We’ve all been there… a dreaded ‘your listing is suspended’ email, rejected Google posts, ‘not approved’ products, verification issues, or a weird glitch in the business profile—a ghost in the machine. Who you gonna call? Not Google My Business support, as they retired phone help in 2021. But don’t fret—there are a plethora of other places (both official and unofficial) to turn to for Google My Business (GMB) help. In November 2021, Google rebranded Google My Business (GMB) to Google Business Profile (GBP). The advice in this guide references the GMB name but is still relevant to GBP. Whose job is it to solve issues?A business listing that disappears from Google Maps… fake listings that push your one down in results… a run of negative reviews that you suspect aren’t real—any of these things can result in lost enquiries, bookings and revenue. And while it’s understandable for these things to cause frustration (and even anger), we need to keep in mind that Google My Business is currently a free product. As such, Google Business support staff are thin on the ground, and Google Product Experts that support GMB via the Google Business Profile Help Community do so for free. So if you’re experiencing an issue, the first step is to be proactive in finding a solution for yourself. Start with guidance available from the Google Business support team and the GBP community. After that, it’s time to turn detective—below we’ll run through a range of alternative Google My Business support channels, outline what they’re best for solving, and look at how to get the best out of each of them. And remember! Karma reigns supreme—be straightforward, polite, and help others if you can. And always say thank you Google My Business Help CenterSupport from the actual GMB support team is limited and has been so for a number of years. In the gelp center you can browse information and guidelines around Google My Business organized by topic areas: I’d suggest becoming familiar with these pages and checking back if and when you have an issue. The GMB landscape is far from static and Google will change their documentation as needed. It’s particularly important to understand if you’re doing something that contravenes Google’s Terms of Service, for example:
You should always check Google’s official guidelines first—please don’t waste others’ time by asking questions you could have answered yourself. Google Business Profile CommunityYou can make a search describing your issue, and Google will return results for both help center documentation and community forum posts. Items marked with (1) are help articles, and items marked with (2) are community forum posts. Look out for ‘recommended answers’ as these have often been supplied by Google Product Experts or active and experienced community members. If you can’t find an answer to your question, then Google suggests adding a new community forum post: However, before you do this, I recommend first checking out the below potential avenues for solutions. Also, don’t be tempted to tack your own issues onto an existing post. If you need to post (once you’ve exhausted the resources below) then you should create your own post with your own unique information. Browse Local SEO Peeps on TwitterYou’re probably already following a bunch of Local SEO people on Twitter—if not then be sure to check out BrightLocal’s list of local SEO experts. If there’s a GMB bug going around, you’ll probably hear about it there. You could ask a Google business profile expert for help on Twitter, but honestly, I’d go to the GMB community first. I don’t envy Joy Hawkins (or indeed any of the helpful local SEO community) for the number of tweets she gets asking for help, so do the nice thing and ask for help in the right place! Check the Local SEO Content ArchivesI’ve written in the past about the hubs of excellent content that are being produced around problems and issues in GMB and how you can tackle these. For example:
Once you’re familiar with primary sources of great information, you can search within those sites using an advanced search operator: site:brightlocal.com OR site:sterlingsky.ca “GMB” OR “GBP” suspension This asks Google to give me results from the BrightLocal or Sterling Sky websites, for pages containing either “GMB” or “GBP” keywords, plus content related to suspensions. You can use my custom local SEO search engine to search within my own carefully-curated list of trusted sites, or create your own search operator as needed. Google Business Profile YouTube ChannelGoogle Business Support does have a reasonably active channel with some useful videos. I recommend taking a look to see if there’s a solution to your problem, for example:
Google Business Profile Social ChannelsIn the olden days you could tweet or Facebook message Google My Business support and expect a reply. Sadly social support is now very limited, and you’re unlikely to get a reply from the social teams. Google Business Profile FormsGoogle have a number of task-specific forms that you can complete without having to contact support:
Google Business Profile ‘Contact Us’Your next step – if you can’t find a solution via any of the sources above is to contact the Google Business Profile team to ask for their direct support: https://support.google.com/business/gethelp Alternatively, you can log into your GBP dashboard and select “Support” from the left-hand side menu. You’ll be asked to select the business you need help with and to describe the issue. Google will then give you a list of articles and community posts that it thinks might be helpful. Click “Next step” to continue with the process. Google will present you with one or more contact options, that—for me—currently only includes ‘email’: You’ll then need to fill in a form with the following details:
Be sure to keep a copy of your requests, as there’s no way to access this information after you submit the form to Google. Once you’ve submitted the form you’ll usually be given a case ID—make a note of this somewhere so that you have a record. You’ll also receive an email from Google to confirm their receipt of your support inquiry. Read to the bottom of this email… don’t just file it away thinking they’ll get back in touch with you: That’s right, you’re going to need to actively contact them again! If you’ve already written up your notes into a Google document then you can use this to shape your email reply and (hopefully) get the help you need. Ask the Google My Business Help CommunityIf you haven’t found a useful answer or potential solution, then now is the time for you to make your own community forum post. Note that if you go to the community without following the ‘support’ steps above, they will send you there first. Don’t be tempted to tack your own issues onto an existing post. If you need to post be sure to create your own post with your own unique information. You’ll need to be logged in for this, and in order to get the best help possible I’d suggest using the following points to compose your post:
Run through the final steps (make sure there isn’t already an answer on the forum, specify which platform the problem is occurring on) and then you can go ahead and post. See this example of a forum post that was quickly and expertly answered by a Gold Product Expert. You’ll be able to see all of the questions you’ve previously asked in your profile’s ‘Post history’ area: Wrapping UpThere are a lot of options for getting help with your Google My Business listing… some via official Google help channels and some outside of them. And it’s up to you to fully investigate a solution before you contact official support—in this way you’ll help protect limited resources so that they can deal with bugs and help everyone enjoy a better future experience. Go forth and prosper! via BrightLocal https://ift.tt/BtoFPcm Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
April 2023
Categories |