I need help on Suspended Google Places Account

[baltimoreseocompany]

I have client who have 7 locations however google places account has been suspended..but still show up on Google Map..

what is the best way to unsuspend account or create new account?

all listings are legit business address, nothing grey, standard listing for their locations..

here is one of his location

https://plus.google.com/117974278462523224267/about?gl=us&hl=en

 

[Colan Nielsen]

There has been a lot of these suspended account instances going on lately. A bunch of the affected businesses have reported that the accounts came out of suspension after a couple weeks.


When did the account become suspended? Can you provide a screenshot of the dashboard with the suspended message at the top?

 

[Linda Buquet]

If what I'm seeing live on maps is what was in dashboards then he should have been suspended.

https://www.google.com/maps?q=Sport...6924,3.56781&hq=Sport+and+Spine+Rehab&t=m&z=9

Most of the business names appear to be GEO stuffed and some KW stuffed too.

Examples:

"Sport and Spine Rehab - Columbia"

"Sport and Spine Rehab of Fort Washington - Chiropractor & Physical Therapist"
(Last one is a merged/verified G+ with spammy title)

And others with other cities attached.

Were the listings set up this way with city and KWs added to business name in the dashboard? If so, that's why they were suspended.

I don't think it make sense to request reinstatement if the listings were in violation.
So if they were, you may need to delete and start over from scratch with a brand new account.

 

[baltimoreseocompany]

Thanks Linda..When I took over, account has been suspended..but on dash, never used city or location..

 

[Linda Buquet]

So they were suspended 1st? Then called you to help?
Ya names are fine in dash.

Since they are suspended, the listings likely became unverified and reverted back to a previously used name instead of the names in dash. On one I looked at in MM history, the Geo stuffed name was copied over from a Places dashboard at one point.

Do you think they may have these also claimed in another acct? Or do you know if they previously worked with another SEO who may have claimed in THEIR account?

Another possible reason for suspension... anything potentially problematic with any of those locations? Any of them shared offices in with another Chiro or anything like that that you know of?

 

[baltimoreseocompany]

I don't know the full history..anyway thanks for your help..now I can explain more details to this acct owner..

so Linda, can I start over with this guy? meaning creating new account - re-claime google places? and recreate Google + Local to merge later on?

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Starting over in a new account may be your only option. What worries me is that if these listings are claimed in another account that was doing the keyword stuffing, it could come back to haunt you.

I think the first priority would be getting to the bottom of that. I know that can be like pulling teeth, but it's super important.

 

[Linda Buquet]

TOTALLY agree with Colan.

PLUS there is now a way that WRONGLY suspended listings can at least ask for reinstatement due to a recent problem that suspended lots of clean listings.

So IF you can find out another SEO did it…

And IF you do a thorough audit, to be sure no violations in the dash you are looking at...

THEN I think it would be worth trying to get account reinstated and the other account suspended.

BUT the other option is that there is no other account and no violations. Could be Google is just scraping that info from citations, which is not a violation because the owner did not do it in dash, it's Google that is making the name that way.

But as Colan asked you need to try to get to bottom of it through process of elimination! Starting over is a BIG deal on numerous levels; They'll likely lose reviews. They likely won't rank at all for 6 - 8 weeks with new listings. Plus it's lots of extra work for you!

 

[cmtrig]

My Google listing was also suspended last year when I moved my company to another state. The fix was long and arduous, and involved some aggravation. I have posted the full story on my blog, see it here.

First, I would like to say that I like Google; a lot. I have had great success with them with getting my websites to the top pages organically, on Adwords and on the Maps. But my tale of woe starts 2 weeks ago when we moved into our new offices in Manchester, NH. Let me break it down for y'all...

Before we moved, we registered our corporation in New Hampshire and did all we could to make our move as seamless as possible. We took the time to update our business listings online with Yext, Bing and hundreds of Directories online, all without incident. Then we turned our attention to Google Business Listings. When we did a search, we found to our surprise that Google had added a duplicate listing for our company in North Carolina, as well as our normal listing we've had for years. No worries, we'll just claim this listing and delete it, according to the Google guidelines. read more on my blog Google Suspended my Business Listing | Trig Web Design

 

[James Watt]

I've had a run in too with some serious issues when moving states.. though this case it was the second move across state lines in a year, and he was coming to me for help after getting help from a certain company that set him up with a call tracking number. It was a mess. Glad you got yours squared away too!

I'm a little confused though about you saying Google recommended claiming and then deleting the duplicate. I'm not as clear on what the guidelines were last August, but that's definitely not what you're supposed to do now. I wonder if that wasn't where things started going wrong... at least it's all taken care of now, and yeah, calling support can sometimes be a Greek myth level exercise in frustration.

 

[cmtrig]

Hi James, to answer your question, the duplicate listing was one created by Google from Directory listings on the web, as we've been around a long time. At the time, the Google forums and guidelines called for me to claim the listing (as it was not claimed by anyone) and then delete the listing. I doubled and triple checked this, as it didn't seem to be the right thing to do, but I went ahead a did it. The trouble didn't start there, but it sure exacerbated the situation.
I just hope my story can help someone else, or ate least assure them they are not alone.

 

[James Watt]

Right on. Like I said, I wasn't as involved in the game last August so that very well could have been the best practices at the time... interesting that it'd be so different now though. Either way, least it's taken care of now.