ReferenceBusiness Profile suspension
Ineligible: no in-person contact during stated hours
To qualify for a Business Profile, a business must make in-person contact with customers during its stated hours. A business that serves customers only by phone or online, while its listed hours describe an office nobody staffs, fails that test. Compare the hours on the profile with when customers actually meet staff in person, then change the hours or the setup to match.
At a glance
- Where it shows
- In the profile's suspension decision, as an eligibility question.
- What stops
- The profile's eligibility is in question, so it can be suspended until the business meets the rule.
- How serious
- Serious. Google's guidelines make in-person contact during stated hours a condition of qualifying.
What it means
Google's eligibility guidelines say a business must make in-person contact with customers during its stated hours to qualify for a Business Profile. The condition is about contact that happens in person, during the hours the profile lists.
The test is not about having a website or an office. A real business can still fail it when the hours on the profile describe a time when no customer is met in person.
What actually triggers it
Hours listed for an office that nobody staffs
The profile shows weekday hours, but the office is empty, or only a phone line is answered. The hours are the claim the guidelines test against what happens.
Service by phone or online only
The business books and serves customers without meeting anyone in person during the listed hours, but the profile still shows the hours as open.
Listed hours wider than the real schedule
The profile shows open hours on days or times when no one meets customers in person, such as seven-day hours for a business that receives customers on weekdays only. The guideline tests contact during the stated hours, so the extra hours are the gap.
Fix it in this order
- Write down when staff actually meet customers in person: the days, the times, and where.
- Compare that schedule with the hours on the profile. Any listed hours when no one meets a customer in person are the gap.
- If the schedule matches the profile, look for other problems on the profile, such as an unsuitable address. If it does not match, change the hours to the times the business really meets customers in person.
- If the business does not meet customers in person at any time, it does not qualify for a profile. Reach its customers through the website and its ad accounts instead.
Google's guidelines don't say how long a review takes after the hours are corrected, so keep the schedule on file in case the review asks for it.
When to appeal
An appeal is sound when the listed hours match real in-person contact and the profile shows that. Send the schedule with it.
An appeal with hours that do not match the real schedule puts a false statement in front of the reviewer. Correct the hours first.
Often confused with
Ineligible: online-only business
Online-only is a type of business, decided by what it is. This page is about the hours a business that has a place still has to show. A business can be online-only and fail this test too, but the fix starts with deciding what the business is.
Suspended for a virtual office or unstaffed address
That reason is about the address: a place the business rents but does not operate from. This one is about the hours: whether anyone meets a customer in person during the times the profile shows, even at an address the business does use.