Hello all!

I have been fighting with this for 2 months now and after 3 Denied Appeal attempts: I bit the bullet lost the reviews and Deleted my GMB Listing.

I have just now created a new one under the same name- But I used a different phone number.

Will Google suspend this new profile as well since the associated email & same name Once I verify it? Any advice on how to not get suspended again. (I have a Service based Pressure Washing Company with no address)

All of the reviews were removed from the Google Business Profile after it was reinstated. 

Contacted support and got it reinstated. After it was reinstated, we noticed it had all of its reviews removed. This was done with no warnings and no reason. Trying to solve it ASAP.

The OLD place ID (before suspension/reinstatement): ChIJEY58Xbap3IgRk2YcSQFa90g - which leads to a 404. Reviews pull via API/Widget. I see overall rating based on 147 reviews is 4.7

The NEW place ID (after suspension/reinstatement): ChIJk4pWtiar3IgR6JLvM8V50hM - no reviews.

I suspect Google created a new copy of the listing. Have the cases open but no sign of updates. Looks like the solution is to merge the listings so the reviews are retained...

Google Help Center Post: https://support.google.com/business/thread/306814599?authuser=2&hl=en&sjid=10728688365900911784-NA

Google should consider small business owners and the citizenry before we do to them what they did to us.

I signed the petition but I doubt that will be enough. Moving against Google means moving against certain governmental entities and some of those rely heavily on that corrupt business. Indeed, we know Google manipulates search results in favor of certain politicians and agencies. It's a quite fascistic union. Thank goodness voting works...

Does anyone have suggestions?

I'll start: Google sure knows a lot about me and you, yet we know little about Google's intelligentsia nor it's inner workings. I think its time to even things up. Open up Google's books and start naming the individuals who run it. Name the people who ruin small businesses with no concern for their fellow citizens.

Any of you GMB experts here want to join us in fighting the baddies?

Stay safe, Friends. Time for a White Russian.

I am trying to help a client to claim ownership of his Google Business Profile. I told him to go through the usual process, which is to click on the link on his GBP that says "claim ownership", and go through the prompts given to him.

Many days later, he told me through text messages that someone from Google called him and he had to pay to claim ownership of for the profile. This immediately raised red flags in my mind.

He said he paid.

From what I know, you should not have to pay anything to claim ownership of the profile, correct?

The business i have on google in which i rank quite high for what i do, is getting little to no business interactions, when it used to do quite well. Does anybody here understand why this may be. I put alot of time into it. kinda sux. Thankyou

When you're self-employed and don't necessarily have a formal business name, I believe it's acceptable to add keywords to your name (e.g., "John Doe Hypnotherapist Quit Smoking"). However, for registered businesses with official names, I've read that this practice is not encouraged by Google.

That said, does Google penalize this behavior anyway? And what can happen ? What generaly happen ? Does Google check if your name is correct ? does Google look at name change ?

Thanks

I've sort of browsed through dozens and dozens of posts and it appears Google Business Profile is utter garbage now.

May all seem borderline reasonable when you're not in the thick of it. For me, I'm fortunate enough to have never really advertised much. Everything is referral based. Our listing was small. Little more than twenty 5 star reviews over the course of three years. It's important to note we do extensive remodeling projects. Small outfit. I probably only manage to get through 6-10 a year on average.

Fast forward to about 2 months ago. We get suspended randomly. Appeal. Submit the docs to prove we are a real business. Get reinstated 2 weeks later. Maybe a touch longer.

Realize soon after a duplicate of my listing came with reinstatement. The duplicate had my reviews. The reinstated Profile I had access to had none. I submitted a ticket for support. Provided the links. They said they couldn't find any duplicate. Hilarious. Google couldn't Google very well. Prior to my contacting them, I strongly suspected they'd screw up my profile further. So I screenshot every review in full. This was also later used to prove we had them prior to merging the duplicate they created. The thing that got the ball rolling was me reporting the duplicate as such through maps. Support said it didn't exist.

Anyways. Couple weeks pass. Duplicate gone. As are the reviews. Another support ticket. Lotta back and forth on the support forums too. I never got a reply for weeks from google support. Then an automatic email for survey for their service and whether or not my issue was resolved. Ha! What service? No one even replied to my queries. So I took the survey. In short. You suck. In basically every scenario beyond this unique situation, you'd be fired. No one would tolerate this level of disconnect in business. If it's about money. Charge for the profiles and maintain service. It's more detrimental to allow a business to get a foothold just to simply erase it unprovoked. Moving right along...

