Recent content by mblumenthal

I do not know specifically which issue/law Google is looking to marshal SMB support around with this But it is part and parcel of their long term efforts at astroturfing state and federal elected officials whenever there is even a whiff of regulation in the air. See Google Automates SMB...

Given that it is visible to you and not to me (even when I use. London VPN) would indicate that it is a test.Probably of DMA compliance of some sort

I am not seeing even with a vpn. Are you seeing it on all listings?

I have been seeing more blanket prohibitions across geographies and categories from Google. These are not penalties but rather preventative measures to avoid bigger issues. The fact that they say: “Some Business Profiles have been temporarily disabled from adding new reviews or replies to...

One theory I have in these situations is that Google doesn't like a ton of reviews from far away. Which is easy to happen in your case. 1- I am curious if you have continued to ask for reviews? 2- Can you be sure to let us know when you get the ability back?

While not common it is not unique. This occurs when one business has significantly more relevance for a given search term than the next closest candidate. IE the relevance delta is so large that Google makes the assumption that it is brand that you are looking for. This happens frequently with...

It means that the GBP review algo will be applied to the reviews. That algo is more rigorous than the LSA algo and it means many reviews are likely to be removed. As to implementation, it took about 3 months in the UK from notice to completion. That is probably a maximum in this case.

When there is a bug how do they decide to prioritize fixing it? There have been some bugs (features?) that seem to persist these days for a very long time, why is that? Over the past two years, it appears that they effectively drove (forced?) virtually every SAB in the world through their new...

I am seeing cases where, when there was a hard suspension, Google has been unable to move the reviews over. They are aware of the issue but have no date for a fix

You should have a case number at this point? You will need to escalate this to the GBP forum and have a product expert escalate the case. To create a new post goto this page: Google Business Profile Community Scroll down the page Select the button that says: Not what you're looking for? Try...

I have seen that “permanently closed” is also applied to spam listings that shouldn’t be listed at all.

I would agree with Elizabeth. There are other events and practices that cause Google to show LSAs less For example if fewer businesses are in the program or fewer want to show after hours would do it Also we have seen in our behavior searcher research studies that Google mixes up what they...

I don’t have insight into the specifics but it seems to take a number of months after a level is reached (like 6-9) before the designation of a new level is made.

Great tip. What is odd is that when the listing is viewed via VPN say from Canada, then 500 error does not occur. It is only when view via a US based IP address. Florida video - 500 error occurs Toronto based IP video - 500 Error does NOT occur