Issues with map visibility - business profile visible only to managers

[Timur]

I have a client with a moving SAB. He previously had a business profile that he marked as "permanently closed" after the company's renaming and relocation. He opened a new account but encountered verification problems. Google did not verify it, even after a live video call, without further explanation.

So, I decided to re-open the old account as it was active and didn't have any verification or suspension issues. We successfully renamed the account and updated the contact and location information. The account has been verified, and we started filling it up and serving it. Everything was fine for about three weeks. Then, after minor updates (I believe it was a working hours update or the main cover photo), the account became marked as "visible only to managers".

I contacted support and had a mutual email exchange until they eventually said that the account is actually visible and recommended that I clear my browser cache (lol).

As of now, the "visible only for managers" disclaimer is still present when I log in as a manager. If searched by the brand name, the Google business profile does not appear at all. If I go straight to maps and search the brand name, it appears approximately 20th in the search results.

I believe that this type of semi-invisibility is worse than complete invisibility because it's not obvious, and Google continues to say that they don't have any issues on their end.

Any input is much appreciated.

 

[Phil Rozek]

@Timur, a few troubleshooting questions:

1. "Moving SAB" means in this case that your client runs a moving company, correct?

2. In the "new account" you didn't create a GMB page that's on Google Maps right now, correct?

3. Your client's GMB page hides the address and shows the service area, right?

4. Does this company have any other GMB pages in the area? If so, do those also have service areas (rather than street addresses) specified?

5. What kinds of locations did you add to the GMB "service area" field (e.g. a bunch of cities, or counties, or whole states)?

6. To what extent have you worked on the basic citations, to reflect what's GMB?

 

[Timur]

1. Correct

2. Yes, it doesn`t. But it did for 3 weeks consequentially after we re-established it

3. Right

4. It does not

5. One county in California. I did not update service areas since restarting the account

6. Regular stuff such as phone number, website, and online booking link. I am not sure if the business got listed anywhere. However, it has a pretty well-performing Yelp account with 81 5-star reviews

 

[Timur]

@Phil Rozek

 

[Phil Rozek]

@Timur, in that case, getting unstuck should be a matter of doing the basic citation work (#6), basic on-page work (to the extent it's not squared away), and simply waiting. You may want to log into the "owner" account and see whether that banner still shows up. It doesn't sound like anything is wrong on the GMB end. After running into a suspension or un-verification like that, Google keeps you in purgatory for at least a few days.

I do wonder what the name of the GMB page is, and whether it's generic enough that competitors outrank it for discovery searches and Google can't tell when someone's searching for it by name. That's another story, though.

Anyway, if the above doesn't work and you need to give it a jolt, I'd suggest showing the address at least temporarily, which of course will trigger re-verification by postcard. SABs run into some glitches that address-visible businesses just don't encounter.