GBP: Thanks for inquiring; we've decided to penalize you with no explanation.

[david.victor]

I asked GBP Help for an evaluation of why our posts were being rejected for a medical client. I see other practitioners in the same space posting very similar content so I don't think it's a vanilla YMYL thing.

After the usual pointless pointers to exceedingly vague help articles, and 2-3 unhelpful "Has your inquiry been resolved?" messages were received and responded to politely "No, I still need more help", I received this message today (below).

I'm not eager to follow up, lest they start locking out other functionalities I rely on. OTOH, I was relieved to hear that Google has no intention to make me feel upset.

Has anyone successfully resolved anything like this?

 

[keyserholiday]

Google did explain that your images violated the TOS. Because of repeated violations, Google has removed your ability to use images in posts. You should be able to create posts, you just won't be able to use images.

 

[david.victor]

Google did explain that your images violated the TOS. Because of repeated violations, Google has removed your ability to use images in posts. You should be able to create posts, you just won't be able to use images.

Google did explain that your images violated the TOS. Because of repeated violations, Google has removed your ability to use images in posts. You should be able to create posts, you just won't be able to use images.

Where does it specifically say my *images* violated policy? They said “contributions”….

For them to say I “repeatedly” violated anything is disingenuous as there was no explanation as to *what* was being violated, which was the reason I looked into it.

I was making a sincere inquiry as to what we could do differently in the future so that our posts don’t get rejected.

Crazy-making.

 

[keyserholiday]

I have seen enough of these issues to know that it's a photo issue. The line "you are no longer able to contribute imagery/local posts." This is the giveaway to me that it was the photos that were the reason for the rejections. While you contacted Google for help, sadly you ended up self-reporting your client.

 

[david.victor]

Okay, appreciate the insight KH!

Do you think there's anything to be gained by pushing it, or could that risk further loss? ("You're no longer allowed to post anything, anywhere, for any reason. We're happy to help!")