Loss of Reviews for Duplicate/Suspension 'Mess'?

[Jannell Howell]

Hi there,

I'm trying to help a client clean-up duplicate practice Google Business Profiles, but have run into a mess involving both duplicates and suspension.

First, we claimed and verified a practice listing for a client via the postcard method.
Shortly after verifying the listing, the client proceeded with a business name change.
Google suspended the listing - we think that the suspension occurred due to the combination of name change and adding/removing users at the same time.
Plus, we discovered that there was an old/unclaimed listing, with a different, but similar business name in existence.

The suspended listing has 65 reviews and I don't want to lose them.
- Should I remove the suspended listing from our account? ... I'm worried that we'll lose the 65 reviews forever.
- Should I claim the old/active listing into the same account? ... I'm worried that the listing will also get suspended.

I'm not sure how to proceed. Any guidance is appreciated.

 

[ElizabethRule]

Don't remove the suspended listing from your account, then you'll lose your ability to contact google support and get help for it.

Is the listing still visible on Maps? If so this is a soft suspension which is good, it means you basically just lost the ability to manage the listing and you may be able to get it back. The only way to get a listing reinstated is to fill in the reinstatement form. I would fix the name and maybe remove any users that were added right before the listing got suspended before submitting the form.

Is the old/unclaimed listing a duplicate of your current listing (same address, phone number, URL etc)? If so, you can suggest an edit that it does not exist/is a duplicate and that might take care of it.

 

[keyserholiday]

You need to apply for reinstatement on the suspended business profile and cross your fingers that the edits didn't lead to an account level suspension or will prevent the business profile from being able to be reinstated. Don't delete the suspended profile ever. In the off chance that it can't be reinstated and you need to create a new profile, you can merge the reviews from the old profile to the new one.

 

[Jannell Howell]

Thank you both for your insight. Do you know of a way to check if there's account level suspension?