Why Do I Have to Keep Reverifying My Google Business Profile?

Do you keep getting that dreaded email from Google saying that your Google Business Profile has been suspended or disabled?

You verify it, and it’s good for a short time, and then you get that email AGAIN?

Ugh, it’s so FRUSTRATING! And COSTLY!

Google is verifying your profile in the first place, so it’s (mostly) safe to assume it meets the requirements.

But something in Google’s system is tripping that fine line between being verified and being suspended.

To fix this we need to build Google’s trust in your profile.

How do you do that?

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Build Your Google Business Profile’s Trustworthiness with Google

Let’s Start with Edits – Be Gentle!

If your profile has been recently verified or reverified, don’t make any edits for the first two weeks.

During that first two weeks, it’s okay to get reviews. It’s okay if those reviews include photos.

But as an owner or manager, just leave the darn thing alone for a little while. It’s more fragile in those first two weeks. Let it age to build some trust with Google.

After two weeks, keep your edits gentle. A change or two a week. Don’t go in at any point and make a bunch of edits all at once. Add a couple of pictures each week. Update hours. Do make regular edits, just not all at once.

Be aware that changes to the name, the address, categories, and sometimes the phone number, often trigger the need to reverify. If you are editing any of those, just be prepared to reverify.

Edits aren’t the only reason for that suspension trigger to be tripped, but being gentle with edits will help build Google’s trust in your management.

Owners and Managers

Google accounts listed as owners or managers of your profile can affect your profile’s status.

Let’s say that someone listed as an owner or manager of your profile does something that Google thinks might be spammy or abusive. It might even be something not at all spammy – like a review placed on another profile that Google is suspicious of for some reason.

That can cause your profile to be suspended.

Keep the number of accounts listed as owners/managers to a very small number. Just yours if you can, or yours and a trusted expert as a manager.

In fact, I would go as far as to recommend you make a Google account for the sole purpose of owning 1) your profile and 2) your site in your Google Search Console. Don’t use that account for writing reviews, suggesting edits, or even sending Gmail. Keep it super clean.

Become a Verified Owner of Your Website

Register and verify your website in the Google Search Console using the same Google account that is the primary owner of your Google Business Profile.

By doing this you are confirming that you are the owner of both the profile and the website. The more Google can connect the dots, the more it will trust your account.

Citations

Citations are a critical trust signal.

Citations are online references to your business and website. If you have none, your profile is not as trusted. If you have many, especially from sites that Google trusts, your profile will be substantially more trustworthy.

So how do you get citations?

Joining professional organizations related to your industry is one potential source. If you are in the US, BBB accreditation is a big trust signal.

Local references to your business, like a local Chamber of Commerce profile, local press mentions, local awards, all help Google put more trust in your business profile (which also helps with rankings).

As you build your citations, be very consistent with your business Name, Address and Phone number (NAP). If you have moved or changed phone numbers in the past, search for those (this is called a NAP audit) and ask the sites hosting those profiles to update them.

Here are some links to help you get started on building citations:

Apple Maps, LinkedIn Company Page, Facebook, Yahoo! Local, Yelp, Bing Places, Foursquare, Better Business Bureau, Map Quest, Yellow Pages, Manta, Tomtom, NextDoor, Merchant Circle, JustLanded, Angi (AngiesList), ELocalStoreBoard, BrownBook, ChamberOfCommerce, Neustar Localeze

Do use your judgement as you build citations. Not all of the links above may apply to your business. Some may have more hoops than you want to jump through. Some may have costs, and some might not respond. Building citations is a bit of a pain, but very worth doing to make your profile more powerful (and rank higher)!

High-Risk Categories

Be aware that there are some business categories that are at a higher risk of suspensions than other categories.

These are categories that are often targeted by scammers and spammers, and tend to be categories that are ‘duress’ categories. Categories that consumers contact when under duress and perhaps not taking the time to research and make a sound decision before paying for something.

If you in a high risk category and your profile is an important part of your marketing, it’s really important to build Google’s trust in your profile.

That’s a wrap!

What we are doing with all of this is building trust, the end goal is to make your profile unimpeachable.