Over the years I've been exceptionally good to folks. I used social media to plea my case to my clients and asked they consider reviewing us again. And they did in numbers! I'd very likely have more than I had before all of that unfolded. However we quickly learned many weren't visible to anyone beyond the person who posted it. Definitely not a policy violation because some of these folks posted a duplicate of their original review that had been there for years. I know because I provided the screenshot for them to use.

Still no joy. Something like 5 of them visible today. I'm not looking for help. I don't believe there's help to be had. Seems totally random. Some get assistance and see problems resolved that are similar to mine. Most don't.

I recently saw an article from WSJ criticizing Google business and another story from NBC Miami. It's very likely 10s of thousands of businesses experiencing this train wreck. Google is the largest search engine on the planet. Yet you'll likely never find service.
Market cap of 2 trillion dollars. Yet embarrassingly terrible service for business profiles. It's deeply flawed and examples riddle reddit. Worse still - there's no sign of interest from Google.

I believe at some stage many of these issues in the algorithm or whatever else plays a role will be worked out. But it won't be instant. In any case, we've decided it's not a stable platform for branding. I'm hopeful it'll be worth revisiting in the future. From what I've read here, I'm definitely not alone in abandoning Google. I hope things improve for those who rely exclusively on a company that treats them as if they don't exist. Good luck everyone. 🙏

Hi-who has used a service to get them unsuspended and how much did it cost? Who do you recommend? I have 3 locations of my head lice treatment company in Ohio and just moved one location ( biz 2/3) to a new office. I got suspended shortly after, which I knew could happen. Location number 1 has been open 7 years with 350 reviews. Location 2 (the suspended one) was open a year at other location and just moved to new location. Location 3 has been open a few months. I have a lease with the name/address, of the suspended location, State farm insurance with the name and new address, business cards, wall decals, but no utilities because my landlord pays those. My LLC is registered with the State of Ohio and I have an EIN, but I registered the LLC with my home address vs the three individual business locations. HELP !

I can not verify my business. I’ve tried ALL ways to verify. I can’t get a hold of a single person, email or other wise. The maps application keeps running me around in circles, I want to scream. I’ve been dealing with this for a year!

Looking for suggestions on how to best achieve these steps. Here's the background info:

1. We're a long-established video production company. #1 ranking for a fairly competitive business name. For many years we had office space in a tower downtown. Our Business listing reflects that address and our old phone number.

2. No one in the firm claimed, verified, or managed the listing at that time.

3. In 2019, the tower was sold. We moved to a shared workspace, then moved to the whole team working from home except when we actually go out to meet clients and film jobs. Servicing clients in our business area is 80% of our work. We set up a UPS box for mailing.

4. It's rebrand time! And our business listing is ugly because the old tower has fallen into disrepair and our contact address and phone is outdated.

5. I claimed the listing and Google wants to verify.

6. As a part of the rebrand - we did get a new domain name. I can start from scratch if needed, but would prefer not.

Do I first verify the old location that's still listed and then try to update to a SAB with the address hidden?

Go directly to switching to a SAB then video verify with branded gear, biz cards, Search Console linkage?

I'd appreciate any guidance - thank you!

My business profile was disabled about a month ago. I was able to provide the documentation that they required to reinstate it, however, when it was reinstated all 75 of my 5-star reviews are missing. I’ve read in other posts how to go about having the reviews reinstated by contacting Support via opening a ticket. I had this happened to me once before last year and was able to successfully have my reviews reinstated this way, however it’s been almost 3 weeks and they haven’t responded to my ticket. I even replied twice to the email that was sent to me when the ticket was opened with no response.

Does anyone have any experience dealing with this? Are they just backlogged? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Hey guys, someone stole my business’s location from my account. They made it identical of my business and report me as a duplicate. Now my business shut down and the fake one lives. What should I do?

Hi everyone,

A client of mine recently left me a review, on her side of things it shows that she's posted it, but this review doesn't show from any other account.

Is there any way to get this review to show at all? I've emailed Google business support but I don't have high hopes for them responding, let alone doing anything

Hey GMB Community,

Thank you all so much for your help so far on my last few posts. You have all been so helpful and we are so close to being able to submit for bulk verification.

My client went to submit for bulk verification yesterday, following all the steps outlined by Google and using the primary owner account of the business group. However, when he goes through "Verifications" then "Chain" he gets redirected to Google Support submission form where you can only select one business and launch a support request or ask the community?

