Google My Business is a crucial component to any business’s SEO, but sometimes things go wrong and your account can get suspended. Don’t stress — we are here to help!
Why was my Google My Business account suspended?
Unfortunately, Google’s reasoning for suspending accounts is sometimes vague. In general, those reasons can include: someone logging in from a different location, too many users being added to your account in a short period of time, or not following community guidelines.
Regardless of WHY your account has been suspended, it’s important that business owners quickly address this issue. Google My Business is crucial to a small business’s SEO — according to market research, the average business is found in 1,009 searches per month, with 84% of these coming from discovery searches via Google My Business.
How Can I Reinstate my Google My Business Account?
First, get in contact with the account owner or administrator on the account. It’s at this step that you may realize it’s not actually you but does need to be. The business owner should always retain primary ownership and allow others to serve in a manager capacity.
Here are the steps to take in order to reinstate your Google My Business account.
- Ask for reinstatement
- Confirm that your business meets GMB guidelines. Learn how to represent your business on Google.
- Fill out the reinstatement request form.
- Hear back about reinstatement
- The team at GMB will review, investigate, and resolve most requests within 3 business days.
- If it’s been more than 3 business days, reply to the email you receive. It is very much okay to be the squeaky wheel.
- If you have a storefront, attach a photo to your reply.
- Reply to a denial
- If GMB mistakenly denied your request (which happens all the time), reply to the initial report email.
- In your reply, include an eligibility justification and summarize how your business operates.
- If you have a storefront, attach a photo to your reply.
- Fix issues after reinstatement
- For the security of Business Profiles, Google can’t share specific reasons why any profile is suspended.
- If you have issues with your reinstated profile, reply to the email with information on your problem, and Google will investigate.
Still Need Help?
Sometimes working through web forms is both daunting and complicated. We get it.
Our team at COMO Marketing is Google Certified and happy to help the small business owners of Columbia, Missouri and the larger Mid-MO region. If you are a business owner with any Google My Business issues, please feel free to call us at (573) 499-1830 or email us at info@columbiamarketinggroup.com.