Understanding Google My Business & Local Search
“We do not support this location” Update
Earlier this summer, Google removed a large number of residentially located service area businesses (SAB) from the index for not hiding their address. While Google was trying to clean up the index, a number of these SABs were removed in error. It turned out that Google was unable to restore many of those erroneously removed to the index. Some business listings have been restored but others have been waiting now for a number of months.
Google updated their guidance on this issue last night:
Here’s the state of these listings now (October 8):
Sevice-area businesses who are experiencing the “We currently do not support this location” message should —
1.) Check to make sure you comply with the quality guidelines, particularly hiding your address, if appropriate.
2.) Once you’re sure you comply, contact the support team (select the last option).
3.) If possible, the team will reinstate listings that are OK.
4.) Sometimes, the support team cannot reinstate a listing, even if it’s OK. These listings cannot be brought back because of an issue that we’re still working on fixing. The support team will send an email back saying the listing is down due to a technical glitch. When we have an update, we will follow up with all of the people who got the message about the technical glitch.
What’s the status of listings in #4?
For listings in #4, there isn’t much course of action other than waiting. Please know that our team’s doing everything we can to get them reinstated when possible.
Hey guys,
Good news — we’ve been able to bring back some of the listings that incorrectly had the “We currently do not support this location” error. Many previously deleted service area businesses that had their addresses correctly hidden a few weeks ago are back.
If your listing’s not back yet, please know that we are still working on it. In the meantime, please review the quality guidelines and this article on service area businesses. Make sure your listing complies.
Thanks,
Jade
For those of you still experiencing this problem, there is only one option. File your request for reinclusion via the Google for Business Help files and wait. Note that if Google is unable to recover your listing quickly then you have no choice but to wait for their engineering solution. Businesses that followed Google’s original advice to recreate their listing have not had any success.
This recent email from Google support sent to me by Kane Jamison of Hood Web Management clearly indicates that Google is working on these listings on a first come first serve basis:
Hi [Client’s name],
Rest assured there is no virus, this technical issue has dropped many listings from Google Maps, and we are currently reinstating them in the order they came in. Thank you for your patience.
Kind Regards,
Sandy M.
The Google Team
It is hard to understand how an engineering company can create a process that had such irrevocable consequences. It is also hard to understand how it is that Google has yet to create an process by which to reverse many of these erroneous take downs. But that is the unfortunate reality.
© Copyright 2024 - MIKE BLUMENTHAL, ALL RIGHT RESERVED.
Comments
13 Comments
So is it becoming harder to work with Google on these types of situations or easier? It seems they are setting up a good system to handle these issues bu the “system” is just too big to move easily.
@ben
Google has been making fits and starts towards dealing with edge cases and have put in place processes to deal with many of the problems that their system creates… But…. these support processes are slow and still and lack feedback. All too often, as is the case here, Google shoots themselves in the foot and takes out listings that 1)should not have been removed and 2)are buried so deeply in the index that even the support team can’t dig them out.
I have been dealing with this issue since April. My business has dropped and I am at my wits end. Is there any kind of time frame being thrown out for the final fix on this issue? I email Google regularly and get back the same response just worded different every time. I have spent countless hours on this. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Angela
Floral Design
Mike – I’m seeing reports that they are still losing listings as recently as last month. It’s troublesome to think that they know there’s a possibility that a listing can not be resurrected and yet continue to allow them to be removed. You would think they would stop the takedowns until they’ve figured out how to keep them from going into the abyss.
@Keenan
There are two levels of “take down”. One is fairly trivial to recover from, the other is not. I am not sure if both are still being used.
Certain businesses have been targeted because of reported spam and abuse. My trade, “locksmith” is one of those businesses. I have not been listed in over a year now, despite repeated attempts, requests, etc. We are a member of the BBB and have an A+ rating, hold all proper commercial licenses & insurance, are well established in the community, etc.
Our retail business have dropped off significantly, if it were not for our organic rank, and featured Bing/Yahoo, etc. listings we would get any calls at all. It is an incredible disgrace that a company such as Google can dominate and dictate consumer traffic, yet lack the care or competency to resolve issues that affect legitimate businesses, often with dire consequences.
Does Google support Mailbox Etc. addresses (street address of Mailbox Etc. or any mailbox service company with a box number?
@Brenda
No
[…] run amok with listing data. Factor in the technical difficulties of legitimate listings going into “We currently do not support this location” purgatory and being lost for months on end AND the bevy of old issues like merges and duplicates and the […]
Our business was taken off the map along with with all of our reviews and placed into this same category “does not support this location.” Apparantly, it was because we created the listing in 2008 before verification by mail was mandatory. After about a day, of it being off, “verification needed” showed up on the dashboard. I received the postcard with the code, updated it in the system, and our listing was restored. However, it’s been a week or two and still no reviews. We were told they are often, but not always restored and it can take up to 2-4 weeks. Hmmmmm We had a customer try and write a new review today and it didn’t show up. Seems we can’t get new reviews, either!
I have been experiencing this with one of our local clients. It’s only happening with one of their locations, and it seems to occur once a month. After I submit a ‘null submit’ the listing re-attaches to the local cluster, wondering if it merits shooting an e-mail to the support team at Google as stated in this post? Suggestions anyone?
Please can somebody from google contact me regarding the lose of my adverts and over 75 reviews i have worked hard to build up over the last 4 years. I cant find any way to talk to anybody a google and i have left emails, but with no reply, I feel helpless with thos problem, Please contact back on 07976018866, I will be so grateful if you will. Thankyou.
Well status update almost a month later. The null submit works for our particular client, however after 2 weeks it will drop the listing again. I’m in the process of trying step 2, and have sent a message to their team. Keep your fingers crossed and I’ll let you know how it goes.
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