Drop in Google Map Pack Rankings After Re-verification via OAuth

[ganapathy]

We have a customer who claims that their Google Business Profile was previously showing in the 3-Pack on Google Search and ranking in the top 10 on Maps.Google.com.

However, after connecting their profile to Example.com via OAuth and re-verifying their Google Business Profile, they noticed a significant drop in their rankings.

We are trying to understand if the drop could be related to:

1. The OAuth connection triggering a re-verification or profile update
2. A temporary loss of trust signals due to re-verification
3. Any known changes in Google’s local ranking algorithm that might be affecting this

Has anyone else experienced similar issues after using OAuth-based integrations or triggering a re-verification?

Any guidance on how long such ranking drops might last, or steps to restore previous visibility, would be greatly appreciated.

 

[JS Girard]

Have you confirmed other factors by comparing before/after rankings? e.g. competitors improving, reviews crossing into stale, or even the Diversity update?

 

[ganapathy]

Thanks, @JS Girard .

Yes, I’ve reviewed the customer’s Google Business Profile. While I don’t have access to their previous ranking data, they mentioned they were ranking well for terms like “realtors in 36561” and “realtors in 36542.”

Here’s what I’ve confirmed so far:

1. Stale Reviews: The last review was received in January 2025—no recent activity since.
2. Google Posts: The last post was also from January 9th, 2025.
3. Category Mismatch: The primary category is “real estate agency,” but the About section states “real estate agent.”
4. Competitor Activity: Competitors appear to be much more active with recent updates and reviews.

Regarding the Diversity Update, I can’t confirm if the profile was impacted, but it's a possibility.

Additionally, could the drop be linked to an OAuth connection triggering re-verification or a profile update? That’s something I’m also looking into.

 

[JS Girard]

Assuming nothing else big (like hiding the address during the reverification whereas it was shown before) is in play, my theory would be that reverification cause the algorithm to "freshen" the GBP's ranking specifically, bringing into play the review staleness problems, especially in such a competitive vertical as real estate!

Category mismatch is not entirely impossible, but in my experience (take with a grain of salt as I deal normally with french language category names), that makes relatively little difference, especially for a non-identical match keyword like "realtor". Mind you, the experience of Canada-based SEO experts with that particular keyword is very limited because it does not generate local results in canada due to the existence of a major domain match website (realtor.ca) .