Best approach to remove ~70 non-existent GBP locations?

[NearbyImpact]

Hi All - I was wondering if someone has some advice on the right approach. I'm currently working with a client who has hundreds of GBP locations globally and we are trying to clean these up, as most are either unverified or not owned by my client.

We are currently preparing the bulk verification process (e.g. updating the store locator etc). However, there are about 70 locations for this business which don't exist anymore / never existed at these addresses (some claimed, most unclaimed). When I have single locations, it's usually easy for me to get them removed by flagging them (using a secondary 'good standing' account). In this case though, with this volume, I'm a bit unsure what the best approach is.

A few things I have been considering but would like some input:

- Using my secondary account to flag all 70 one by one seems risky at this volume - could read as spammy/abusive behavior to Google and jeopardise that account's standing unlesse I do it over time?!
- I don't want to use my agency account for this either - or should I?
- Using the client's account (the one we are getting bulk verified) also makes me hesitant, at least while the bulk verification is still pending - my worry is that a big wave of edits/flags on that account before bulk verification might have an affect on it.
- My current thinking: wait until bulk verification is done and stable, then handle the cleanup in smaller batches spread over a few weeks rather than all at once.

Does that approach make sense, or is there a better way? Also - for the claimed locations (especially ones where an ex-employee or unrelated party is the verified owner), does simple 'suggest an edit' flagging actually work?

Alternatively, once the account is bulk verified, is there a way to reach out to Google directly about these ~70 locations (all carrying the client's business name) and ask them to review/remove in bulk, rather than going through them one by one via edits?

Any insights from people who might have dealt with a similar volume would be great - I hadn't had this many locations to delete before.

Thank you!

 

[keyserholiday]

You will never get bulk verified with these 70 GBPs live on Google.

In order to get bulk verified, you need to have all GBPs in your dashboard. So you either need to request ownership of them or use suggest an edit and mark them as permanently closed. You can use the redressal form, and it that doesn't work, post in the help forum after 30 days.

 

[NearbyImpact]

You will never get bulk verified with these 70 GBPs live on Google.

In order to get bulk verified, you need to have all GBPs in your dashboard. So you either need to request ownership of them or use suggest an edit and mark them as permanently closed. You can use the redressal form, and it that doesn't work, post in the help forum after 30 days.

Thanks a lot for your reply - I’m not quite clear though, those 70 locations dont have an actual location so are also not reflected in the store locator of my clients website; so even if I request ownership I wouldnt be able to verify these locations in any way.

As for your second suggestion to suggest an edit - that is what I thought I would have to do but my question is what is the best approach? Do I do it with another GPB account in phases? Or with the clients account before bulk verification?

In regards to the redressal form - would this mean there is a good chance if I contact Google and tell them about these 70 inaccurate / non existing locations they would look at them and help get them deleted?

Thank you again!!

 

[JS Girard]

Honestly, when I was dealing with spam, I went manually reporting each GBPs for all the possible violations, week after week until 99% were gone.

My only problem with that approach is that now I'm regularly running into that thing where clicking on the "submit" button does not do anything. I haven't yet figured out if it's an account limitation or a bug.