Google Business Profile Suspended in Australia: How to Appeal

When Google suspends or disables a Business Profile, the way back runs through one place: Google’s appeals tool. The order you do things in matters, because the evidence step runs on a 60-minute timer and the documents have to be ready before it starts.

Each step below comes from Google’s own help pages, linked where they are used. Google decides the outcome, and nobody outside Google can promise a reinstatement.

How do I unsuspend my Google Business Profile?

You appeal through Google’s Business Profile appeals tool, signed in to the Google account that manages the profile. Fix whatever broke the guidelines first and have your evidence scanned and ready. Submit the appeal, then attach the evidence within 60 minutes. Google reviews it and emails the decision. Only Google can lift a suspension.

The seven steps are set out further down. Before you touch anything:

What a suspended profile looks like

Google describes a suspension by what stops working. Its help page on fixing suspended or disabled profiles lists what happens when it removes a profile.

The point about rejected content is from Google’s Business Profile policy overview, which says a suspended profile has to be reinstated before content can be added to it.

The appeals tool is where you find out for certain. Sign in, select the profile, and it shows the restricted profile, the reason for the action and a link to the policy, with one of five statuses: Submitted, Approved, Not approved, Can’t be appealed or Eligible for appeal.

Two things can look like a suspension and are not. A profile that was never verified is a different problem, and Google’s appeals page says to check the verification status before you appeal. The steps for that are in Google Business Profile verification. The same page says that if the tool reports there is nothing to appeal and you believe there is, you contact Google’s Business Profile support, who can confirm whether an appeal is open to you.

Why is my Google Business Profile being suspended?

Google suspends or disables a Business Profile that does not follow its Business Profile guidelines. For a trade business, the rules to check first cover the business name, the address, the service area, a second profile for the same business, and a phone number or website that redirects. The appeals tool shows the reason given for your profile.

An example of the first row, so it is clear what counts: “Your Name Plumbing” is a business name. “Your Name Plumbing Emergency Plumber Joondalup 24/7” is a business name with a service, a suburb and a tagline added to it.

Google’s policy overview names two more causes. If Google determines that a business does not exist at the location it claims, it disables the profile. And a pattern of breaking Business Profile policies can get the whole account restricted, which is the next section.

Suspended profile or restricted account?

Google uses two different terms, and they send you to two different places.

So with a restricted account the order is the account first, then the profile. Google’s help page gives myaccount.google.com/restrictions as the place to appeal for the account. Its policy overview says an account can be restricted when a merchant shows a pattern of breaking Business Profile policies.

The same overview covers a third case. If the Google account itself is disabled, suspended or deleted, that has to be fixed before you can get into the Business Profile at all.

It also matters whose account it is. Google says that if it removes an owner’s Google account, the locations that account owns are removed with it. If it removes a manager’s account, the manager is suspended and the locations are not affected. That is one reason the business should be the owner of its own profile.

How can I fix a suspended business profile?

Fix the profile before you appeal. Check the name, address, service area, phone number and website against Google’s guidelines and correct anything that breaks them. Then go through the appeals tool with your evidence ready. An appeal for a profile that still breaks a rule has nothing new to show Google.

Google’s help page on fixing suspended or disabled profiles sets out the process and links the appeals tool.

1. Fix the profile firstRead the guidelines against your own profile and correct anything in the table above.
2. Get the evidence readyScan or photograph each document so it is clear and complete. Do this before you go near the tool.
3. Open the appeals toolSign in with the Google account that manages the profile, or switch to it.
4. Select the profile and read the reasonThe tool shows the restricted profile, the reason and a link to the policy involved. If the reason points at something you have not fixed, stop and fix it.
5. Submit the appealThen open the evidence form and attach your documents.
6. Send the evidence within 60 minutesOnce the evidence form is open, it has to be submitted within 60 minutes or the evidence is not attached.
7. Wait for the emailGoogle reviews the appeal and emails a decision. Its appeals page says that can take up to five working days, and asks you not to submit a second appeal for the same issue while you wait.

If the appeal is denied, Google says it may be able to do an additional review, with evidence the first appeal did not include, through a form linked from the same help page.

One caution on the evidence step. Google’s appeals page says the evidence has to be submitted within 60 minutes of the appeal, and its page on fixing suspended profiles says an appeal can only be submitted once. Have every document scanned and ready before you open the appeals tool, and file one appeal with everything in it.

The evidence Google asks for

For an Australian trade, documents of this kind include the business name or ABN registration record and the trade licence issued in your state. If the name on a document is different from the name on the profile, sort that out before you appeal. The documents are there to show the profile is accurate.

If you work at the customer’s place

A plumber, electrician or painter who travels to jobs is what Google calls a service-area business. The guidelines treat it differently from a shop:

• It has one profile, for its central base, with a service area set on it.
• The address is hidden from customers.
• The service area should not run further than about two hours’ drive from the base.
• A virtual office is only acceptable if it is staffed during business hours.

Google currently allows up to 20 service areas on a profile, set by city, postcode or other area. A tradie with no shopfront is fully entitled to a profile. It only has to be set up as what it is. The Google Business Profile guide walks through the setup.

Where a service-area profile breaks the rules

These are the points in Google’s pages that are written for a business with no shopfront. Google names a suspension outright for the first two. The rest are guideline breaches, and Google says it may suspend or disable a profile that does not follow its guidelines.

• Suburbs or services in the business name. The guidelines say unnecessary information in the name is not permitted and could result in suspension.
• A PO box as the address. Google’s policy overview says a business that sets its address at a PO box will have its profile suspended.
• A home address left showing. If customers do not come to your address, Google’s service area page says to remove it and enter the service area only.
• A profile for each suburb or each service. The same page says a service-area business can have only one profile for the whole area it serves. Google’s page on duplicate profiles says a profile treated as a duplicate will not show on Search or Maps, and tells owners not to create a separate profile for each service.
• A rented address or a shared desk used as the location. A postal address the business rents and does not operate from, which Google calls a virtual office, is not eligible unless it is staffed during opening hours. An office in a co-working space needs clear signage, customers received there during opening hours, and your own staff on site during those hours.
• A service area drawn too wide. The limit in the guidelines is about two hours of driving time from where the business is based.

A change of address or business name is a different matter. Google’s page on editing a profile says that if you move to a new address after verification you must verify again, and that a name change after verification might mean verifying again. That is verification, and the route for it is in the verification guide. If the business relocates, the duplicates page says to update the existing profile with the new address and not to create a new one.

While you wait

A suspension does not touch the things you own. Use the time to check them.

• Your website still works. Make sure the phone number and service areas on it are right.
• Your other listings still work. Bing Places, Hotfrog and Localsearch should carry the same name and phone as the profile will when it returns.
• Keep a note of what you changed on the profile and when, in case Google asks or a second review is needed.

The other places a trade business gets found are laid out in marketing for tradies.

Keeping it from happening again

• Keep the name on the profile identical to the name on your registration, van and invoices.
• Keep the business as the owner of the profile. Anyone who helps with it is added as a manager.
• If someone else controls the profile, request access through Google. Do not start a second one.
• List the hours customers can really reach you. The guidelines ask for your regular customer-facing hours.
• File the documents you used in the appeal where you can find them again.