Hi there! Spanish tutor from Argentina with a google business here... I already made a post about half of my reviews being removed... they came back after talking with support after a week of wait. Now my newest review from a New zealand student has been removed. I guess I'll have to talk again with support. What do you think is the cause? These are legitime reviews from my students and once I talk with support they are reinstated. The thing is I don't know if it makes sense to keep asking my students to leave reviews if they are going to be removed automatically...

Hello, I please need help with my business profile. I’m stuck in some sort of loop with being suspended, then I appeal and am suspended again…

How is it possible that I’m getting my appeal approved so obviously my submitted paperwork is correct and then immediately o get suspended.. by “automated moderation system”

The business is a golf cart rental and I started the business 3 months ago. Working my ass off, got up to 69 reviews in that time!

I had a pin on maps, even though I do deliver to hotels etc. it’s my home but customers can come there and pick up and I have an office there.

I know now that it needs to be a storefront with sign and staff.. I didn’t know before. So when the first suspension came in, I read through everything and found out I can’t have a pin. Okay I changed to service area and submitted my appeal with an apology, my business license, my LLC docs from the state, and my DBA name, and my insurance policy.
All showing the LLC name, and the DBA name and the address from the listing.

2 days later (the 30th of August) I got my appeal approved and the business was visible again.
But for some reason it still showed the pin. I went into the listing to edit but it already showed “service area” and no address.. with a note “changes might need 7 days to show”..

5 days later I get suspended again by the automated system.. and I submit an appeal again with all my docs and mention in the message the weird glitch with the pin. This time when I go into editing I can already see its only service area.

Today morning I get my appeal approved, I’m super haply because most calls come from the listing, and then I see the pin is still showing?!? I go in the business settings but it shows only service area.. what’s going on here?! And this time only a few hours later I get suspended again .. what am I supposed to do here?

I appreciate any help and advice 🙏

Managing this for a client and I'd like a sanity check before I do something irreversible.

The situation

• UK financial services firm, single location, trading 10+ years.
• Two verified Business Profiles. Identical business name, same primary category.
• Profile A: old office address, ~90 reviews, 5.0 average. That office has closed and they don't trade from there anymore.
• Profile B: current office, ~20 reviews, 5.0. About three miles from the old one, same county, same postcode area.
• It's one business that moved. Not two locations, never was.

The client submitted a merge request herself and it was denied, presumably because of the address mismatch.

I then opened a support case. First reply was a canned template about search rankings and how to improve visibility, so entirely unrelated to what I asked. Second reply came from a named agent who correctly pulled up both profiles but answered none of my four questions, and just noted that "the profile with the most complete information might be kept as the primary profile."

After a few more rounds I got a straight answer:

• They can't submit a speculative request or pre-screen anything. Once a ticket goes to the specialist team it's a live merge attempt, and they either complete it or deny it on policy.
• Review transfers are handled by automated systems during the merge itself, so nobody can guarantee beforehand that 100% of reviews carry over.

The decision is mine (well, the owner's): approve and find out, or leave both profiles as they are.

Where I'm stuck

The ~20 reviews on Profile B are the most recent ones, so the client doesn't want to sacrifice those either. The ~90 on Profile A are a decade of accumulated work and are obviously unrecoverable. Support's position amounts to "authorise it and see what happens," which is a hard thing to take to a client.

Before authorising I'm aligning the phone number, website, primary category, hours and description across both profiles so they look like the same entity to whatever automated check runs. Screenshotting every review and reply on both first.

Questions for anyone who's actually done this

• Has anyone run a merge across two different addresses after a relocation? Did the reviews carry over, partially or fully?
• Is the safer sequence to relocate Profile A to the new address first, complete re-verification, and only then merge, so that both are at an identical address when the ticket goes in? Or does the address edit on a profile whose registered address no longer exists just invite a suspension?
• Does it matter which profile survives, if reviews are supposed to combine either way? Support implied they'd pick the "more complete" one, which would be the newer profile with fewer reviews.

Hi everyone, I’ve recently started working in digital marketing and want to learn how to improve a Google Business Profile (GBP) and achieve first-page rankings on SERPs.

