GMB Soft Suspension?

[hannahmoen]

Hello!

Today we noticed (without any notification/mention from Google) that the GMB listings for a dual location client were both suspended. Yesterday the client also let us know that their YouTube was randomly suspended indefinitely - no recent activity to our knowledge including posts and comments. Knowing that YouTube operates as one of Google's subsidiaries, perhaps these are related?

As far as what could have triggered the suspension, we have no idea. About 2 weeks ago I updated their business address on one listing because they built a brand new office. However, the other listing has not received any updates recently and yet, was also suspended. We do use UTM codes in the URL but have always done so under the impression that was not a violation of Google's code. We know it is a soft suspension for GMB because they are still pulling in maps and search. We did have a city modifier / mention in the business name but have not seen any recent Google Updates attempting to correct that and I do an audit every Monday so I would have seen a Google Update if there was one. The reason we have the city modifier is because the two locations are rather close and they cannibalize one another in search without the city indicator. Again however, we have not seen this attempting to be corrected by Google otherwise we would have accepted and not re-done.

I submitted reinstatement forms for both of the listings, did not receive an auto response or a confirmation email with the ticket number. I know back in July/August the wait times on these requests were about 2-3 weeks out but I am unsure what to expect right now. The 'primary owner' of both GMB listings and both YouTube accounts is the business owner. Could this be related to an issue with his gmail account possibly being spammy or in violation?

Any ideas are appreciated. Thanks!

 

[hannahmoen]

^ bump because perhaps I posted at a bad time yesterday.

 

[Sherm]

How do you know when it is suspended? Does Google send something in the GMB portal to state that it is suspended or?

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Hi @hannahmoen ,
It sounds like you'd be better off talking directly to the GMB team to solve the issues since they can see more on the backend as far as what the issue is.

Since you haven't heard back on the reinstatement request, I'd suggest reaching out to them on either Twitter or Facebook:

www.facebook.com/googlemybusiness
www.twitter.com/googlemybiz

 

[Peter]

It seems hard suspension to me related to account activity. Besides, it used to can connect to brand account such as YouTube, G+ (Not quite sure now). Either one having problem will lead to listing suspension as well. You may expect to got notified about 3-5 days after submitted reinstatement form.

 

[hannahmoen]

Thanks both! I did go the GMB Twitter route and before they were able to even address the issue both of the listings were randomly reinstated.

Thank you for the note about account activity possibly leading to the hard suspension. We have left the owners personal email off the Users list for the listings now.

 

[KymM]

Thanks both! I did go the GMB Twitter route and before they were able to even address the issue both of the listings were randomly reinstated.

Thank you for the note about account activity possibly leading to the hard suspension. We have left the owners personal email off the Users list for the listings now.

That's good to hear! Do you know if the YouTube account was unsuspended as well? We've run into the same issue, and while we have been able to get the GMB listings back up, the YouTube accounts remain suspended even though the issues appear to be related.

 

[hannahmoen]

That's good to hear! Do you know if the YouTube account was unsuspended as well? We've run into the same issue, and while we have been able to get the GMB listings back up, the YouTube accounts remain suspended even though the issues appear to be related.

No luck with YouTube, permanent suspension unfortunately. Still no idea why! Sounds like we are in the same boat.