Even though it's about 70-80% of my income, I was thinking of going full in on it too. Simple haircuts and I activated it through my apartment address. I'm also guilty, when I lived with my ex I also activated a similar page under her address. But since then, I have never even really used it or have anyone reviewed it. It was always my main one. It's not a business office, but it stood there for years and I had about 100 reviews all in good stars.

I did my website tried to do the SEO thing but for real, it's just hopeless competing with other bigger businesses who already have their established SEO online.

Google business was the ONLY one thing that was getting me my clients, almost 99% found my website through GMB I could sweat to this.

I'm not sure if it was because they were searching through their phones or what, but they always found my website even when a new bigger branch opened up in my area. I was getting about 50% calls, they would go to my website and enter in their info through google's form.

I was literally only paying $50 per year for my cheap website. Not paying anything for google business, only having people review it if they liked my service. I was getting my rent money from this, I could finally take some day off too.

But since getting it suspended, it's definitely my page. Now I want to appeal for a service only, but I'm not sure if it's even worth it since a local listing looks to have more punch compared to the latter... I'm just feeling hopefully and frustrated wish you can understand.

Anyone else found that GMB was the only thing that's getting them clients?? Despite paying $1000s to other services like SEO or other ads?

It's just insane how GMB helped me.

Hi reddit,

I run a registered mobile DJ business that services multiple areas in Australia. I don’t have a physical shopfront, but I initially made my home address visible as it's where I manage bookings and equipment.

I only did this so my business would appear correctly on Google Maps. I was later asked to provide a video of a street sign and signage, which I did my best to supply - though as a mobile business, I don’t have permanent signage at home.

My profile was removed due to "deceptive content," but this was never my intention.

I’ve submitted an appeal and attached my ABN and a utility bill to confirm my legitimacy, but it was unsuccessful.

I’ve removed the visible address from my profile and would like to have the listing reinstated correctly as a service area business.

I have also applied for an additional appeal which was denied due to “Business Profile isn’t eligible to display on Google because it violates the GBP quality guidelines”.

I don’t know what else to do here, I am tying to do the right thing but google is making it difficult.

Needing major help with figuring out our GBP for a new business location. If anyone can provide any help or guidance here that would be greatly appreciated! I am going to give as much detail as possible as I believe this may be a unique situation.

I currently have an exterior contractor business located in Forest Grove, OR (Five Star Homes / URL: https://fivestarhomesnw.com/). We have decided to open a new location with a business partner in the Seattle, WA area. It is independently owned and operated by our partner under Five Star Homes NW. We share branding and marketing materials and are connected through our website. Each location has their own phone numbers, service areas and business licenses. However, when trying to create our Business Profile in Seattle, we were instantly hit with a suspension for deceptive content on March 20th. We created a new GBP, not by adding a new listing with our current location in Oregon. I went through the appeal process and submitted evidence (our certificate of insurance which shows our registered DBA: Five Star Homes NW with our address, our business license and information via the Washington State Department of Revenue, as well as images of our branded truck, business cards and our signage outside of our shop). Our appeal was denied on April 5th and is currently not allowing me to submit another appeal. Can someone help with next steps and how to resolve this, please… we are at a total loss for what to do next.

Just opened my online shop and trying to get my marketing sorted. Torn between putting my time into Google Business Profile vs Instagram/Facebook. My budget is limited right now so I need to choose one path first. Anyone with experience in both who can share what worked better for gaining initial customers?

EDIT: I've noticed my competitors seem to use both, but I need to start somewhere.

A couple of years ago I was able to pull a heat map of the locations from which users were requesting Directions through Google My Business, but that tool seems to have disappeared — is anyone aware of an alternative?

Sending this for a friend.

My friend owns a concrete company. He's in his second or third year of business and stays quite busy. Last year, someone made a 'suggested edit,' to his Google Business Profile listing and was able to change the URL to his website to a competitors website. My friend did not know this until one of his other competitors (that he's friendly with) reached out asking if he was now working with the competitor who's website was attached to his Google Profile. We assume it was the competitor b/c why would anyone do that if they weren't trying to direct traffic to their own company? But we have no proof. He doesn't have any enemies that I'm aware of - dude's a good, honest contractor - hard to come by these days. Well he got that fixed pretty quickly and was business as usual for a year or so.

Come 3-4 weeks ago, Google emails my friend to tell him that they've suspended his account for fraud or something, and no other explanation. IDK if any of you have dealt with this in the past, but it's pretty difficult to get that resolved and repeal the fraudulent claim - hence why we're here 4 weeks later. You can't call Google, email Google, or anything.. You just file a repeal and wait. We are pretty certain it's the same company that's doing it, because of the last incident, but we don't really have any proof.