Could you please share the key GBP ranking factors and the SEO strategies especially Local SEO that I should focus on as a beginner?

Any practical tips or guidance would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

We got an email we had reviews removed for incentivizing. I think it’s because someone wrote we give gift cards for reviews. We are not under any restrictions.

Also in a couple old reviews where customers added photos you can make out the sign on our front desk that says we give gift cards for reviews.

We won’t incentivize anymore. Should I appeal or can it make the situation worse?

Hi all, we are looking at best way to manage Google business profiles for our multi location business.

Curious to hear from people who have actually managed GBP at scale. Once you get into 100+ locations, keeping hours, categories, photos, reviews and other information accurate is becoming difficult to do manually, but external tools have material cost impact.

We have a dumpster rental business. Within the week our rankings plummeted. With some research we’ve found hundreds of new “dumpster rental” businesses that have different numbers but similar addresses. They’ve done 2-5 businesses per city and absolutely destroyed all the rankings. Somehow they have different phone numbers and addresses.

How has googled allowed this and how do we get it removed? Clearly a scammer

Hi guys wanna ask i wanna upload a 1.30min vid of my biz at my gmb will google allowed/accept it as i see some accounts got like 3-4min vid uploaded.. why when i google it said max 30s? Im the profile owner not cust btw

Hi! We're Cincinnati Roller Derby, a nonprofit sports league and registered Ohio nonprofit corporation that's had a Google Business Profile for years. We recently moved to a new venue and are trying to update our address, but our video verification keeps getting rejected.

The core issue: we rent shared space in a sports complex. We don't have our own permanent signage, a dedicated office, or equipment that's set up full-time (only on game days). Google's rejection reasons have specifically flagged "business name not shown on legitimate assets" and "no equipment/booking system shown."

What we've tried so far:

• Submitted a support request offering our nonprofit registration, our venue rental/lease agreement, and timestamped game-day video as alternative proof. We received a response saying "From the info you shared, we're not sure of your exact issue, but here are solutions to the most common issues" that just pointed us to generic support articles.
• Posted in the official Google Business Profile Help Community. A Diamond Product Expert flatly told us that we're "not eligible" for a listing at all if we don't have permanent signage/office/staff there, which doesn't match the fact that we've had this exact listing for years, and another tenant at the same address somehow has been successfully verified.
• Tried reaching Google support via X/Twitter and got a canned reply pointing back to generic help articles.

In the meantime, our current listing reads "permanently closed," which is confusing fans right before our next home game.

Has anyone dealt with a similar "shared/rented venue, no permanent fixtures" situation and actually gotten verified? Any tips on how to shoot the video differently, or another way to get this escalated to a human who can actually look at the specifics? Thanks in advance!

I’m dealing with an interesting situation for a client and wanted to see if anyone here has successfully gotten Google to investigate what appears to be a coordinated pattern of review manipulation across multiple locations.

My client has been monitoring a competitor that has a franchise currently operating in several states, including Ohio, Texas, Nebraska, and Iowa. They aren't currently operating in my client's geographic market, but based on their expansion, my client expects them to eventually enter his territory.

He has no issue with competition. The concern is what appears to be a pattern of potentially deceptive review activity as new locations are established.

We did an initial review and documented several things that raised red flags:

• We found reviews from people who appear to be current employees of the company. We were able to connect them to the business through their publicly available LinkedIn profiles, and in some cases the same employees appear to have reviewed multiple company locations.
• We've seen unusually large concentrations of reviews arrive within very short periods, sometimes within approximately 24 hours.
• We've seen new locations appear and almost immediately receive a significant number of reviews. It isn't one or two early reviews that could reasonably come from initial customers. We're seeing larger numbers concentrated into very short periods.
• Some of the review patterns also raised concerns that reviews may have been purchased, although that's obviously much more difficult to establish conclusively from the outside.

We documented the individual reviews, dates, patterns, and publicly available connections between reviewers and the company.

The information has been reported to Google, the FTC, and the Attorneys General in the states where we've identified the activity. Some of the state AG offices have followed up with the business owner regarding the submissions, but so far we've heard nothing from Google.

We're now seeing similar activity associated with another new location in Twinsburg, OH, so we're preparing to document and submit the new information as well.

