Hard Suspension but Showing as "Published"

[Matt Casady]

Some of the locations I manage from a chain on GMB just got hard suspensions (for unknown reasons) but within the GMB dashboard, each of these locations are still showing the status of "Published" like the other locations that are live. Is this a bug? Has anyone else seen this?

 

[Matt Casady]

So I started submitting reinstatement requests for those suspended locations but got the "Page already live" email auto response a few minutes later.

They may show they are published in the dashboard but are definitely hard suspended on Maps.

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Hey Matt, sounds like a bug to me. I'm guessing they are indeed suspended but the dashboard is broken. I'd reach out to GMB support to confirm.

 

[Matt Casady]

Hey Colan, thanks! Yeah, makes sense that it is probably a bug. I'll wait to hear back from GMB support then. In the meantime, it appears the reinstatement form probably won't help much.

 

[Nikki Stine]

@Matt Cas, if you don't mind me asking, how did you know they received a hard suspension?

The reason I ask is that I have a client GMB listing that stopped showing up on Maps and for searches in the last few days. They appear in my dashboard as Published and with no error messages.

I've had clients get a soft suspension before, but it showed up as a message inside the dashboard. So I'm unsure what is happening in this case.

 

[Matt Casady]

Hi @Nikki Stine, for each of the listings in the GMB Info sections when I clicked "View on Search" the Business Profile/knowledge panel didn't show in the Google Search and when I clicked "View on Maps" there was no business shown on Maps.

Yeah, like with your previous client soft suspensions I've seen listings get hard suspensions in the past but they showed a message in the dashboard saying "Suspended". In this case, the listings were suspended in search but the dashboard still said they were published and I could still edit their business info.

For what it's worth, I noticed these suspensions happened shortly after adding short names to these listings similar to what Tim Capper reported but when I changed the short names on these suspended listings they went live again within a few minutes so who knows what's up .

 

[Nikki Stine]

Thanks @Matt Cas for the additional information. That is exactly like what is happening to my client as well.

And, I did add a short name, but the "suspension" didn't happen immediately. It was probably within a week though. Also my other clients who created short names didn't get suspended.

The short name is not spammy - just their business name. I guess I'll try changing it... but I really want the business name.

 

[codyecp]

We just had a similar situation popup with one of our clients. Their GMB listing has been around for at least 4-5 years. We've been managing for close to 3 years. Updated the short name with what we thought was a good/clever use of their main focus category, not spammy IMO...

Noticed today the listing had been removed/suspended.

GMB listing was still live and accessible, without reviews, etc. but listing was removed from search results. Got GMB rep on the phone and they said that they couldn't reinstate as is, as the telephone number didn't match from site to GMB listing. Well, we've been using dynamic call tracking/swapping from Call Rail for a few years now to track marketing efforts. Not sure how the GMB rep was seeing the tracking number, but there was tons of confusion with the rep as per usual. Had to disable the javascript for call tracking while we wait...

Bottom line, I'm not sure if it had anything to do with shortname or call tracking issues. However we did notice it happened around the same time frame as updating the shortname.

You guys using call tracking at all?

 

[Nikki Stine]

Quick follow up ... changing the short name (to something other than the business name in this case) DID reinstate the listing for me too. Crazy.

 

[Yan Gilbert]

Seems Google is having lots of trouble adding extra features. So many things going wrong the past few weeks.

 

[Matt Casady]

@codyecp Yes, I am using call tracking on my listings as well but I didn't make any changes to the phone numbers to get them reinstated I just slightly tweaked the short names.

@Nikki Stine Fascinating! Thanks for the update. Well, at least we seem to have a temporary workaround for other businesses experiencing this same thing.

 

[JoyHawkins]

This is crazy. I just came across 2 completely different examples on the GMB forum and removing the short name caused the listing & reviews to come back instantly

 

[Luca]

Another issue: after the activation of shortname i lost the photo’ insights

 

[codyecp]

Update: Just changed shortname to include business name. Reinstated almost instantly. Looks like his rankings dropped a couple spots for main targets, so will continue to watch. Reviews & photos were gone, but are now all back.

Still have call tracking disabled, but not sure if that matters. I'm going to wait a day/two before re-enabling that javascript.

 

[JoyHawkins]

If you don't mind, those of you who have seen removing short names fix the issue, can you PM me the link to your GMB listing? Google is asking for examples.

 

[premiumweb]

So the only way to know if this is an issue is to go into each location and view on search / view on maps?

 

[Matt Casady]

@premiumweb Yep. In my case, all of the listings that had hard suspensions from this bug were still showing as "Published" within the GMB dashboard so the only way to see they were actually suspended was by trying to view them on search and maps.

 

[LauraY]

Another issue: after the activation of shortname i lost the photo’ insights

Find any solution or workaround for this?

 

[Nikki Stine]

Just a sidenote here about a fixed suspension... I already had a support case open with Google (on another matter) for one of my clients who received a hard suspension after adding the short name. I really didn't want to change their short name as a "quick fix" because 1) it's their company name and 2) I think it's one they will surely lose to another company if they don't keep it (it's a common company name).

The open support case is about merging reviews from duplicate listings, so we can get rid of the duplicate listings. Since I was already in communication with them, I mentioned the suspension. The hard suspension was lifted (fairly quickly) and I was able to keep my short name. But I'm still waiting to hear back on the merging of reviews.

 

[JoyHawkins]

Update: According to Google this particular issue with short names is now resolved.