FAQ

Google My Business is a free tool that helps small businesses create and manage their Google listings, which appear when customers find businesses on Google search and maps. Google My Business (GMB) helps you become more visible to people searching for your products or services. GMB allows your business to appear in maps and local pack listings. It also provides useful insights that give you helpful information. For better location-based rankings, we need to optimize your GMB.

We need access to your GMB profile to work on optimization. Here is a step by step guide to give us access with our email account (ask us and we’ll tell you which account that is):

Step 1: Visit this URL and log in to the Google account associated with your listing:

https://www.google.com/business/

Step 2: Click on the hamburger menu icon (☰) in the top left corner of the screen.

Step 3: Select Manage Users from the menu.

Step 4: Click the Add User icon at the top right of the pop-up screen.

Step 5: Enter our email address and under “Choose a role,” select Manager. Then click the INVITE.

Step 6: Once you see the “Manage permissions” screen, click the DONE link.

Step 7: Success! This will allow us to manage your Google My Business listing. Note that you can revoke this access at any time.

What is Google My Business? GMB is a free tool that lets you manage how your business appears on Google Search and Maps. That includes adding your business name, location, and hours; monitoring and replying to customer reviews; adding photos; learning where and how people are searching for you, and more.

GMB listings allow your business information to appear before the first search result when potential customers are searching for your products or services within a certain area. When used correctly GMB is a powerful tool for driving customers your way & dominating the first page of a Google search.

Seeing results with SEO usually takes from 6 months up to one full year (even for experienced SEOs). But it can also take longer, because it depends on very many factors. Of course, it can also take less. There are very many high quality websites there that are poorly optimized for search. According to multiple sources, the average time for websites to rank on Google through optimization (SEO) techniques is about three to six months. That’s right – jumping to the front of Google’s results usually takes between 90-180 days, depending on the competitiveness of your industry and popularity of your keywords.

Make sure you’re using the same email address for both the GMB and the Google Ads accounts. Once you’ve signed into Google Ads, navigate over to Ad Extensions. From the drop-down menu, select Location extensions. Next, select your Google My Business account and double check your location to see if everything is okay.

Google shows that by adding a virtual tour to a GMB, businesses see an average of 85% increase in their online booking. The hypothesis is that you are helping your visitors better understand your store by showing the global ambiance through yourvirtual tour

A GMB suspension means that your Google My Business listing will not be allowed to show up with your competitors when someone searches for a relevant search for your business, including your business name. This would mean a loss of leads, website clicks, and potentially having your reviews removed forever.

Google does not proactively alert you when your business has been suspended. You have to actively and frequently monitor your Google My Business profile to discover when it has been suspended. Google also reserves the right to and does change their criteria for their products on a regular basis.

TYPES OF GMB SUSPENSIONS

Not all GMB suspensions are created equal, and there are a few terms you should get to know:

• Soft suspensions vs. hard suspensions
• Listing suspensions vs. account suspensions

SOFT SUSPENSION VS. HARD SUSPENSION

Soft Suspension: In a soft suspension your business has really just become unverified. You’re able to log in to your GMB listing and you see a “suspended” label but your listing still shows up on Google and Google Maps. What’s happened is they’ve removed your ability to manage the listing, but the listing itself remains intact.

Hard Suspension: You’ve really gotten yourself into trouble here. In a hard suspension, your entire listing has been removed from Google. When you pull up the record for it, it will say “removed.” Your only option is to ask Google to reinstate it.

Google has separate suspensions based on the issue—listing suspension and account suspensions.

Listing Suspension: The public can’t access the listing anymore. The owner and managers can’t take actions on its behalf, though they can still make edits and appeal to be reinstated. If the listing is reinstated, Google will also reinstate the owner and managers.

Account Suspension: If they remove the owner’s Google Account: They’ll also remove all of the listings owned by that user. If they reinstate the owner’s Google Account, they’ll also reinstate the listings. If they remove a manager’s Google Account: They’ll suspend the manager on the listings they manage, but the listings themselves will be unaffected. If they reinstate the manager’s Google Account, the manager will automatically regain managerial access to the listings.

We recently had a case where one of our client’s accounts was suspended, and it turned out the cause was that one of the listing managers—an employee of their previous marketing agency—had violated the guidelines. Once we removed that person’s access to the listing, the listing was reinstated.

We’ll get into common causes of a suspension a little further down, but there’s really one reason Google suspends listings: Google wants searchers to get the absolute best search results. Trust plays a huge role in that, so Google wants searchers to have the most up-to-date, accurate information.

Common Causes of a Suspended GMB Listing

Local SEO is all about making sure you show up for local searches that include map listings. In order for that to happen, your GMB listing needs to be 100% accurate and trustworthy. Most of the causes of suspended listings have to do with this local consistency. Below are the most common reasons a listing gets suspended:

• Another business shares your address or has the same address
• The address on your website is different than the one on your business listings
• The address, name, or phone number on your directory listings, like Yelp, do not match the address on your GMB page
• Any part of your address, primary categories, business name, website, or phone number has recently changed
• You’ve added extra keywords into your business name
• Your business name isn’t accurate across the web
• You’re a service-area business that didn’t disable your physical address
• Your address is virtual or a P.O. box
• Your business doesn’t make in-person contact with customers (like an online shop)
• Your primary category is a high-risk industry that has a higher level of scrutiny:
  • Locksmiths
  • HVAC/heating and cooling
  • Plumbing
  • Other home services businesses
• Your website listed has a forwarding URL
• There are multiple listings for the same business or location
• There are multiple businesses claiming to be at your address

 Yes, but if your business displays a physical location there must be prominent signage outside the home demonstrating that a business is located at the address and your business license must reference the address used for the Google My Business profile.

What constitutes signage? It must be highly visible and permanent – not something that can easily be removed. The signage must include your business name/logo.