GMB Soft Suspended, is there risk of a hard suspension?

[DS - Jonathan]

Hi,

Long story short, one of my client's GMB profiles got soft suspended and my 1st attempt at an appeal was rejected. I beleive the main reason was due to all the supporting documents having a different name than the one listed on the profile.

They have an official DBA that should help this, the only issue is 1) The DBA recently expired and 2) The DBA has their old address opposed to the one they are currently doing business out of. My client filed for an updated DBA, but that could take 2-4 weeks to arrive.

My main concern is this, is there a time limit to get my current suspension overturned before the soft suspension turns into a hard suspension? I am worried that by the time the DBA arrives, it will be too late.

For more context, the profile originally got soft suspended on September 28th, so it has almost already been a month.

 

[Stefan Somborac]

Hi @DS - Jonathan, I wouldn't worry about the suspension changing from a soft suspension to a hard suspension.

Explanation: If Google has enough information about a business to convince one of its algorithms that the business exists, it will automatically create a listing for that business on Google Maps. The listing will exist, unclaimed, unless someone claims and verifies it. The algorithm trusts that the business exists.

That's basically the same as a soft suspension. If you look at a soft suspended profile from an account that is not a user on the profile (or from an incognito window), you'll find that it's unclaimed. Google trusts that the business exists, so the profile remains visible.

That's not going to change in the next few weeks (or even months), so it's OK to wait for the DBA to arrive.

TIP: In some states, DBA records are available online. Those records update quickly, so if you can provide Google with the URL to the updated, public DBA record, you don't need to wait for the paper copy to arrive by mail.