Account Level Suspension(s)

[webforu]

Hi LSF community,

Work for a global agency and we manage quite a few accounts. What happened 2 weeks ago is beyond me and cannot find any insights what went wrong and how I can make sure it doesn't happen again - not to mention how to fix it.

Issue: two our bulk verified accounts have been suspended. By account I mean all listings within the account (one had 160 location the other only 16).

Details: [account 1 - 160 locations] I made some changes in our (aggregator) tool to push live on GMB for 1 location. Submitted it and did see the details updating. On Thursday morning when I came in and was logging into the GMB backend (with the brand email, not our agency email), I had a never seen before 2FA(ish) screen:

I even checked the URL and domain as they looked a bit dodgy, not the usual 2FA login. I could also, use any number to 'verify' and login. Once I logged in, was greeted with all locations being suspended and almost had a heart-attack

[account 2 - 16 locations] This happened same week, from Thursday to Friday. The only difference that I made no changes either from the aggregator tool or from GMB backend. Friday morning had the same screen pop-up for this account and same consequence.

Both account were in good working order and we do follow best practices. I do have a hunch, but couldn't find anything to confirm this. Our IP might have been flagged up as making a lot of changes. The week before we did claim 30-40 locations on [account 1] both from my location and the extended team in another country (with same master brand email address). Maybe we got flagged by and automated script that our IP was caught making too many changes the week before? Had individual locations suspended in the past but not the whole account. Also, both account are huge brands, not the usual small moms and pops brick and mortar.

What I have done so far
Submitted an appeal for [account 2] as they had only 16 locations and had to get all the Business Profile ID ... which I couldn't get in bulk, so was easier to test with this account. Submitted the appeal and attached XLS within the first 60 minutes to Google.

Took them over a week to reject it with the following:

We are a legit agency and haven't uploaded anything deceptive or misleading.

At the moment am struggling to find answer and how to move forward. Of course, can re-appeal but feel like going around in circles and not getting any clarity.

Further information that might help
As both account have been bulk verified, I can still claim locations on both accounts. If publishing from our aggregator tool to verified location (post suspension), they are getting updated correctly and account does not get suspended for the newly claimed locations.

Any support or advice is much appreciated. Reached out to our Google rep but in our area we have limited support :/

Would love to hear your opinions and suggestions.

Kind regards
Z

 

[ElizabethRule]

The 2FA is really a red flag, especially if you have never seen that particular screen before and if the URL was fishy. Thought tbh I am not sure how that would affect the Google listings beyond something like an account level suspension. I would 100% check every account with access to the location groups and the individual GBPs using this link - it will tell you if there are any accounts that are restricted and would cause an account level suspension. If you find any are restricted, you need to remove them before submitting additional appeals.

The reason for the appeal denial though is deceptive content, which typically means Google doesn't trust your address. But if it's 16 accounts from a bulk verified group, that doesn't make a ton of sense why Google wouldn't trust them suddenly. Have you reached out to Bulk support via this form? If not, I would try that before going ahead with a second appeal.

I will also tag @krystaltaing as she is the Bulk Verify queen and she likely has more insights than I do - especially concerning submitting an appeal for the account with 160 locations in it, as doing it one by one would be a pain.

 

[webforu]

The 2FA is really a red flag, especially if you have never seen that particular screen before and if the URL was fishy. Thought tbh I am not sure how that would affect the Google listings beyond something like an account level suspension. I would 100% check every account with access to the location groups and the individual GBPs using this link - it will tell you if there are any accounts that are restricted and would cause an account level suspension. If you find any are restricted, you need to remove them before submitting additional appeals.

The reason for the appeal denial though is deceptive content, which typically means Google doesn't trust your address. But if it's 16 accounts from a bulk verified group, that doesn't make a ton of sense why Google wouldn't trust them suddenly. Have you reached out to Bulk support via this form? If not, I would try that before going ahead with a second appeal.

I will also tag @krystaltaing as she is the Bulk Verify queen and she likely has more insights than I do - especially concerning submitting an appeal for the account with 160 locations in it, as doing it one by one would be a pain.

Hi Elizabeth - firstly, thank you very much for reading my very long essay

Although the 2FA looked fishy, it was a legit Google URL, but something I never seen before. Included it in case somebody has seen it before as this happened with both account before being suspended.

Thank you for both links - these are new for me and will have a deeper look tomorrow once in the office.

Once again, thank you for having a look and sharing your experience - much appreciated. Will be reporting back with my findings.

 

[ElizabethRule]

Good luck and let us know how it shakes out!!

 

[webforu]

Good luck and let us know how it shakes out!!

Thank you @ElizabethRule. Followed your instructions:
1. Access - isn't restricted.

2. Form - submitted the form and awaiting and update on it.

This has been done for the 16 location client. The 160 one the client manage to escalate and we got the listings re-instated, which is great but I am still unclear why it happened and how I can avoid it. Who know, maybe it will remain a mystery.

@krystaltaing not sure if you came across anything like this and what could have caused it.

Thank you for the support.

Kind regards,
Z