I have submitted a bulk verification request before MONTHS ago, before knowing we needed to get at least 10 profiles manually reverified before submitting and awaiting multiple suspension appeals. We still have 87 businesses in our business group that need to be verified!

Any ideas on why we are getting this redirect? Are we not eligible?

How should I setup my GMB listing?

-- We work from home address (just an office in our extra bedroom)

-- We work only with local customers (our city and surrounding cities within 2 hours or less)

-- People can come to our home to meet, pickup, dropoff, etc - although it isn't preferred method. But having an address might help with rankings right?

-- We go out and meet with clients at their business. We do drop offs and pickups at their location or meet with them at their preferred location.

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So should this be service based (no address)? Or should we list our home address and setup areas we serve?
We would prefer our HOUSE isn't the image shown when people search for us (looks unprofessional) but from what we read not having an address could hurt in google map searches, top 3 ranking, near me rankings, etc.

I work at a law firm, but have my own LLC through which I run my marketing expenses. Client contracts are with the firm, but I do my own separate marketing under my LLC to get my own cases since I get a higher percentage of fees on self generated cases. I meet clients all over the state and work in the firm’s offices and at home, but I do not have a separate office for my LLC.

Do I have to set up a practitioner page under the law firm or as an attorney can I set up a service area business profile for myself?

I want to capture my clients reviews if I ever go out on my own or have to change firms.

Hello, I recently had my GMB suspended for deceptive content. I submitted the proper paper work and got it reinstated, no issues. Its been 9 days since the supension and I am still ranking #7 post reinstatement but was easily #1 or #2 for multiple key words before. Nothing has changed on my profile.

Are there any tips to get my ranking back to normal? More posts? Reply to customers? Post pictures etc??
Of should I just wait a month and see where I am at. This is really frustrating.

I'm going to try and embrace Google's magnificence again. My suspended GMB account and the subsequent decimation of my livelihood did little to dampen my admiration for the tech giant. How shall I go about honoring Google in the best way to ensure my new GMB account stays active so I may sing Google's praises for eternity?

Locksmith/Roadside Assistance business based out of home:

Besides changing business name, phone number, email, have DBA/utility/bank statements in new name, set service area, hide address, what else should I do?

How should I deal with the suspended GMB with regard to the address? Is it correct I must permanently remove/close the business account at the address? Is that even possible for me to do with a suspended GMB?

Regarding the verification video: I've never been able to upload a video longer than 30 seconds which seems wrong. Why could that be when it seems Google affords up to two minutes of video?

That aside, is it correct Google wants me to video street signs on my residential block...and then quickly drive down the street to my home office to video the house structure and number, as well as the tools I use for my job...and video my DBA/utility/bank forms??? Is that correct? Is there more I need to video?

Lastly, since it appears my account suspension was facilitated by local competitors, what steps should I take to ensure my GMB is protected from further malicious attacks?

Thanks

So our listing that has been active for 5 years and has 80+ reviews was just suspended. Nooooo - I have literally been working day and night on this. Trying to dial in the GMB and our website seo and everything all day everyday and now it's gone - no one can even see it.

We are not sure why - it says "deceptive content" but we don't know what that is.

We read the guidelines and the only things we could come up with are:

- We use a virtual office (we changed that today to a service area business - read below please)

- We had keywords in our business name (we removed those today)

(could those be considered deceptive content)

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When I saw this this morning I hit the appeal button and then again and then realized I submitted it with NO supporting info. I did not even see that part. So I am sure it will get denied unless they review these changes I made today.

How do I find out exactly what they want to change without guessing?

I had added a ton of services right before this happened but they are all legitimate stuff we do.

Will I have another chance to appeal again?

SOME MORE URGENT QUESTIONS:

• Here is the confusing part.....so my company is called "Burnski Designs Screen Printing & Embroidery". They are asking for bills, business licenses, etc during the appeal process. Our actual business name is COLORADOO LIFESTYLE APPAREL with the irs. We DBA (do business as) Burnski Designs so I do not have bills, license, etc with the name on it (just the Colorado Lifestyle name) -- what do I do?

• They also asked for photos or videos of your business (we work from home or coffee shops and visit clients so how do we do that - walk them around my bedroom office?)

• Are we really service based? Basically we work remotely selling shirts and other items (coffee shops, library, co working spaces, our bedroom, home office in garage, etc) - all business is done online (people request a quote and art - we send it - they approve - we print and ship if they are out of state -or- deliver to their porch.

