In the last weeks, a high level of Google My Business (now renamed Google Business Profile) has been suspended and removed from the Google local search results. As a result, Google has received an influx of complaints from business owners. Google’s engineers and support team are still working to resolve this issue. Other users have reported various problems with their Google My Business, which seem to be common issues in the community. While waiting for Google, see if any of the issues below apply to your profile and how you can solve them yourself.

1. Reinstatement Loops:

 When profiles are suspended after reinstatement and unable to be reinstated, this is known as the “reinstatement loop”. This usually occurs when the business has listed its address as a FedEx or UPS drop-off point. Other reasons this can happen are if competitors report a profile if there have been unknown or known violations of guidelines and keyword stuffing.

This issue can be resolved by getting in touch with the Google My Business support team to understand which exact issue applies to you, and from there, you can solve the issue. If the issue persists for whatever reason, you can escalate the problem to the community by reporting it.

2. Service Establishment Category

 Service area businesses (SABs) which are used by companies or individuals, appear as ‘service establishments’ on Google Maps. An issue is that service establishments do not appear as a category for you to select for your profile. Users are reporting that this is affecting their visibility on Google as SABs. Instead of showing up in and around their business address, they are listed in another nearby area.

At the moment, Google has announced that they are trying to resolve this issue, but in the meantime, unfortunately, visibility reports are low until the Google team corrects this. Keep in mind that Google is, however, aware of service establishments.

3. Real Reviews Are Not Showing

We all know that reviews are a vital part of every business. These days, it is one of the most powerful marketing tools available. So what happens when your crucial marketing tool is not visible on your profile? Those who left you the reviews can see them, the public, however, cannot. Google has always had a framework that rejects reviews that violate its guidelines, such as ‘fake reviews’, but when your real reviews are not showing, this is a problem that you need to rectify immediately.

The best thing to do in this situation is to obtain a screenshot from a person who reviewed your Google My Business profile and report it to the community forum. Again, Google is aware of this problem, rest assured, you are not the only one.

*Google reserves the right to remove your Google reviews if they contain restricted content. Google reserves the right to use its judgment when deciding whether to remove or reinstate a review. Google Restricted Content

4. Drop in Support Assistance Due to Covid-19

 Covid-19 has impacted the entire world, and not even Google is immune to its devastating effects. As the support teams are made up of a limited amount of staff, there is a significant delay compared to pre-pandemic times. Google has announced that they are “currently working with limited support teams”. They have acknowledged that there will be longer wait times to connect with support assistance.


So, expect delays. It may take time, but the Google support team will get back to you. After that, it’s just going to take a little more patience.

5. Editing Phone Numbers in India

 What was initially believed to be a bug turned out to be done deliberately by Google. For months, Indian users could not edit their phone numbers on their GMB listings. Google had done this to ensure that in India and other regions, the numbers being displayed on Google were correct.

Google has announced that they have updated the workflow for Indian users and that a new process prompts business profiles to adapt to the new procedure. Additional documents must be uploaded for the manual change when they need to edit their business phone number.

6. The Notification Bugs

You may be one of the business profiles encountering notifications from Google advising that your profile is only 85% complete or a prompt to add a logo. Again, this is a bug that Google has been working on since 2021.

Your best option is to ignore the notification and make sure you check your profile to see whether or not these messages from Google apply to your profile.

7. Unable to Delete Addresses for SABs

Service area businesses have been reintegrated, with old suspended company profiles being reinstalled. During this reinstallation, the old business addresses are back on display.

Do not be alarmed if this happens to you. Unfortunately, there is no solution to this issue, but Google is aware of the glitch.

While the profile suspensions and the current issues are all very troubling for business owners with Google My Business profiles, rest assured that the Google team is aware and is working on rectifying these issues. In the meantime, apply some of the tips above, so you aren’t left at the mercy of Google.