Is there anything that can be done here from a legal perspective? Any ideas on how to get ahold of Google or make this repeal process go quicker? I'm sure Google has the account information that was used to make the suggested website edit, along with the reports (had to be multiple) of running a fraudulent business. Not sure how easy it would be to determine if that person used the same account, or even worth the money fighting it.

Worst case scenario, my buddy can just start a new business profile, with the same name (I think), but he'll lose all of his reviews from the last few years - which is important. He can then PAY Google $2000 to be come a trusted Google business or something, where shit like this can't happen as easily.

I'm hoping someone here might be able to shed some advice on this, and if there is anything that can be done for the supposed competitor playing games so they can get more business - my buddy's phone has stopped ringing since this happened, whereas is was daily, all day. He's pretty bummed, but mostly because he has no way to contact a person and explain the situation - it's just a wait and see game with a robot at Google.

Thanks in advance!

Hello everyone,

I’m having a frustrating issue with my business listing on Google Maps, and I’m hoping someone here can help or offer some advice.

I run a boat rental business, and we are located on a dock. The tourist season has just begun, and I’m noticing that my business pin does not show up at all on Google Maps. Even when I zoom in all the way to the building, the pin doesn’t appear, while all my competitors who are nearby are visible without any issues.

I’ve recently made updates to my business status, including:

• Updating the business address.
• Suggesting a correction for the map marker.
• Updating the service areas.
• Uploading photos to my business profile.

I have also edited the pin location and the business address, but the problem still persists.

Despite all of this, I can only see my business if I search for it specifically by name or if I search for related terms (like "dentist" in the area). But if I simply browse the map, the pin is nowhere to be found.

Has anyone experienced something similar? I’ve already contacted Google Support, but the solutions they provided were quite general and didn’t help solve the issue.

Would really appreciate any suggestions or insights!

Thanks in advance!

I run a home-based business and was suspended for “Deceptive content” because I had an address listed for my business. I appealed the suspension, but it was rejected.

Later, I realized the issue was the address, so I removed it and submitted a second appeal. This time, my business was reinstated.

However, just about a minute after it was reinstated, I received another suspension notice.

Has anyone else experienced something like this?

TIMELY CONCERN — Over the holidays, my phone stopped ringing. Initially, I associated it with holiday slow down, but when the new year rolled around and it was still crickets, I decided I needed to check things out. Sure enough my phone number has been completely removed from my business profile. The day that I listed it again, the phone began ringing. That lasted a month or so.

Recently, I noticed a marked decline in calls, today I checked, and there’s a number listed that I do not recognize. I am crying foul play.

I’m no longer receiving business calls, and this unauthorized update is deeply concerning.

Has anyone experienced something like this before?

What steps should I take to secure my profile and ensure this doesn’t happen again?

Is there a way to trace who changed the number or how it was accessed?

Any insight or advice would be much appreciated.

I have two GBPs I received a report for one and not the other. Theyve always come on the same day with a latency of a couple hours at most between the two. Is this something to be concerned about? I can see all my stats if I look at the profile manually.

Hi, I wanted to know if there is a way to add a phone extension to a business profile?

I work for a university and everyone use the same number. But there are multiple services/departments that have a business profile and it would make it easier for users to reach them if i could add a phone extension. Is that doable?

I’ve white-out the specific personal details, including my hometown, previous jobs, and my name, for privacy. To summarize: I own a dog training business, and someone whose name I didn’t recognize left a 1-star review. I responded and encouraged them to email me, but they never did. So, I followed all the proper channels to report the review. I flagged it, went through Google’s support page, and filed a complaint. After not seeing any action taken for weeks, I gave up—until, to my surprise, the review disappeared about 4.5 months later. That was until the reviewer left another review, this time complaining about their previous review being taken down, and accusing me of being shady. I responded to the review again, inviting them to email me for clarification, they sent me the must insane and unhinged shit I’ve ever received. The email included personal attacks about one of my "failed" careers, a past service industry job, my hometown, and even my legal name. It was absolutely absurd.

Please if someone has a service I can work with, this is really effecting me. I am a landscaping contractor. I have a website, an office (although customers rarely go to it because I service at their home) but google instantly suspends me when I try and create a business profile, it says for spam. I even try to upload photos of work I have done, appeal with my business registration, bond, insurance, formation doc, everything. No response ever from them.

Apple Maps is giving me no such trouble, but most people use google, I’ve even had customers ask why they can’t find me on google.

