Uptick in suspensions occurring (not related to reinstatement response times)

[Jaimie S]

Hi All,

Is anyone else experiencing an unprecedented amount of GBP suspensions? I had 3 separate profiles suspend after doing a post on the account. Other accounts are suspending after making changes to business hours or main categories.

These are across 3 different countries and listings are managed by different Users (in different countries, different logins etc).

Its been about 1-2 weeks of this.

Is this the same for any other agencies?

Thanks ahead!

 

[JoyHawkins]

Google has just confirmed that the bug causing small edits to trigger suspensions should be resolved now.

 

[GBP-Rob]

When you make any edits to the following fields, name, category, address, phone, and website, the following will take place:
1. The edits will be accepted
2. The edits will go into pending review
3. The profile will need to be reverified again
4. The profile will get suspended.

Yes, that makes sense. But I have never seen the rate of suspensions and reverifications like it is now..
In my case, it does not matter what I do, even if I am 100% that the edit is following the guidelines laid out.

I have this week sorted about a thousand listings into different location groups, and I honestly thought this was happening because I had way to much "suspicious" activity on the account, but clearly that is not the case..

Imagine having two nearby towns listed as service area, you add a third that is just as close as the other ones, but you get suspended or have to re-verify...

 

[GBP-Rob]

Big YUP on this!

I have TONS of clients in queue for doing an update on their listing, and new profiles that are waiting to get set up, but EVERYTHING leads to suspensions and re-verifications. Going crazy here.

Tried reaching out to support, which said there were no technical issues on our agency account, but right now I tried remove a service area, and I now need to re-verify..

 

[keyserholiday]

I spoke with a buddy of mine who said he has seen a sharp increase in suspensions in the last 2 weeks. He said and I quote, "Google is acting like they won't be able to suspend anyone in October, so they are going buck wild in September."

 

[keyserholiday]

Yesterday I had to update the address for my client as they moved. We are awaiting the pin postcard. I advised him before hand that we could get suspended in the process.

 

[BenFisher]

A little bit, but we are still seeing suspension for tiny edits/verifications.

 

[BenFisher]

For the moment, I would hold off unless critical, this bug is really nasty and random too. They are aware and a fix is coming "soon"

 

[Marcin Karwowski]

who wants to be the first to risk it? LOL

I have been risking it since this week and I confirm that it is better

 

[Marcin Karwowski]

How safe is it to make minor changes now, like adding UTM tracking?

Yes. Google has announced that it has improved this and from my observations, the time of groundless suspensions is over.

 

[keyserholiday]

Changing categories can trigger a suspension. I know that Google was suspended business profiles for updating the hours and that was a bug and shouldn't be happening. Getting suspended for creating a post is not normal and sounds like a bug.

 

[keyserholiday]

When you make any edits to the following fields, name, category, address, phone, and website, the following will take place:
1. The edits will be accepted
2. The edits will go into pending review
3. The profile will need to be reverified again
4. The profile will get suspended.

 

[Marcin Karwowski]

Google doesn't want you to edit the business profiles once it's verified. You need to ask, do I really need to make this edit to enhance the business profile? Adding service areas doesn't impact rankings, so if you are not ranking in that area, it won't benefit you by adding it. Yes, there is a major backlog on reinstatements. They are averaging 22 days and if there is an uptick in suspensions, they delay can increase. The worst was 6 weeks to hear back.

Agree, it is now taking a long time to restore. But I didn't just mean editing the profile. Literally every action causes its suspension. A correct profile is assumed, not violating any regulations (I know all the regulations by heart) and immediately after verification, the profile is suspended. And so 100% of the time.

 

[GBP-Rob]

In my case, I am on the first year working with this portfolio, and there tons of listings that have information that breaks Googles guidelines, so I am trying to correct this.. A lot of listings with their address visible when the shouldn't, but when I try to correct it.. suspended..

It's just weird, and doesn't make sense.

But also regarding BRAND NEW listings, they get suspended when I try to add i.e a business description after creating it, as I don't add it right away when creating it.. Maybe I should though..

I don't know how to proceed from here.. Just stay away from info, even though I KNOW it breaks guidelines? I even tried to remove the opening hours as it was a SAB with appointment only.. suspended, hehe..

It's weird that no one has any real info on this, because it has been a MAJOR change in the sensitivity of edits..

 

[Jaimie S]

That's just it, you didn't set up the entire profile prior to verifying it. You made edits after the fact and Google choose to suspend the business profile or require a new verification. Set up the business profile entirely and then get it verified.

Hi Keyser - appreciate all this information.

We have this for established listings, that just have an update to their opening hours, then that listing is getting suspended. It is also in some instances triggering account level suspension just after updates to

Agree, it is now taking a long time to restore. But I didn't just mean editing the profile. Literally every action causes its suspension. A correct profile is assumed, not violating any regulations (I know all the regulations by heart) and immediately after verification, the profile is suspended. And so 100% of the time.

Yep this is exactly what is happening to us!

 

[JS Girard]

Am I the only one who thinks such an uptick is normal for a Core update? Historically, at least at our agency, we notice a wave of suspension and profile-is-now-a-duplicate cases with each Core updates.

Ironically enough, we actually have seen a lot less of that nonsense (I went through our accounts just yesterday) than during the May Core Update, so I'm with SEMrush's Analysis that this is tamer than average (personally my opinion is that this particular update was not planned for this timing, but I have no idea what triggered Google to make it so abruptly.)

 

[keyserholiday]

Am I the only one who thinks such an uptick is normal for a Core update? Historically, at least at our agency, we notice a wave of suspension and profile-is-now-a-duplicate cases with each Core updates.

Ironically enough, we actually have seen a lot less of that nonsense (I went through our accounts just yesterday) than during the May Core Update, so I'm with SEMrush's Analysis that this is tamer than average (personally my opinion is that this particular update was not planned for this timing, but I have no idea what triggered Google to make it so abruptly.)

Core updates have nothing to do with GBP suspensions. All of the teams are completely siloed and don't communicate or work with each other.

 

[sarmcl]

I just had my companies GMB listing disabled. I hadn't touched it in 3 weeks since replying to customer review. I use to have a physical location but removed it and added service areas well over a year ago so I thought that was it. But I came to LSF and found that I am not alone.

Although, none of my clients pages have been suspended or disabled.

It just sucks an unnecessary. Now our agency has to go pull documentation to get reinstated. And then theres the at least 3 week wait. Google is playing with peoples jobs here and its not a good feeling

 

[Jonathan Sousa]

I noticed a change on the Help Center Suspended Profile Fixes page.

Now Google is saying that it will inform the user about what is wrong with the profile on some cases (apparently those where there is no abuse).

There are changes taking place and along with them the algorithm seems to be going crazy.

In collaboration with the thread, I took a suspension yesterday just for changing a client's coverage area.

 

[Rosa]

I've got a listing that has been suspended right after verifying it with a code via postcard. This is so frustrating.