Service Based Business... Slapped for not hiding address

[Andrew Polanski]

Hey everyone,

Have a client/friend of mine that was slapped (or penalized) by Google for not hiding their address. I've filled out the forms saying my listing no longer appears, and actually got a response back from a real person (not a canned response, WOAH) and they said that since his address was not hidden, they penalized the page. I responded that my client is now following the guidelines and to please activate the page again. They responded that they are working on it but have no timeframe for when this will be done. It's been well over 2 months now.

Am I just stuck playing the waiting game or did anyone find some super-sneaky way to get the page back online without having to wait? Google saying "no timeframe" means NEVER to me.

Thanks for the input and suggestions!

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hi Andrew,

Sorry to say I don't have good news. I've worked with TONS of businesses on the G forum that got whacked and have not heard of anyone that's figured out a way to get back up. Even back when G was giving the BAD advice to delete and start over, I don't know of anyone that did it successfully. It's like the entire location is blacklisted and new listings just can't even go live.

I'm not so sure fixing the problem after all this time is very high on the priority list and I'm still very upset at the way this all happened and the way it was handled. People don't even know the half of it.

Really wish I had some good news. I've been pretty invested in staying on top of this and have talked to Google management about it multiple times. Pretty sure if there was any good news, I would have heard of it. I mean don't give up hope, but I don't think there is a current solution.