Reverification After Name/Service Area Updates, No Verification Methods

[kchambers]

I have a client whose previously verified GBP went into needing re-verification. You can still find the GBP in search, reviews are still there, but all the photos have been removed.

It appears that the re-verification was triggered after making updates to the business name and service areas although I've done similar updates to this clients' other GBP listings and those updates didn't trigger re-verification.

Upon trying to reverify, Google is telling me that there are "No more ways to verify". I haven't tried reaching out to Google support via email yet but their support flows send me to the "Check verification status" screen where I got the following message - Your postcard delivery might be delayed. To check the status of your delivery, you can ask a Google support specialist. To continue with verification, you must provide storefront photos to our Google support specialist. Before connecting with them, have those photos ready - It's just unclear to me if this is a dated message from the previous round of verification.

So was wondering if anyone else has experienced these roadblocks and what action was taken to get re-verified

Edit - And the updates to the business name were not too extensive. We tacked on the business location/city at the end of the name for testing purposes.

 

[Colan Nielsen]

There are so many merchants complaining if this same issue at the GBP Forum. If you can't get help via GBP support I would suggest heading over there to create a post asking for assistance.

 

[kchambers]

There are so many merchants complaining if this same issue at the GBP Forum. If you can't get help via GBP support I would suggest heading over there to create a post asking for assistance.

Gotcha, thank you Colan! Yeah I'll try support first and then the GBP Forum. Hopefully this can get amended.

 

[djcoppedge]

I had a very similar issue happen a few weeks ago. I think the only thing updated was service areas, and the listing that had been verified for quite some time was now unverified. Would still show in local finder, but without images. They also lost visibility in the local pack, which was a surprise.

The owner tried to do a video verification, but kept encountering technical issues with his iPhone.

I opened a support case and they enabled a new option - "live chat". It was pretty straight forward, and the first time I had needed to use that route. After waiting in a queue for about 10 mins or so, a live video chat was started using Google Meet on my phone. The support person had me show them the following:

• The inside of the home office
• business cards (which he doesn't have)
• business license (pulled up on his computer)
• logging into an invoicing system and opening an invoice with his business information
• his vehicle - license plate, front, and side of car
• him getting into his vehicle and starting the vehicle (while showing the dashboard)

I thought the vehicle part was odd. They didn't have me film the outside of his residence to show the address or street signs, which I thought was odd. They also didnt have me film his "tools of the trade" or have him unlock his residence/office.

It was a quite different process than the typical video verification.

Interestingly, once his profile became unverified, he also lost rankings in local packs and google maps a few days later. Once we got reverified, a few days later I've seen ranking rebound (but we also did a number of GBP optimizations as soon as we were verified again).

Hope that helps.

 

[djcoppedge]

I have a client whose previously verified GBP went into needing re-verification. You can still find the GBP in search, reviews are still there, but all the photos have been removed.

It appears that the re-verification was triggered after making updates to the business name and service areas although I've done similar updates to this clients' other GBP listings and those updates didn't trigger re-verification.

Upon trying to reverify, Google is telling me that there are "No more ways to verify". I haven't tried reaching out to Google support via email yet but their support flows send me to the "Check verification status" screen where I got the following message - Your postcard delivery might be delayed. To check the status of your delivery, you can ask a Google support specialist. To continue with verification, you must provide storefront photos to our Google support specialist. Before connecting with them, have those photos ready - It's just unclear to me if this is a dated message from the previous round of verification.

So was wondering if anyone else has experienced these roadblocks and what action was taken to get re-verified

Edit - And the updates to the business name were not too extensive. We tacked on the business location/city at the end of the name for testing purposes.

Oh - and adding the city to the business name is against Google Guidelines so that's probably why it triggered reverification. You'll need to remove that to get reverified if it doesn't match their official business name.

 

[kchambers]

I had a very similar issue happen a few weeks ago. I think the only thing updated was service areas, and the listing that had been verified for quite some time was now unverified. Would still show in local finder, but without images. They also lost visibility in the local pack, which was a surprise.

The owner tried to do a video verification, but kept encountering technical issues with his iPhone.

I opened a support case and they enabled a new option - "live chat". It was pretty straight forward, and the first time I had needed to use that route. After waiting in a queue for about 10 mins or so, a live video chat was started using Google Meet on my phone. The support person had me show them the following:

• The inside of the home office
• business cards (which he doesn't have)
• business license (pulled up on his computer)
• logging into an invoicing system and opening an invoice with his business information
• his vehicle - license plate, front, and side of car
• him getting into his vehicle and starting the vehicle (while showing the dashboard)

I thought the vehicle part was odd. They didn't have me film the outside of his residence to show the address or street signs, which I thought was odd. They also didnt have me film his "tools of the trade" or have him unlock his residence/office.

It was a quite different process than the typical video verification.

Interestingly, once his profile became unverified, he also lost rankings in local packs and google maps a few days later. Once we got reverified, a few days later I've seen ranking rebound (but we also did a number of GBP optimizations as soon as we were verified again).

Hope that helps.

Interesting, this is super helpful!! How did you go about submit a support case? Did you do on the GBP Forum? The reason I ask as I tried reaching out to support via this URL - Sign in - Google Accounts - but got met with a response that they couldn't understand the issue well enough to help me. So was wondering your process of submitting the case.