Google has suspended your Business Profile.

The short answer

If you've had a notice saying your Business Profile has been suspended, Google believes the profile doesn't meet its guidelines. It's almost always something specific: a name with extra words, an address that can't be verified or a change that triggered a review. The profile isn't lost. You fix what's wrong and ask Google to review it through its appeals tool, with evidence that the business is real. It pays to get it right first time. Google says each appeal can only be submitted once. If it's rejected, what's left is to request another review with new evidence.

Why Google suspends a profile

• The name has extra words. "Smith Plumbing 24hr Emergency Plumber Manchester" instead of the real name. The guidelines ask for the name as it appears on your signage, your website and your paperwork.
• The address doesn't add up. A virtual office, a PO box or an address shown on the map when you don't see customers there. If you work at your customers' premises, the address is hidden and you set the area you serve instead.
• A change that triggers a review. Changing the name, address or category makes Google look at the profile again. If after the change it no longer matches everything else, Google suspends it.
• Duplicate profiles. Two profiles for the same business, sometimes one set up years ago by someone else.
• The account is restricted. If the Google account that manages the profile has a restriction, Google suspends every profile it manages.

What you can check yourself

• Sign in to your Business Profile with the Google account that manages it and read the whole notice. It tells you whether it's the profile that is suspended or the account that is restricted. They aren't fixed the same way.
• Read Google's guidelines for representing your business and compare them with your profile: name, address, category and phone number.
• Gather evidence that the business exists under that name and at that address: business registration, a licence, a tax certificate or a utility or phone bill. The name and address have to match the ones on the profile.
• Check that your website shows the same name, phone number and address as the profile. Audit your website in 20 seconds on the home page to see how Google reads it.

What not to do

• Don't create a new profile. Google marks it as important in its help: "Do not create a new Business Profile for the same business." A new profile doesn't fix the suspended one and can complicate its appeal.
• Don't rush the appeal. First fix what's wrong and gather the evidence. Then appeal once and wait for the reply, without sending more appeals for the same thing.
• Don't change any other details while you wait. Every change can trigger another review.
• Don't pay anyone who promises to get it back. Some people charge to "recover profiles in 24 hours" or claim to have contacts at Google. Google decides the appeal and nobody outside Google can speed it up. What someone can do for you is put the profile right and prepare the appeal with solid evidence.

How to get it reinstated

Google explains how to fix suspended Business Profiles on its help page Fix suspended or disabled profiles. How to submit an appeal is in its help on appeals. In short:

• If the account is restricted, appeal the account restriction first. Then the profile suspension.
• Fix whatever on the profile doesn't meet the guidelines.
• In the appeals tool, choose the profile and the decision, attach the evidence and explain why the profile should be reinstated.
• Google replies by email. If the appeal is rejected, you can request another review with evidence you didn't send the first time.

When to call someone in

If you don't know which guideline the profile breaks, if your appeal has already been rejected or if several profiles and accounts are mixed up, it pays to have someone who knows the guidelines take a look. A well-prepared appeal saves a lot of back and forth with Google.

While the profile is suspended

The phone stops ringing because people looking for you on Google Maps can't see you any more. What still works is your website, if Google knows about it. That's why it should load properly and say clearly who you are, what you do and where. See why a website gets no traffic. And once the profile is back, what puts it ahead is in why a business doesn't show up on Google Maps.

If you'd rather not wrestle with this

Appeals come with hidden forms, evidence that has to match down to the last detail and a single chance per decision. If you'd rather not lose afternoons to it, tell me your business name, what the notice says and when it arrived. I'll look at the profile, tell you what's wrong and prepare the appeal with you, with a fixed price before I start. What I can't do is decide for Google or promise when it will reply. I work remotely, in English, with businesses outside Spain. I don't compete on price. I compete on quality and speed.

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