ReferenceBusiness Profile suspension
Suspended for a virtual office or unstaffed address
Google only allows a Business Profile address the business actually operates from, staffed during its hours. A rented mailing address, a virtual office, a P.O. box or a co-working desk without signage can get the profile suspended. Decide whether the business serves customers at an address or at their locations, change the profile to match, then send one appeal with documents.
At a glance
- Where it shows
- The Business Profile shows as suspended, and the appeals tool lists the decision with its reason and the policy it cites.
- What stops
- Depending on the decision, the profile may stop showing on Google Search and Maps, and owners and managers may be unable to edit it.
- How serious
- Serious for any business that gets calls from Maps. An appeal can be submitted once per decision.
What it means
Google's guidelines say a profile is for the business's actual, real-world location. A rented mailing address the business does not operate from, which Google calls a virtual office, is not eligible, and neither are P.O. boxes or mailboxes at remote locations.
An office in a co-working space can qualify, but only with clear signage, customers received there during business hours, and the business's own staff present. A business that serves customers at their homes or sites and has no such office should hide its address and show a service area instead.
What actually triggers it
A mailing address the business does not work from
Virtual office packages and mail-forwarding addresses look like real offices on paper. Google's rule is about whether the business operates there, not whether it receives mail there.
A co-working desk with no sign and no customers
Hot desks and shared memberships rarely meet all three conditions Google sets: permanent signage, customers received during hours, and the business's own staff there.
A home address shown by a business that travels to customers
Google says a service-area business should clear its address from the profile. Showing a home address as if it were a shopfront invites the same review, and publishes the address besides.
A P.O. box or a store mailbox
Suite-style mailbox numbers at a shipping store are still mailboxes at a remote location. Google lists them as not acceptable.
An office that closed or moved
Not on Google's help page
When a business leaves an office and keeps the old address on the profile, the address no longer meets the staffed-during-hours rule. It often goes unnoticed for months because nothing on the profile looks wrong to the owner.
Fix it in this order
- Check whether the Google Account itself is restricted. If it is, every profile it manages is suspended, and the account restriction has to be appealed and lifted first.
- Decide which kind of business this is. Customers come to a staffed address with signage: keep that address. The business goes to customers: clear the address and set the service area. Neither: there is no eligible address, and the profile has to become a service-area profile or wait until there is one.
- Make the change on the profile before appealing, so the appeal is judged on a profile that meets the guidelines.
- Gather documents where the business name and address match the profile exactly: a business registration, a business license, a tax certificate or a utility bill.
- Open Google's appeals tool, choose the profile and the decision, add a short explanation and the files, and submit.
Google emails the decision. If the appeal is turned down, an additional review is possible only with evidence that was not in the first one.
When to appeal
Appeals can be submitted once, so send it after the profile is fixed and the documents are in hand, not as a first reaction. An appeal for a virtual office address that has not changed is unlikely to succeed, because the address itself is the problem.
Do not create a new profile for the same business while the old one is suspended. Google says not to, and two profiles for one business is a separate violation.
Often confused with
A suspended Google Account
The restriction is on the sign-in, not the profile. Every profile that account manages shows as suspended until the account is cleared.
Dropped out of the map results
The profile is live but no longer shows for searches it used to. That is a ranking question, not a suspension, and the appeals tool will show nothing.