An increase in disabled GBP listings?

[sd1111]

Over the last couple of weeks, I am seeing increased small business chatter about disabled (not suspended) Google Business Profile listings. Social posts about it, messages, and help requests at a level I've never seen before.

I am not seeing any reporting on an increase in disabled listings online, so I'm curious if it's just in my niche?

Many of the affected businesses seem to be photographers who were using their home address. I understand this is against Google's guidelines, but disabling listings for it seems new. In the past, this only occasionally triggered suspension/re-verification. Businesses could switch to a SAB and get reinstated without a slow appeal or submitting tons of documentation.

There are some conspiracy theories that someone's teaching photographers to report their competitors with displayed addresses (redressal form, maybe?). I'm trying to figure out if that is actually the cause, or if Google's systems are doing this.

Is anyone else seeing more disabled listings than usual among your clients or in your niche?

 

[Professor M]

Over the past few years, Google has disabled lots of profiles that show their home address; Google AI looks at certain categories and states/regions at a time, which is why you're probably noticing this right now. But because I help many people when their profile gets disabled I can see the pattern.