Why Did Moving GBP to a SAB to Lift Suspension Result in Zero Rankings? Is it a Bug?

[SSMMatt]

Hi,
A landscaping client got suspended after a small change to a category. To get reinstated, I fixed a few things, including hiding the address as it was his home and should have been listed as a SAB. It's been several weeks now and they're not coming up in ANY rankings at all. I can access the profile and it doesn't say "Your business is not available or visible" or anything like that. And, they are in a relatively small area that he should at least be showing up somewhere in the rankings.

Any advice? Is this "bug" related.
Matt

 

[JS Girard]

It may be the "some SABs stop ranking" bug I and others have noticed recently. @JoyHawkins has a post here demonstrating it.

 

[JoyHawkins]

Usually, they don't rank for 2 weeks. Has it been longer than 2 weeks?

Did anything else weird happen like missing reviews etc? Does the listing look identical other than the hidden address?

 

[SSMMatt]

Hi Joy,
We got the notice from Google that they were reinstated on June 24 and that it would take a few days for the profile to show. A few days later the profile was visible...since then no rankings. So more than 2 weeks.

No missing reviews. The categories were modified, but that's what triggered the suspension in the first place.
We just reduced the number of categories.

There is now a suggestion from Google to add another category.

Matt

 

[JoyHawkins]

So this definitely isn't normal then. I have seen some seriously screwed up ranking issues with SABs lately (see ) so it might be worth trying to add the address back to the listing. Disclaimer - this could definitely suspend the listing again but honestly I can't think of any other action item that would be faster to restore rankings.

 

[SSMMatt]

So we've added back in the address and it triggered video verification.

Is the video verification the same for when the address is showing and or it's being hidden? I'm just wondering if having to reverify would be enough to shake up the profile if it were a SAB vs. storefront. I don't care if we are shown as the top listing, I just want us to be shown in listings again

 

[JoyHawkins]

Ugh, that's what I was afraid of. You probably won't be able to get it verified as a storefront (with the address showing) unless they actually have signage at your location. So you'd need to verify it again as a service area listing. If it still doesn't rank after that, it's likely a technical issue and you'd need to tell support about it.

 

[SSMMatt]

Thanks, Joy. That's what I was thinking. No need to get suspended again by adding in the address once again. I'm hopeful the re-verification does something. Google really makes things stressful!

 

[JoyHawkins]

Let me know what happens. I have a place where we are tracking this bug that I could add this example to.

 

[SSMMatt]

Will absolutely let you know. Thank you and God bless!

 

[SSMMatt]

Ok, so we were able to get the GBP verified as SAB on Thursday last week. This got the profile out of that weird limbo state and now showing again in the business search results. They are ranking between 14-20 for some key terms with mobile being slightly higher than desktop. Phew! I expect they climb a little more before hitting the ceiling because of a lack of reviews. Thanks for the assistance!