Your Google Business Profile is suspended. Here is what that means and what to do.
A suspension takes your listing out of Maps and out of local search until Google reinstates it. This page explains why profiles get suspended, how the appeal actually works, and what we do if you would rather hand it over.
No fixed price. We look at the profile first and quote from what we find.
Why Google suspends a profile
Suspensions are enforcement of the published guidelines for representing your business on Google. These are the areas those rules cover.
The business name
Google requires the name on the profile to be the real-world name. Adding a city, a keyword, a slogan or a phone number to it is the single most common trigger.
The address
The address has to be a location staffed during opening hours. Virtual offices, mailboxes, co-working addresses shared with other listings and unstaffed units are all outside the rules.
Eligibility for a profile at all
A profile requires in-person contact with customers, either at your premises or at theirs. Online-only businesses and lead-generation pages are not eligible.
Service-area setup
If you go to customers rather than the other way round, the address must be hidden and the service area described honestly. Showing a home address, or claiming a service area far wider than you actually cover, breaks that rule.
Duplicates and ownership
More than one profile for the same business at the same address, or a profile claimed by a previous agency or owner, can take the whole listing down.
Editing several core fields at once
Changing the name, address and category together, or making a large edit shortly after a change of ownership, is treated as a higher-risk edit and can trigger a review.
Category and content rules
Categories must describe what the business is, not what it sells. Restricted sectors have extra requirements, and prohibited or misleading content in the description, photos or posts is grounds for removal.
The website and phone number
The link should go to a page that represents this specific location, and the number should reach the business. Redirects through a third party and mismatched numbers both raise flags.
Google does not tell you which rule you broke
Soft suspension or hard suspension
The two behave differently, and the difference tells you how much work is ahead.
In a soft suspension the profile still exists in your dashboard but is no longer verified, so it disappears from Maps and local results. Your data and reviews are intact; the listing is simply not shown while it is unverified.
In a hard suspension the profile is removed outright. It is gone from your dashboard as well as from search, and reinstatement means proving the business is eligible from scratch rather than correcting a detail.
Which one you are dealing with changes the evidence you need, so it is worth establishing before anything is filed.
What the business loses while the profile is hidden
A suspension is not cosmetic. It removes the surface most local customers actually use.
You disappear from the map
A suspended profile is removed from Google Maps and from the local results that sit above the ordinary web listings. Anyone searching for you nearby simply sees your competitors.
Your reviews stop being visible
Reviews are attached to the profile, so they go with it. Existing reviews are not deleted, but nobody can see them or the star rating while the profile is down.
Booking and ordering links break
Anything wired into the profile stops working: Book with Google, ordering links, the call button, opening hours, photos and posts.
Branded searches get weaker
The panel that normally appears when someone searches your name directly is gone, so even people who already know you have to work harder to find your hours or your number.
How the appeal works
Reinstatement runs through Google's own process. There is no back channel and no priority queue.
Work out the actual cause
Google says a profile was suspended but not why. The cause has to be inferred from the profile's history, what changed just before it, and which rules the current setup breaks.
Fix the underlying problem
An appeal filed while the listing still breaks a rule is refused. The name, address, category and setup have to comply before anything is submitted.
File the reinstatement request
The appeal goes through Google's own reinstatement form, from the account that manages the profile, with evidence that the business exists and operates where it says it does.
Respond until there is a verdict
Google may ask for more evidence, or refuse and allow one further appeal. Each response has to address the specific reason given rather than restate the original case.
The evidence Google asks for
Proof the premises are yours
A lease or deed, a recent utility bill, or a business rates bill in the trading name at that address.
Proof it is open to customers
Photos of exterior signage with the business name visible, the entrance, and the inside during opening hours.
Proof the business is registered
Companies House details, a VAT registration, or the licence or registration your sector requires.
Nobody can guarantee reinstatement
What we do
If you would rather not spend a fortnight learning Google's guidelines, this is the job we take on.
Audit the cause
We go through the profile against Google's current guidelines and its own edit history, and tell you which rule it breaks. If we cannot find a cause we will say so rather than guess.
Fix the profile first
Name, address, categories, service-area configuration, website link, duplicates and anything else that would get the appeal refused on sight.
Prepare and file the appeal
We assemble the evidence, write the reinstatement request against the specific guideline in question, and submit it from the managing account.
See it through to a verdict
We handle the follow-up correspondence and any further appeal, and we tell you when the routes are exhausted rather than leaving the case open indefinitely.
There is no set price for this. Suspensions differ enormously in how much work they need, so we look at the profile first and tell you what it would take before you commit to anything.
Questions we get asked
Related
Send us your case
Tell us the business name, the city and roughly when the profile went down. We will look at what is publicly visible and come back with what we think caused it and what reinstating it would involve.
