Accounts No longer "Suspended"

[mborgelt]

In the last few weeks, we've had several accounts go under Suspension. Specifically lawyers. We know it wasn't just our clients as we've heard similar issues from other companies and have been asked about it from outside law firms.

Today, these client's accounts are no longer suspended. Has anybody else experienced this?

 

[Linda Buquet]

Michael I've been helping a few folks with suspended problems. Some attys as well.
Have questions for you but 1st...

Did you read my post about the problem and Joel Headley's comments???
http://localsearchforum.catalystemarketing.com/google-local-important/2168-suspended-google-local-important-new-info.html

He made it sound like there was a problem/glitch and they were trying to roll it back or fix it.So that may be what you are experiencing. Also Cathy in the thread Joel posted in was reinstated on Sunday.

I personally think a spam filter was cranked up and wound too tight and some innocent listings got suspended. As I said above many of them have already been re-instated but I've also looked at some that had violations and suspension would have been warranted.

QUESTIONS FOR YOU!

1) Did you request reinstatement like Joel suggested or try troubleshooter or anything? Or did they suddenly just stop being suspended?

2) The suspended listings I've seen stay live. BUT lose their description and become unverified live. They may still have images but they POP OUT OF Dash. Dash is no longer in control and the listing is out in the wild as an un-verified listing now.

I don't see how removing the suspension can make that unverified listing POP back into the dashboard as an active listing again. BUT I have seen something similar on other cases, so I'm wondering if it will happen in these cases.

Can you check for me? Did the live listings LOOK unverified and lose descriptions. Then after suspension dropped, what happened to live? Do they look verified and totally fine again? Or can you PM me a couple links to check?

 

[Phil Rozek]

Re: Accounts No longer "Suspended"

It?s hard to say. A recent lawyer client of mine had had his account suspended before I came on board, and then we cleaned up the Google Places categories and the descriptions in both the dashboard and Google+ backend, and that seemed to do the trick (he?s been doing great ever since). The penalty seemed too big for the ?offense,? so in that sense I know what you?re talking about and might say ?yeah, I?ve experienced the same thing recently.?

Normally I?d say that having several accounts suspended is a cause for concern (especially regarding Google?s touchy ?guidelines?). But if you went from the dog house to having the listings reinstated without actually changing anything, then I?m guessing it was Google?s goof and not yours. (I?m sure you?ve reached the same conclusion.)

---------- Post Merged at 10:56 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 10:54 PM ----------

Linda posted right before I posted mine (didn?t hit refresh), so I hadn?t seen her reply?

 

[obcted]

Hi Folks,

Great discussion so far and something I'm sadly going through now. Phil I'd love to know what you mean by cleaned up "Google+ backend"? I'm having a nightmare of a time with this as I've cleaned up dashboard but found another places listing using the exact same address. The duplicate listing has since been removed from mapmaker (the kind help of Andrew from another thread) and I sent an email via troubleshooter asking to lift the suspended status from the places dashboard.

Either Phil or Mborgelt just wondered if this is the action you folks took and what was the time frame on google responding to your situation via lifting the places suspension.

Thank you!

Ted

 

[Linda Buquet]

I just emailed Michael to see if he can fill in details on the Qs asked above.

 

[mborgelt]

Hello Linda,
Glad to see you’re already on this.
In response to your questions:

1) We did not request reinstatement or did any troubleshooting. Since we had a few clients go through this all at the same time, and they were all lawyers, we decided to play the waiting game.

2) We didn’t see any changes in the Dash. Our clients that went under suspension did not lose descriptions/images/etc., oddly they look the exact same as before (during suspension and after). Also, rankings did drop for these clients but surprisingly nearly all came back.

Still a little puzzled here on my end but we’re still doing some research. Glad to see others chiming in here and Linda’s excellent thread: SUSPENDED in Google+ Local? Important New Info

 

[Marie Ysais]

Re: Accounts No longer "Suspended"

Hi Phil,
I have a few questions for you. The account you said you cleaned up in the back end can you be more specific?
Also, the account was suspended how did you get the changes accepted?
In the account I am dealing with once the account became suspended the dashboard became dead.

