@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.