I also tried raising the broader pattern through Google's community/forum, but the post was closed as a duplicate and the advice essentially amounted to reporting the individual reviews to Google and hoping something happens.

Has anyone here successfully escalated something like this beyond simply clicking "Report review" or submitting the report to Google?

I'm particularly interested in whether there is a way to get Google to look at the pattern across the entire business/franchise, rather than evaluating each review or location in isolation.

If you've dealt with something similar, I'd be interested in hearing what documentation you provided, what escalation path you used, and whether Google ultimately took any action.

My client is not looking to attack the competitor or have legitimate reviews removed. He is all for healthy competition. We're trying to figure out the appropriate way to get a documented pattern of deceptive review activity in front of someone at Google who can actually evaluate it.

I have been denied twice when my video shows everything being asked for. I have a solo attorney practice but operate from my home. I showed the street number and walked up driveway, walked in my office and showed a business card and my computer logged into my Google account. I found an online form with Google for help where I could upload my business license, utility bill and “tools” but it just spins when I submit. I’m not sure what to do at this point

We have a dumpster rental business. Within the week our rankings plummeted. With some research we’ve found hundreds of new “dumpster rental” businesses that have different numbers but similar addresses. They’ve done 2-5 businesses per city and absolutely destroyed all the rankings. Somehow they have different phone numbers and addresses.

How has googled allowed this and how do we get it removed? Clearly a scammer

I’m helping manage the website/online presence for a legitimate dental clinic with multiple physical branches, each with its own Google Business Profile.

Recently, all of the profiles were suspended and removed from Google Maps/Search. The suspension message says “deceptive content.”

We initially updated the website URL on the profiles after launching a new website. Some time later, the suspensions started happening. We did not initially change the business name, address, phone number, or primary category.

For one branch, we appealed and it was reinstated, but it was suspended again after about a day. We appealed again, and it is now showing as not eligible for another appeal.

For the other branches, we still have the option to appeal.

The locations are legitimate storefront clinics with accurate addresses, signage, and business hours. We also have official registration documents, licenses, and other supporting documents.

After the suspension, we also tried changing the business name to match the official registration documents, but that didn't resolve the issue.

At this point, we're trying to understand what could be triggering the “deceptive content” suspension.

Has anyone dealt with a similar situation where multiple legitimate profiles were suspended for deceptive content?

In particular, we'd appreciate advice on:

• Whether the website/domain or recent website URL change could be contributing to the suspension.
• Whether an account-level restriction could be affecting all the locations.
• Whether the business name should match the physical signage rather than the legal registration name.
• What we should check or correct before appealing the remaining profiles.
• We've also seen several people mention getting stuck in a reappeal/reinstatement loop, where the profile is reinstated and then suspended again. If anyone has successfully broken out of that loop, what did you do?
• Is there any way to get a profile reviewed again when the appeal status says “cannot be appealed”?

We're trying to avoid making further changes that could make the situation worse, so any advice from people who have successfully recovered similar profiles would be really helpful. Thank you!

Hi Product Experts,

I’ve been contributing to the Google Business Profile Community for 9 months and I’m active almost every day.

1. I have 3,500+ points and 10+ achievements.
2. I’ve received multiple Recommended Answers.
3. I have no known violations or warnings.
4. I’ve checked other Silvers profiles, and my contribution level seems similar.
5. However, I’m still Bronze.

I also noticed that many Product Experts have a “Questions” option on their profile, but I don’t have it.

What could be the reason?
Is Silver manually reviewed by Community Managers, or is there another requirement I’m missing?

Should I keep contributing and wait, or is there something I should do to request a review?

Any advice from current Product Experts would be greatly appreciated!

I would like to find out how effective the false reviews can be for a business. Recently i came across some fake reviews of my business on google. In particular there were two negative reviews posted by people who are not our clients. The second review is even stranger because it describes an event that never happened. Originally my acquaintance thought that dealing with it is easy but it became a very frustrating process. In particular the owner was mostly concerned with how those fake reviews can affect the impression of potential clients who see only the negative reviews without the context of the whole situation. Does anyone here experienced something similar before? Did the fake reviews have any effect on your business?