I saw a recent job posting for a GMB verification expert but they needed to be able to verify GMB's without using a video verification. Now obviously I didn't apply because I don't know how to do that, but also it made me start to think is something like this even possible? The only method I could think of is using a bulk submit under something like a hospital or other large organization but even then I don't know if it would work

Everytime I try to list my cleaning business on google, google suspends the listing right away almost immediately for “deceptive” content. the address is my residential home as I conduct my services in people’s homes and store most of my cleaning products at my own home. This is a new business and I don’t have any social media yet, was hoping google could help me generate clients to get me started.

I previously had a business listed on google which had a physical location and google was great for getting me clients. That business has since been taking down and I am trying to list a different business.

Anyone know what “deceptive” behaviour could be affecting my listing? I’ve tried to appeal but keep getting denied.

Everytime I try to list my cleaning business on google, google suspends the listing right away almost immediately for “deceptive” content. the address is my residential home as I conduct my services in people’s homes and store most of my cleaning products at my own home. This is a new business and I don’t have any social media yet, was hoping google could help me generate clients to get me started.

I previously had a business listed on google which had a physical location and google was great for getting me clients. That business has since been taking down and I am trying to list a different business.

Anyone know what “deceptive” behaviour could be affecting my listing? I’ve tried to appeal but keep getting denied.

I am doing a monthly report of our Google Business Profile listings and I noticed that our Google Maps views are unrealistically high all of the sudden.

For instance:

Jan - Sept (TOTAL): 6 Million Google Maps Views

October: 1 Million Google Maps Views

I also looked deeper into it and noticed some locations went from like 1,8k Map Views (in September) to 16k Map Views (in October). Again, this does not seem right?

This is totally ruining my conversion rate because the other KPIs like "clicks on driving directions" seem to be unchanged.

I am making some analysis software and I need to download all reviews for a business. We have built a web scraper, but google maps limits the number of reviews that you can view with scrolling to about 300.

I am looking for any way to do this, ideally for any business, or if not then for a business that you own and we can then ask our clients to do this for us or somehow do this in an automated way. I have tried to get approved for the Google My Business API many times, but every time I get rejected with a vague response, maybe that would solve this.

I live in Canada I have tried everything I can, at first I tried just editing my information, then I tried taking my description and pictures down all together leaving just my buisness name and hours and phone number. Still was apparently "deceptive" I gave up tried making an entire new google account, all I listed for the buisness this time was the buisness name, phone, email and hours. I provided all the pieces of evidence that google asked for and still was deemed to not follow these gbp guidelines. I tried making a new google account and using my parents address this time thinking maybe my postal code or IP address was the issue. Still flagged as "deceptive" instantly as soon as I hit finished. Why is this happening

I am having endless problems getting verified because I don't have a business address due to the fact I run events and simply rent different venues. I am trying to use my home address but I don't have time to get from the street sign and into my house within 2 minutes that they limit the video to - it's too far away in the block of units I am in. How do I get around this?!?! doing my head in :(

It claims to be able to automate everything with AI including posts, service descriptions, q&as, review responses and more.

Has anyone used this? If so, do you feel it really does almost all the work for you?

Also, if anyone can compare this to using Brightlocal, I’d love to hear your thoughts. I understand brightlocal isn’t automated and I know about some of the key differences. But I’d be grateful to hear someone’s thoughts on both tools.

Removing Fake Google Reviews - What Works and Doesn't in 2024

I wanted to make this post for a while now, and I am just now getting around to it. Before I start, know that any campaigns for Google review removal should not be taken lightly, and when doing so, assess your risks in removing reviews. If done improperly, reporting multiple reviews on a single GBP profile can get you a hard GBP suspension, shadow banned, or flagged (making any future review removals much more difficult).

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Given the randomness of Google's effectiveness, getting rid of negative reviews can be as quick as 12 hours to a few months. And sometimes, taking the matters into your own hands might be best. Again, if you get a harsh and fair negative review, accept them and do better.

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I am a big believer in fairness, and given the fact that Google is especially slow in removing the reviews (however legitimate they are), I think that knowing a general layout of how this works is still good to know.

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Do your homework before doing any review removals.

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Get More Positive Reviews to Bury the Bad - Feasible?

While accumulating positive reviews might seem like a strategy for some, not everyone has access to legally and ethically obtain those positive reviews (especially in large volumes).

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Dos and Don’ts of Review Removals

1. Respond to Fake Negative Reviews with Caution

If you have received a recent negative scammy review, do not comment on that review until you have a good understanding of what caused it and the reviewer's profile. 