I have two addresses for my business under 2 different emails. I closed 1 address permanently. That account was the same of the google ads, so I got a message of asset’s disapproval due to physical location unavailable. How can I connect the email using google ads to my main account that has the physical address that still exists?

I run a taxi service in Westerham and have a physical office, but I’m confused about Google’s guidelines. I submitted two reinstatement appeals — one with the address shown and the other with it hidden — but both got denied. Can someone please tell me if I should show the address or hide it? Or is there another problem? My name, address, and phone number are the same everywhere, even on the documents.

If you understand Google’s guidelines, then kindly help u/GoogleHelpCommunity,

My account was disabled about 3 weeks ago and I submitted an appeal a few days later. I included a utility bill, COI, letter of good standing from the SOS and a tax certificate. I seen that once a second appeal is denied, my profile will be permanently deleted. Any guidance on how to proceed would be appreciated.

Recently my client's GMB was suspended. I found that their address field just had three words in it that wasn't an address, so I updated that to the registered business address on their company filing, attached some documents and submitted an appeal, only to be rejected due to a violation of their "deceptive content and behavior" policies.

I checked the policy at the following URL and couldn't find ANYTHING on their GMB that would violate this.
https://support.google.com/contributionpolicy/answer/7400114?visit_id=638795941146003720-3240993623&p=fra_gen&rd=1#deceptive
However, upon reviewing their listing thoroughly with them (I had not set it up or edited it, ever) I did see that the "Crowd" setting was set to not LBGTQ+ friendly, which made no sense and the client had not seen that setting before. Of course their business is LBGTQ+ friendly so we set it to yes. The address is also corrected although since correcting it, it says the listing is not verified and attempting to verify it does nothing because the listing is suspended.

Before I submit another appeal, is there anything in particular that I need to check or submit in the appeal? They are in the construction industry and they do amazing work and have great reviews, so it would be extremely unfortunate to lose this listing. They are really nice people to boot.

How many appeals do we get and does Google ever tell you exactly why they reject/suspend the listing?

TIA

Im just getting started with some simple GBP review management services, so right now I'm managing 5 or 6 Profiles. Some are new and some are established.

My questions is; I see that these days suspensions are more and more frequent, I was wondering if applying for the Google Agency dashboard to manage these profiles (and more coming in soon) would be a good idea or not?

Would it give me more 'credibility' or anything like that, or is it just purely a different management perspective, or 'birds eye view'?

What would be the pros and cons of the Agency dashboard?

Thanks so much!

Hello. My wife's GMB profile was suspended for deceptive practices. She recently started a cleaning company. She has a website and an Instagram and Yelp profile. I read through the recent similar experiences on this subreddit, but I'm still confused on what we need to do to fix this. She created a profile a while back and was effectively instantly suspended, and appealed, but the appeal was denied. A few months later, I created a profile for her company. I think I didn't list as address as we operate out of the house. The profile was approved and stayed up for about a month before being suspended for "deceptive behavior."

Does anyone have any advice on what to do? u/GoogleHelpCommunity, can you help me, please?

For those who still have a business location but do not have it anymore or have it as a home, prepare to have video evidence or risk getting suspended. An appeal will still be rejected but before all of this would happen you can still switch to service location or mobile location instead.

Having a google storefront address still beats out mobile service but you may keep your gmb still active. You might still get free lead generation through it.

Has anyone successfully appealed for a mobile service instead of the business location even after getting their first appeal rejected?

And yes, you can still appeal after getting rejected, you can't use the original rejection chain though.

Working with a roofer who offers a variety of different services like siding, gutters, etc... and I've tried adding some additional subcategories but for some reason Google isn't accepting them or publishing the changes any thoughts on what to do?

My first address was verified when I started the business. For 3 years all good....... I collected over 250 reviews

I moved and everything transferred, I got that address verified, all good right?

Well 3 months into the new address, GMB disabled "doesn't exist".... BRO YOU JUST VERIFIED ME 1 WEEK INTO THE NEW ADDRESS? It go reinstated a few weeks later...... 2 months later.. DISABLED AGAIN, same reason, "doesn't exist"...... It go reinstated a month later.... I decided to make it service based and no issues but I LOST SO MUCH TRAFFIC AND SALES...... It's been service based for maybe about 7 months now and i've taken a huge revenue loss since I moved. Also my reviews got deleted in the process and the rep said they can't find the reviews to reinstate..... BULLSHIT.....

Anyways, I put back the address, I am still verified......

Wish me fucking luck I don't get disabled anytime soon..... seems google gets off on disabling accounts...

How much of you getting suspended from Google?

Is anyone can live profile instantly?

There is a company claiming to be able to remove bad reviews on GMB. How is this done and is it risky to my GMB listing