Disclaimer

FedWed takes no responsibility for any changes you make to your Google Business profile as a result of this post or the video tutorial above. It is here simply as a guide if you wish to go ahead and change the settings to avoid the tactic being discussed. Whether you make any changes is entirely up to you.

Some SEO experts are attacking Google profiles which break a little known rule

We recently found out that within our industry, at least one SEO expert is encouraging people to report Google business pages which break a little known rule. That rule is that unless you have a ‘shop front’ for your business – a premises with a sign where you actually serve customers physically, you shouldn’t list your business with a fixed address and should use ‘service areas’ instead.

These experts are using this to get profiles deleted and therefore give themselves or their SEO clients a leg up in search results.

Nice huh?

Protect your Google Business page by changing two key settings

So you don’t fall victim to this underhand SEO tactic you just need to change two settings on your Google business page, if you’re currently showing an address on there and you don’t fulfil the Google rule which is: “If your business doesn’t have permanent on-site signage, it’s not eligible as a shopfront and should be listed as a service area business.”

First remove the address from your profile

1. Make sure you’re logged into Google then search for your business name.
2. In the business listing at the right hand side, click the “Edit your Business Information” link
3. Scroll down to Business Location and click the pencil icon to edit
4. Turn off your address

Second, add service areas to your profile

1. Click the pencil icon next to service areas (the next section after business location)
2. Add up to 20 areas within 2 hours drive of the base location of your business – you can add counties

Now your Google business listing is protected from being reported

That’s it, now you’re within the rules of the Google business profile and your profile can’t be reported or deleted by these dodgy SEO tacticians.

What to do if you find out your Google business profile has been disabled

If you get the email from Google saying that your business profile has been disabled, you will be given the opportunity by them to appeal but WAIT – because even though the knee-jerk reaction will be to appeal immediately, they’re going to want some evidence from you as part of the appeal and get this – THEY WILL ONLY GIVE YOU AN HOUR once you begin the appeal process so here’s a list of recommendations we’ve compiled from other people who this has happened to:

1. Don’t panic. This is normal procedure for Google and people have recovered their disabled pages in the past, so it’s possible.
2. Get all the evidence together BEFORE you begin your appeal. The evidence it’s being suggested you may need is:
   • HMRC statement
   • Business bank statement
   • Business insurance document
   • Government ID (passport or driving license)
   • Additionally you could make a pages/word document and add things like screenshots from your website, screenshots of your social media, screenshots of any other listings which show your location and export that as a PDF – Google will only allow you to upload 4 files apparently so collating stuff into PDF like this would help you
3. Make the change on your profile from address to service areas using the video tutorial above. If you’re struggling to find where to access and edit your profile you should find it by going to https://www.google.com/intl/en_uk/business/ and then clicking the ‘manage now’ button.
4. After making the changes and collating your evideence, then and only then start the appeals process – upload your evidence and detail as much as you can about your business in the appeal.
5. Wait impatiently. It takes 3 days for the appeal result apparently.

Additionally some are saying that it may be helpful to speak to someone at Google on their live chat BEFORE starting your appeal. Some are also saying that paying for Google Workspace will give you quicker access to support staff.

Either way if you’ve had the ‘your profile is disabled’ email we’re sorry this is happening to you and we hope you can get it sorted, we really do.