Interacting with reviews that you want to remove will become much harder (especially as they get older). Just let it sit there for a bit before initiating your review removal campaign. I know some GBP owners purposely comment with cursing and derogatory words as a response (in hopes of suspending that entire review), and although I've seen this still working, the risk of your GBP being suspended and shadow banned is not worth it. Refrain from negative engagement as a means of failing and removing the review.

By all means, never like a negative Google review (even out of sarcasm). Doing this will absolutely sabotage your chances of getting this resolved, especially if you let this review marinate and get old. Additionally, scammers will often like their target negative reviews (from their other profiles) as a means of complicating the removal appeal.

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2. Pick Your Battles

Removing negative reviews can range from $300-$2500, so choose wisely. Negative reviews with thorough responses and attached images are much harder to remove and will be costlier (not to mention their age and interaction score). And just to clarify, you absolutely can access some information about the person who left the reviews.

If the review is valid and does not violate Google's guidelines, be very careful in removing them. I've had a few instances which led to legal situations. If you know that this review was left by a “persistent” individual/competitor, the best policy would be to respond to it honestly and professionally. You can certainly respond to these types of reviews with your email, but for the most part, you will just go in circles about who knows what, which often leads to some sort of compensation to remove the review. I am seeing this a lot more with actual local guides.

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3. Pay Attention to Companies That Pop Up in Your Region for Review Removals

I have seen these more than I would like to admit (and have worked for a few), but more often than not, the companies that pop right up for searches like “negative review removals” are grey-ish. I’ve seen companies that would outsource people abroad to leave negative reviews en masse in a specific area, only to then run Google ads or Facebook ads in hopes of suckering you into paying them to remove the reviews. Any agency that says things like “pay after a successful removal only” is most likely a gimmicky company. In most cases, these companies bank off of things that you can do yourself (making manual review removal appeals). There is not a single agency out there (unless you have ties with the support) that can guarantee 100% success rates.

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4. Fake Reviews from Local Guides

Never assume that the review left by a local guide wasn’t bought by your competitor. Additionally, local guides more often than not do sell their accounts for negative or positive review shenanigans. Biggest telltale signs that a local guide is “fishy”:

• Their reviews are coming from broader location areas within a short period of time.
• Their general reviews tend to be quite comprehensive and seem to be a bit too “detailed/generous” (this is more so for positive reviews). Think about this: what person, in their right mind, has all of this energy to write these detailed reviews unless there is some sort of incentive?
• The local guide’s review profile is quite young with a high influx of reviews (especially if they are very thorough).
• What are the overall patterns of their reviews? Do they come and go? Do they come and go in high waves? Look out for local guides with profiles that have a more consistent and intense influx of reviews (especially if they have a fairly new track record).
• What are their primary geo-locations for leaving reviews?

In most cases, negative reviews from local guides are much harder to deal with. However, with proper investigation and pattern analysis, you can get to the bottom of it and pinpoint the origin of the reviewer (beneath their G account). Mass reporting their other reviews can certainly help in lowering the difficulty of getting rid of your target negative review. And pray to God that the review that your local guide has left does not contain an image with it. Google reviews with images are an absolute nightmare to deal with.

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Other Points for Creating G Accounts (for mass review reporting):

• Do your G accounts have unique IP addresses and proper geolocation searches? You might need to use proxies, etc.
• Did your G account use a unique IP during creation?
• Do your G accounts leave traces with connected email accounts or phone numbers?
• Which device did you use to create those G accounts? Was there any trace on that device that could connect the dots between your other G accounts? Get a VPS and a proxy for maximum effectiveness.
• Were your G accounts created in a spread-out manner?
• Do your G accounts utilize proper device IDs?
• When you reported the review, did your G search originate with proper keywords? Avoid direct searches when flagging reviews (unless you're the owner).
• In some cases, CTR will be necessary to dilute your overall business profile interactions for you to deploy negative reviews. If no CTR, spread your reports much wider.
• When reporting, initiate your organic search that best mimics an actual user. In some cases, clicking on GBP, then on the site, and then on GBP before removing the review.
• Make sure that your duration times make sense on GBP visit before making the report.
• If you have multiple reviews, be very, very careful in which reviews to choose. Any additional review removals will highly increase the risk of shadow ban and suspension and the effectiveness of the campaign. This is why removing legitimate reviews is a no-no.
• Are your G accounts properly aged, and have they reached the local guides levels (level 6 and up)? Also, you do not need to have all local guide G accounts for successful reporting. You need a good mixture.

Again, I do not in any way encourage anyone to revoke honest and fair reviews. This is for all of us who are struggling to stay afloat while dealing with fake negative reviews.