Helping a small local business that gets good feedback but the reviews come in really unevenly.

They might get several in a short stretch and then nothing for weeks. The owner mostly cares about the total number going up, but I've been wondering whether consistency tells us something the lifetime total doesn't.

I'm not talking about pushing customers for reviews constantly or trying to hit some arbitrary monthly quota. More wondering how you judge a business that has a decent review history but goes quiet for long stretches.

Would you care about that if the rating and total review count were still good?

Hi!

I have a hotel in a famous tourist place. I have added the relevant details like the tag location images, features. Is there anything else I can do other than posting updates to fix my local SEO ?

My analysis of the recent Google August spam update was correct. The update heavily penalized many business profiles that recently changed their titles or stuffed them with keywords.

We have seen multiple competitors and other businesses drop significantly in rankings because of this. This proves that manipulating titles and descriptions will no longer work under Google's stricter spam algorithms.Also Business title r corrected by algorithm.

Thanks

Google seems to reward businesses that suddenly gain momentum on Maps. If a place starts getting a lot more searches, visits, engagement, and attention in a short period of time, that kind of spike can apparently be interpreted as a sign that the business is trending.
But at the same time, a sudden increase in activity, especially reviews, can also trigger spam filters or red flags.
That’s the part I don’t understand.
I manage a very strong Google Business Profile, as you can see from the screenshot. It was ranking #2 on Google.
We recently had an event that brought in a much larger number of customers than usual. Some of those customers left genuine Google reviews after visiting.
Google removed some of those reviews, and shortly afterward the listing dropped from #2 to #5.
So where exactly is the line?
If a real business suddenly becomes popular because of an event, viral exposure, promotion, or a busy weekend, wouldn’t a sudden spike in searches, visits, and reviews be completely natural?
How does Google distinguish between real-world momentum and manipulated activity without accidentally penalizing a business for genuinely becoming popular?
Has anyone here seen the same thing happen with a GBP?

Profile 1 : https://maps.app.goo.gl/DsLhc6bM2upTEN46A

profile 2: https://maps.app.goo.gl/rUxqmJBqXSX8kQo29

We manage profiles for local businesses in Thailand. Six suspensions in 8 months, all reinstated eventually, all avoidable. What each owner had done a few days before:

1. Added the service and city to the business name ("...Massage Sukhumvit") because a competitor did it

2. Changed the address to a co-working space to "look more central"

3. Switched category from a specific one to a broad one and back, twice in a week

4. Bulk-uploaded 40 photos in one go from a new phone

5. Added 8 service areas covering the whole country for a shop that serves one district

6. Set 24-hour opening for a place that closes at 10pm

None of these are "spam" in the owner's head. All of them look like spam to Google's system, especially when done right after a period of no activity.

What we do now before any edit: one change at a time, wait 3-4 days, keep the real name and real hours, and never touch the name field for keywords no matter what competitors do. Reinstatement took 2-6 weeks each time, and rankings didn't fully come back for another month after.

Finally, we got tired of catching these too late, so we built a small AI tool that scans a profile for the edits and patterns that tend to trigger suspensions and flags them before Google does. That's what I'll run for anyone who wants a check - happy to say what it is if asked.

Anyone got a suspension from something that seemed totally innocent? Drop the business + area and I'll run a risk check on it.

Looking for practical recommendations, especially from anyone experienced with Google Business Profile escalations.

A Mumbai clinic has added the exact phrase “Sexologist in Mumbai” to its Google Maps business name. The same practitioner has two listings using similar service and location keywords. They currently appear at approximately #1 and #3 for the city-wide search “sexologist in Mumbai”, with 563 and 171 reviews respectively. Both listings also use the same phone number.

The business’s own storefront and website use a shorter real-world name. We have submitted normal name edits and a Business Redressal complaint, but the names remain unchanged.

The concern is not the business’s legitimacy, reviews, or rating. It is that adding the exact service-plus-city search phrase to the business name appears to give the listings broad visibility across Mumbai, despite other relevant businesses having stronger reviews and ratings.

If anyone here works with Google Business Profile or has handled a similar persistent name-stuffing case, what would you recommend doing next?