How To Safely Edit A GMB

GMB Editing Guide:

Everyone who owns a business knows that Google Business Profiles (which I continue to refer to as GMBs) are very fickle and can get suspended for seemingly no reason.

Most often the reason for a GMB suspension is when you are making edits to the GMB. If you change the main category, the phone number, the address, or the name. There’s a good chance your GMB will be suspended or require reverification.

But if you follow these steps, you can reduce the risk of suspension and get your GMB edit pushed through quickly.

Step 1: Prepare for suspensions

Gather documents that you can provide to google to verify your business name and address.

You only need to do this step if you are changing the name or address, but this is a good thing to have on hand just in case for future suspensions anyways.

The best documents I usually use is:

Copy of business registration

Copy of Utility bill

Link to the BBB, or government website that shows your business Picture of the sign in front of your office.

Full list of documents that can be used:

● Valid Business license

● Valid Industry certification (E.g. locksmith license)

● Phone bills (last 1 to 3 months)

● Utility (Gas/Electricity/Water) bills (last 1 to 3 months)

● Property tax records or rental/lease payments (last 1 to 3 years)

● Proof of address from a Bank Statement or Income Tax filing in your business name (may not be applicable in all countries)

● Picture of company signage at the entrance of the building/property

● Picture of the store/office

● Pictures of the interiors of the store/office

● Picture of work truck/trailer and its interiors

● Pictures of toolbox & any associated equipment/work fixtures

● Business cards

● Invoices of work done for clients

Step 2: Update Social Profiles and Citations

Login to all your social profiles and citations and make the change there. Google will use these to confirm new data is real.

Aside from helping your GMB edit go through, this is also an important step to rank your GMB. It's usually best to wait a week or two for Google to crawl the citations and social profiles.

Step 3: *Optional GMB Suggested edits

Suggest the edit from another Google profile, have a few other people suggest the same edit. If

you are lucky Google will show the suggestion in the GMB dashboard and you can accept the edit to make it live.

-Sign in to a different email then you manage your business from. Ideally from a different device as well. You can ask your employees or family to do this.

Click “Suggest an edit”

Click “Change name or other detail”

Add whatever details you want changed, and click “Submit”

I usually do this 2 or 3 times, then move on to the next step.

Step 4: *Optional Use a trusted API

If you are really worried about getting suspended this extra step can help, but isn’t necessary in most cases.

Set up an account on any tool that has an API trusted by Google. I use https://locl.io/, they have a 2 week free trial. Sign up and connect your GMB, then request the edit from the tool, then you can cancel the account.

Step 5: Make the edit

If you don’t use the API to make the edit, you can make it directly in your GMB.

Sign in to the Google account that is affiliated with your business listing and search for “My Business” on Google

Click on “View Profile” and select “Edit Profile“

Choose the selection you want to change, and add the new information.

Results:

Once the suggestions have been processed, you will receive a notification that your information has just been updated. You will be able to identify the changes in different colors in your GMB dashboard.

Orange: data that Google has added

Orange: data that Google has removed

Gray: data that Google has replaced with other data Black or white: data that Google has not updated

There are 4 things that can happen after you make a large edit to your GMB.

1. The edit will immediately get accepted

2. The edit will go into pending review

3. Google will force you to re-verify your GMB (this is becoming more common) 4. You will get suspended

Pending Review:

If it goes into pending review and isn’t accepted, then do the process again but include optional steps 3 and 4. If that still doesn’t work contact Google support and explain the situation. They should be able to make the edit for you.

GMB Reverification:

If you are forced to re-verify your GMB, then contact support and send them the documents that you prepared in step one.

This is the link to contact Google.

https://support.google.com/business/?hl=en#topic=4596754

Tell them that you had a change in the business and these documents show the change. Then ask to please update the change on your GMB and re-verify your listing.

Suspended GMB:

When you do a GMB edit and it gets suspended, it will be a soft suspension so your GMB will still be live, you just won’t be able to update it until it's fixed.

Just like the GMB verification step, contact Google and send the documents showing that your business is legit.

I’ll make a detailed guide on GMB Suspensions in the future and link it here.

Additional Steps for Phone Number edits:

Step 1:

Add the new phone number as a secondary phone number.

Step 2:

After a few days, switch the new number to the primary number and remove the old one.

Additional Steps for Business Name edits:

If editing the GMB name, update the logo on your website to match the GMB name.

FAQ

How long can it take for changes to be visible on Google My Business?

Usually, if the changes are pending review, they are processed within 48 hours.

Who can change the Google My Business listing?

Not everyone is aware of this, but anyone can make changes to a Google My Business listing:

-Listing owner

-Administrators

-Google users

-While it is inevitable that users can make suggestions on your Google listing, you will usually receive a notification to approve or reject the suggested new information.

However, there may be certain situations where Google will make changes automatically:

-If the listing owner has not accepted or rejected the suggestion.

-When small businesses profiles without an owner or those that have been neglected for a long time.

How to avoid unexpected changes to your Google listing?

The best way to avoid these automatic modifications is to keep the information updated and consistent on different platforms, websites, and social networks where your business is present.

Warning about GMB edits

Too many changes in a short period of time is considered suspicious by Google. This will increase your chances of getting suspended.?

Sorce: FB Group