Google Will Have To Email GMB Account Owners Before Suspending Accounts

• A recent European law forced Google to change its practices regarding its policy on GMB suspensions. As a result of the new law, Google now is obligated to notify GMB account owners if their account has been suspended. 

• This is considered as a step in the right direction because until now, GMB account owners found out about their suspensions when they tried to sign into their GMC accounts. However, Google is still not obligated to explain the reasons behind the suspension which again doesn’t feel right to many businesses.  

Why doesn’t Google reveal the reasons behind the suspensions?

• Once a GMB account is suspended, they instruct the account owner whose account is suspended to carefully go through their guidelines. They believe that by doing so they can get to the bottom of things and figure out the reason for the suspension.

• When asked why they don’t reveal the exact reasons that lead to account suspension, they said that by doing so they will give a lot of ammo to potential spammers that will overflow Google Maps with fake listings. 

Types of suspension

• There are two types of GMB suspension: soft and hard suspension.
• If it is a soft suspension, the GMB account owner is blocked from updating the content, can’t create new posts, can’t respond to reviews, and so on.  
• If it is a hard suspension, the GMB account is completely removed from both Google Maps and search. 

Why is this so important?

• The pandemic drew many economies into one of the biggest recessions the world has seen. As a result, many businesses of almost all types are struggling to get by. A suspended GMB listing can result in additional losses that can potentially sink a business.   

• The new approach from Google might not be ideal, but it is a step in the right direction. If nothing else, business owners have at least some time to ask for reinstatement and resolve any potential issues before the account gets suspended.