your area

This matters most for contractors, repair businesses, delivery businesses, mobile services, and appointment-based providers.

State:

• Which cities, neighborhoods, or service zones you can currently reach
• Whether travel times may be affected
• Which services are temporarily paused
• Whether existing customers receive priority, if that is your actual policy
• How customers can confirm availability before booking

Do not leave an unchanged service-area map or page live if it suggests availability you cannot currently provide. For a clearer baseline, review Local Business Website Service Areas: What to Include Without Creating Confusion.

If your phone system is unavailable

Your website may become the clearest path for customer communication. Make the alternative obvious:

• Put a working email address or form near the top of the homepage
• State that phone service is currently unavailable
• Set expectations for response timing only if you can meet them
• Confirm that form submissions are being received
• Test the form yourself from a phone

A contact form should request only information your team needs to respond. During a disruption, a short form is often more practical than a long intake process. See Local Business Lead Form Fields: What to Ask and What to Leave Out.

If your business remains open

You may still want to post a brief update if customers could reasonably expect a closure or interruption. Keep it factual:

Business update — updated [day, time]: We are currently open during our regular hours. Please call before visiting if you need to confirm a specific appointment, product, or service.

Only publish this after confirming that the location, staff availability, and customer access are actually operating as stated.

Keep Google Business Profile and your website aligned

Customers may find your Google Business Profile before they reach your website. Conflicting details can create unnecessary calls, missed appointments, and confusion.

When you update one channel, check the other for consistency:

Do not use a Google Business Profile update as a substitute for a website notice. Customers arriving through a direct link, branded search, email, or a saved bookmark may never see your profile.

For the broader relationship between these channels, read Google Business Profile and Your Website: How They Work Together to Get You Found.

Make phone calls and forms easier to manage

The ShakeOut activity does not prove that businesses will receive more calls or inquiries. Still, businesses can prepare for the possibility that customers may need confirmation about hours, appointments, orders, or service availability during a disruption.

Add a simple inquiry-routing plan

If inquiries rise, make sure the person responding can quickly sort messages into useful categories:

• Existing appointment or order
• New request for service
• Question about current hours
• Question about location access
• Question about service-area availability
• Urgent issue requiring a callback
• General question that can wait

This is not about forcing every visitor into a sales process. It is about helping your team give customers an accurate answer without repeatedly asking for the same details.

Keep autoresponders cautious

If you use a form confirmation email, consider a temporary message such as:

We received your message. Our team is currently reviewing requests based on current availability. We will respond when we can confirm the next step.

Do not promise a response window unless you know your team can meet it. Do not imply that a form submission confirms an appointment, service dispatch, or order.

Prepare reopening information before you need it

A reopening notice should do more than announce that the lights are back on. Customers may have unresolved questions from the period when operations were limited.

Before removing a closure or service-update banner, confirm:

• Current hours are accurate
• Your phone line and voicemail work
• Contact forms deliver messages to an active inbox
• Booking, ordering, and payment tools work if you use them
• Service-area information is current
• The location is ready for customers, if applicable
• Affected customers know how to reschedule, confirm orders, or request help

Then replace the temporary notice with a reopening update. Leave the reopening message visible long enough for customers who checked during the interruption to find it, then remove or archive it so the homepage does not look outdated.

Our Local Business Website Reopening Checklist: What to Update Before You Resume Service covers this stage in more detail.

A simple update workflow for your team

Use this sequence when an operational change needs to be communicated:

1. Verify the facts internally. Confirm what is open, closed, available, or unavailable.
2. Follow official emergency information. Do not publish safety guidance beyond what authorities have communicated.
3. Choose one approved message. Use a prepared template and remove assumptions.
4. Update the homepage first. Include status, timestamp, and a customer action.
5. Update supporting pages. Check hours, contact details, booking tools, and service areas.
6. Align Google Business Profile. Make hours and key contact details consistent.
7. Test from a phone. Check the banner, click-to-call link, contact form, and booking path.
8. Set the next review time. Revisit the message as conditions change.
9. Document customer inquiries. If requests accumulate, track who needs a callback or reschedule.
10. Publish a reopening update only when confirmed.

This approach is different from a general website outage plan. Your business website may still be online while your location, phone system, staff availability, or service territory changes. The goal is to communicate the specific limitation customers need to understand.

A short StoopCraft note

A website is easier to update during an interruption when its essential pages—homepage, contact information, service areas, and calls to action—are organized before you need them. StoopCraft builds websites for local businesses and includes on-page SEO in its $99/month service. Visit StoopCraft if you want help building a clearer, easier-to-manage local business website.

Key takeaways

• The Great California ShakeOut is a preparedness drill, not an actual earthquake or a forecast of one.
• In a real emergency, direct customers to official local emergency information rather than presenting your website as a safety authority.
• Prepare a small set of editable website notices for closure, limited service, phone interruptions, and reopening.
• Every time-sensitive update should state your status, include a timestamp, and tell customers what to do next.
• Keep your website and Google Business Profile consistent, especially for hours, phone availability, and service areas.
• If inquiries rise during a disruption, use a simple routing process and avoid promises your team cannot confirm.