GMB removing website from listing for non SSL?

[SmartDataMap]

We've seen a couple instances where our client's website was removed from their Google My Business listing. This resulted in a drastic drop in web traffic. We noticed the sites were not SSL compliant. Once SSL was applied, GMB accepted the website listing once again. Wondering if Google is getting more strict in their need for secure websites.

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Hi Jim,

Welcome to the Local Search Forum!

Yes I think GMB is becoming stricter with secure websites being used inside GMB. Another problem that I have seen cause issues is when you update your SSL but forget to update the URL inside GMB. So now you have a re-direct which Google explicitly calls out as a no-no in the GMB guidelines.

 

[Scott Rawlins]

I agree with @Colan Nielsen. I had a couple of listings suffer a soft suspension because I didn't update the url in GMB. So it causing a redirect.

 

[Cordell Crowley]

We recently had a client whose website was removed even though it was SSL. Not sure why.

Simple fix of putting the website url back in, but didn't know if anybody may have an idea why it was removed to begin with.

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Competitor suggested an edit?

 

[Yan Gilbert]

Sometimes it's just bad timing..the Google bot decides to crawl your site while the server was down for maintenance (or the site was down for a short while for whatever reason) and you'll get that crossed out url.
If it happens more than once, then it could be a technical issue that needs to be resolved somewhere.

 

[SmartDataMap]

I see the website is still missing from GMB listing... Google Maps

 

[Cordell Crowley]

Competitor suggested an edit?

That's what I was assuming. Not sure why Google would push the edit suggestion through, but I've seen them do crazier things.