Google Business Profile suspended: the reasons and the appeal, step by step

What a suspension means

In the UK, “google business profile suspended” is searched 1,900 times a month. Google’s help page states the rule in one line: it may suspend or disable Business Profiles that don’t follow our guidelines, and the owner can ask for reinstatement through an appeal. When a profile is removed, the public can no longer open it and the owner and managers can no longer act on it.

Two other situations look similar but are not the same thing. If the Google Account itself is restricted, the Business Profiles that you manage are suspended and you won’t be able to create or claim other profiles: that restriction has to be lifted first, from the My accounts page, before each profile can be appealed. And if Google finds fake or incentivised reviews, it can restrict the reviews rather than the profile: for example, the profile will not be able to receive new reviews or ratings for set period of time.

The reasons Google gives, guideline by guideline

The appeals tool shows the reason for the decision and links the policy concerned. In the guidelines for representing your business on Google, these are the rules that concern a UK small business most directly:

• The name. Your name should reflect your business’ real-world name, as used consistently on your shopfront, website, stationery and as known to customers. Adding a town, a service or a slogan (“Smith Plumbing Leeds Emergency Boiler Repair”) could result in the suspension of your Business Profile. If the extra words are not on your sign, your van and your invoices, take them out.
• The address. PO boxes or mailboxes located at remote locations aren’t acceptable. A rented postal address where you do not work is a virtual office, and that location isn’t eligible for a Business Profile. A co-working desk only counts if the office maintains clear signage, receives customers at the location during opening hours, and is staffed during opening hours by your business staff. Businesses that show their address should also have permanent fixed signage of their business name at the address.
• The service area. A tradesperson who works at customers’ homes is a service-area business: Google’s own example is that if you’re a plumber and run your business from your residential address, clear the address from your Business Profile. The overall area should stay within about two hours of driving time from where your business is based. So check two things: that your home address is hidden, and that your service area is the area you really cover.
• Duplicates. Do not create more than one page for each location of your business, either in a single account or multiple accounts. Two profiles for the same van, or an old profile nobody closed, can bring both down.
• Phone and website. Premium phone numbers are not acceptable regardless of the rate charged to the caller, and Google asks you not to give phone numbers or links that send people anywhere other than the actual business (a tracking number that redirects, a page on another site).
• Categories. Use as few categories as possible to describe your overall core business, not as extra keywords.

If you edited the profile just before the suspension (name, address, service area), start your checks with that edit.

The appeal, step by step

Fix first, appeal second. Google asks you to make sure the profile follows all the guidelines before you submit, and the order matters because you get one go:

1. 1
   Correct the profile against the list above: real-world name, a staffed address with signage or a hidden address with a service area, one profile per location, a direct phone number.
2. 2
   Gather your evidence. Google lists official business registration, a business licence, tax certificates, utility bills for the business (electricity, phone, water or internet). For a UK sole trader or limited company, that means for example your Companies House record, an HMRC letter or a utility bill in the business name. Google’s tip: check that the business name and address match the profile that you want to make an appeal for.
3. 3
   Open the Google Business Profile appeals tool, signed in with the Google Account that owns the profile, then select the profile and the decision you are appealing.
4. 4
   Read what the tool shows: the date of the initial decision, the reason for the decision, a link to the violated policy, whether the decision can be appealed. If it says the decision cannot be appealed, a new appeal will not change it.
5. 5
   Upload your documents with Choose file and use the text box to explain, in a few plain sentences, what you corrected and why the business is real at that address or in that area.
6. 6
   Tick the confirmation box and submit. Appeals can only be submitted once, so check that every document is attached before you click. Google replies by email, and the tool shows the status: Submitted, Approved, Not approved, Can’t be appealed, Eligible for appeal.

What not to do

Four things to avoid while the profile is suspended:

• Do not create a new profile. Google’s help page says it in its own words: “Do not create a new Business Profile for the same business”. A second profile for the same business also breaks the one-profile-per-location rule.
• Do not appeal before fixing. The tool accepts one appeal per decision; an appeal sent with the keyword name still in place is wasted.
• Do not send documents with a different name or address. A utility bill in your personal name at your home, for a profile with a shop address, contradicts the profile instead of supporting it.
• Do not pay someone who promises a guaranteed reinstatement. Only Google decides, through the same appeals tool you can use yourself.

While you wait: keep customers finding you

During a suspension, the map no longer shows you. A business that has its own website can still appear in the ordinary results for its name and its services; one that has only the profile disappears. Across the 4,631 Google Maps listings we surveyed in France, 23% have no website of their own.

The same rule as the profile applies to the site: the same name, address and phone number as on your sign and your documents. It helps customers find you now, and it is consistent with what you tell Google in the appeal.

Our take

Treat the appeal as a single shot: we would spend an hour correcting the profile and gathering one or two documents with exactly the same name and address before opening the appeals tool, rather than appealing the same evening. The trap is the second profile, which turns one problem into two. And if your business only exists on Google Maps, a suspension is the best argument for a simple website of your own, because it is the one listing nobody can switch off for you.

The FindMyCompany team