How long after you cleaned up the dashboard did the listing become no longer suspended?

Thanks!

---------- Post Merged at 06:20 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 06:14 PM ----------

Son of a gun! Linda, the accounts are no longer suspended. still checking into it but no red flag of death. so will see of our changes were ever pushed forward........

darn Google!

 

[Linda Buquet]

Ya I'm dealing with another atty that just became un-suspended too, even though they had some violations at the time of suspension.

Keenan at the G forum SAID that a listing he was working was LIKE YOURS and others I'm dealing with.

It became unverified and the dash was no longer in control... But after suspension was lifted
IT DID POP BACK INTO DASH, DESCRIPTION SHOWED UP LIVE AGAIN AND DASH IS WORKING!

Pigs fly... hell freezes over... suspended does not mean always dead account!

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Great news! I got an e-mail from a business owner today who had his account suspended for the last couple weeks and it went back to normal today too

 

[Linda Buquet]

Yay! More good news!

 

[Phil Rozek]

@Ted and Marie

As I recall, all I did was clean up the ?introductions? (AKA descriptions) in each of the two listings, which had too many links with exact-match anchor text. I may have also removed some photos that looked like stock. The intros seemed to be the main issue, though.

Like Michael, we didn?t send in a request to Google for reinstatement. I don?t think the Places pages were ever pulled; just the Google+ pages. These were ?merged? (AKA ?upgraded? Google+ pages). I think the Google+ compliance issues (namely the intros) were what had caused my client?s listings to be taken down, although the descriptions and categories in the Google Places dashboard weren?t compliant, either (I fixed them).

A day or two after I submitted the changes through the GP dashboard and through Google+, we were on the map with a vengeance. Google?s turnaround time seemed almost too quick, but hey, I?ve had enough teeth-gnashingly, hair-pullingly slow experiences with Google that I?ll take what I can get.

It was a weird situation, and it?s hard to describe. I?m not sure I?ve described it well, even now. And I?m still not sure exactly what the suspension-worthy offense was.

What I came away with was a reminder that there are TWO sets of rules you need to know and follow now ? Google Places and Google Plus ? and that if you have ?merged? your listings you need to make sure they?re squeaky-clean compliant with each set of rules.

The other moral for me was that a suspended account doesn?t necessarily mean you?re screwed. Only nuke listings and create new ones in different Google accounts as an absolute last resort. It may be the case that you just need to read those Google guidelines one more time, make any necessary changes, and let Google be Google for a couple days to a couple weeks.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Ya Phil since you had merged pages it sounds like G+ Business page suspensions. Little different and easier to recover from. YOu can just clean it up and get relisted. And there are even 2 different types of G+ troubleshooters for different types of G+.

All the ones I've been dealing with and talking about AND the link to Joel's post (And Marie and Ted's issues) were all pure Google Places suspensions. Which in past DID = dashboard dead >> delete >> start over.

And ya you are right if you merge then there are 2 totally different sets of rules to understand and abide by. (Really 3, since MM rules are super different and stricter on some things, so need to be aware of those as well. See posts from Flash for some real strict mindbending MM rules and issues. http://localsearchforum.catalystemarketing.com/google-places-help-support/1826-disconnected-listings-google-search-results.html)

Mind bending, really! (Keeps us all employed though helping SMBs figure it out.)

 

[Phil Rozek]

Thanks, Linda. Yeah, that issue we had definitely wasn't as bad as a classic Google Places snafu.

 

[mborgelt]

Thanks everybody. Great discussion.
Good to know that Suspended Accounts are no longer a sign of death.
Good news for our clients and our business.... For now!

 

[Linda Buquet]

Yep looks like this rash of suspended listings may be over. At least I've not seen any new ones come in for a few days. But have not checked the G forum yet today.

Hopefully whatever tweak sent these listings into the ozone, got dialed back.