The New Google Business Profile Reinstatement/Appeal Process

Unless you have been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard that a new reinstatement process rolled out to the European Union in 2023.

Ben Fisher wrote about it back in September.

SEOs and business owners have been wondering when the new appeal process would roll out to North America.

Helpful Links:

• Step Checklist (ChatGPT)
• GBP Reinstatement Deep Dive (Perplexity)
• GBP Reinstatement Changes (Google AI)

New Appeal Process Now in the United States

As of December 2023, we are now seeing the new appeal process in the US.

First time I've seen the new suspension/reinstatement process for a US business. 😬 pic.twitter.com/k0DqBUql02

— Joy Hawkins (@JoyanneHawkins) December 13, 2023

Here’s what the new appeal flow looks like.

1. Business receives an email like the one above stating that the business has been suspended or disabled
2. The user clicks the blue “Appeal” button
3. The user is taken to the appeals tool interface, where you need to confirm the account that manages the profile
4. Hit “Confirm” and the user is taken to a list of businesses that have been disabled, or suspended so that you can select the profile that needs to be reinstated
5. Select the Business Profile that you want to reinstate
6. The Google Business Profile appeals tool shows:
   • The restricted profile
   • The reason for the moderation action
   • A link to the violated policy
7. At the bottom right, select “Submit Appeal”

The 60 Minute Suspension Death Clock

Here’s where things get interesting. After submitting the appeal, you will be presented with a screen that has a link you can click to “Add Evidence”.

Once you click that link, you open the evidence form and you must submit it within 60 minutes or it won’t be attached to your appeal.

Preparing Your Evidence

With a 60-minute timer activated after submitting the appeal, I can’t stress how important it is to have all your evidence ready to go. At a minimum, have the following evidence ready to go before you submit the appeal.

• Official business registration
• A business license
• Tax certificates
• Utility bills (electricity, phone, cable, internet etc) for the business.

Tips: For any documents you submit as evidence, check that the business name and address match the profile you want to make an appeal for.

Checking the Status of an Appeal

After you have submitted your appeal and provided evidence, you can check back to see what the status is. If your appeal is still under review, you may see a status like “Google review decision pending” displayed.

1. Make sure you’re signed in to the Google Account related to your Business Profile.
2. Open the Google Business Profile appeals tool.
3. Select the Business Profile for the appeal that you submitted.
4. On the right, you’ll find the status of the appeal:
   • Submitted
   • Approved
   • Not Approved
   • Can’t be appealed
   • Eligible for appeal

Google Is Providing More Clarity on Why a GBP Was Suspended

If you click on the “restriction policy” link in the email Google sends out you will be taken to the specific section of the guidelines that Google thinks you violated.

This is a step in the right direction as far as providing more transparency to business owners so they can figure out how to fix the problems with their Google Business Profile.

For instance, clicking on the link in the above example takes you to this section of the page.

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