Recent content by Stefan Somborac

I might come up against a restricted user profile 2 or 3 times a year, but I have been involved in 2 or 3 cases in the last two weeks! Anyone else seeing a wave of restricted user accounts?

A reference for anyone who needs to do the same thing: When you appeal, Google asks you to name the policy. This falls under "Offensive content".

@tankengine - Those 3rd party links are added automatically. You should be able to remove them yourself. For details read Manage your local business links. In particular, read the last section, "Remove third-party links". As for changing the domain, that can be a challenge. Make sure all your...

Hey @Rossco - I've seen this a bunch of times and have helped in cases where one of the two businesses at a location was either suspended or needed to be verified. I know from experience that it's totally doable. (i.e. Google is OK with it.) So, I put together a reference article here: Can You...

Short answer: Yes, Google allows two businesses to share an address. In fact, it's reasonably common in North America. E.g., a Starbucks inside a grocery store, a McDonald's inside a Walmart, etc. Near me, there is a single building that contains a bike shop and a separate snowboarding store...

The computer repair space really goes overboard with it. I've had success using the redressal form to get some of these ridiculous names corrected (the name was corrected by Google, the profile was not suspended), but no luck with "typical" keyword stuffing cases.

Well, I got to appeal another content rejection through the appeals tool. Same client as my first post, so I think I get this support path because the client is in Canada. I appealed content for a US client this month, and the appeals tools showed no content to appeal. I had to use the form you...

@Syed Amir - If you're looking for something clever, this isn't it! The client created a new profile and couldn't get it verified. I gave some pointers, and it still didn't work. I contacted support and waited. I finally gave up waiting and deleted the profile and created a new one.

@ElizabethRule - Interesting! Where was the GBP located? Also in the US?

Hi @garrisonagency - That might have been me who replied to you on the community forum. If it was, sorry if it felt dismissive. The sad reality (based on my experience) is that Google just doesn't restore reviews very often. I believe they have a very high level of confidence in their review...

If you make a change to a Business Profile and the edit is rejected, you can now use the Appeals tool to contact support. (Maybe. More on that below.) This is new to me; I just stumbled across this in my day-to-day work earlier this week. Here's why I was surprised: to date, only users in the...

@Syed Amir - I had a case recently where I gave up on waiting to hear back from Google and decided to take a different approach. Only then did I hear back from Google. It took about 5 business days. Normally, it takes 24 - 48 hours. Maybe they've got a backlog?

@Chris Barnard - I was going to suggest Google Takeout as the free, clunky option! @Kaycie Smith - As for paid tools, I've used Outscraper to analyze reviews for suspicious patterns. I don't actually have hands-on experience with it—a friend with an account ran it for me—but the output (CSV) is...

Back in August 2017, Google introduced appointment booking URLs to Business Profiles. (h/t Mike Blumenthal and @Phil Rozek for the amazing archives. https://blumenthals.com/blog/2017/08/09/google-my-business-expands-optional-urls-for-appointments-reservations-ordering-ahead/...

Yes, as far as I understand it, BBB accreditation does not influence ranking.