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Disappearing Reviews: Another Google Business Profile Bug

Last Updated: February 8, 2024

A new bug in the Google Business Profile system causes reviews to disappear, negatively affecting business’ visibility and online presence.

Having a robust online presence is a must for any business today, and customer reviews are a huge part of that. Reviews help establish a business’ credibility and serve as a direct connection with customers.

If a company has a Google Business Profile (GBP), their reviews are linked to that account. That usually works well—until, as happened this November, there’s a bug in the system.

Last month, business’ reviews started disappearing for no discernible reason. This comes on the tail of the October GBP bug that led to the unwarranted suspension of hundreds of accounts. As soon as the suspension bug was resolved, it looks like the reviews bug was brewing.

A woman staring at her laptop, confused

This issue of disappearing reviews seems to be linked to a Suggested Edits update. Google autogenerates these updates and requires listing managers to manually reject changes they don’t want (which is particularly troublesome since many of the auto-generated updates end up being inaccurate). In November, these updates—which are supposed to only change business information—also started removing reviews from business’ online listings.

So, what happened? It appears that the Suggested Edits updates also changed the CID number of profiles at the same time. The CID is an identifier assigned by Google to specify a business’ location within Google’s own systems.

When the CID gets changed, Google then sees the new number as a new listing. This disassociates the listing from the original GBP and the existing reviews. It also seems to eventually make the reviews disappear altogether.

We may not know why this is happening, but everyone can agree that it’s bad news! When a business loses reviews, it diminishes their online presence, damages their reputation, and erases hard-earned customer trust.

The good news: it should be possible to reinstate any lost reviews—as long as you know your original CID number as well as the new one. If your business has been impacted by this bug, you’ll need to reach out to Google via a GBP support forum, state what happened, and furnish both the new and old CID numbers. With that information, Google should be able to retrieve and reinstate your reviews.

You’ll also want to make sure that your business information is accurate since the GBP Suggested Edits update that started the problem may also have put incorrect business details in your profile. You can do this by clicking “Actions” within your account.

Hands pointing to screen on laptop

Moving forward, consider keeping your own records of customer reviews in case there are future issues with the GBP system. Whether you set up a system to get automatic emails any time there’s a new review, or you build a spreadsheet to track the details, having that information saved on your end will give you a solid backup and peace of mind.

If this review reinstatement process feels overwhelming, don’t panic! Instead, reach out to Prospect Genius for GBP Rescue service. We have over 10 years of experience interfacing with Google on behalf of small businesses and we’re ready to put that experience to work for you.

At Prospect Genius, we know how important an active and accurate GBP is and we’re here to make sure yours is taken care of. Don’t risk your reviews disappearing forever— call us today for GPB Rescue!

Rescue your Google Business Profile today!

Reinstatement Troubles Continue In Aftermath of Google Business Profile Suspension Bug

Last Updated: February 8, 2024

Having a Google Business Profile (GBP) is standard practice for most business in 2022. This online listing helps potential clients find key business information like services, location, hours, and phone number when they search the web using Google Search or Maps.

Unfortunately, in October of 2022, there was a bug in the GBP system. Usually, businesses are able to perform minor edits to update their GBP without incident. In October, however, hundreds of business owners had their GBP suspended for no discernible reason.

Actions that resulted in account suspension included:

  • Editing business name
  • Editing hours
  • Editing a description
  • Marking a business as temporarily closed
  • Adding website parameters
  • Clicking the verify button

While the suspension process is designed to safeguard the integrity of GBP listings, suspension for the above actions was unusual. It’s normal for businesses to make small edits to their profiles in order to reflect updates and changing business information. The fact that these minor edits caused account suspension meant that something was wrong on Google’s end.

Frustrated woman gesturing to laptop

While Google has confirmed that the bug causing the unexpected suspensions has been resolved as of the afternoon of Friday, October 21, 2022, the trouble is far from over. Every account that was suspended has to go through a verification process in order to have its listing restored.

This means that a business with a suspended account has to function without a GBP until the verification process is complete. Unfortunately, the large number of suspensions that occurred in October have caused a significant backlog within the Google support network. Some business with suspended accounts are having to wait 25–30 business days for account reinstatement.

Additionally, the verification process is rarely straightforward. Businesses typically have to email back and forth with Google numerous times, providing everything from proof of address to business licenses to confirm the accuracy and authenticity of their GBP.

With Google having approximately 80% of the search market share, not having an active GBP can be a massive blow to a business. It means loss of visibility and subsequent loss of clients and revenue.

GBP suspension and long reinstatement times can also mean loss of SEO ranking for affected businesses. Both of these issues can have long-term negative consequences on business visibility and activity well beyond the suspension timeframe.

Resolving a GBP suspension can be a time-consuming and difficult process for even the most savvy business owner. If you need help navigating the reinstatement process, call the team at Prospect Genius for our GBP Rescue service.

Prospect Genius has over 10 years of experience navigating the Google framework and we have a 95% success rate in recovering Google Business Profiles. Call today and let us help you get your GBP back on the web where it belongs!

Two coworkers high-fiving over a table full of paperwork
Rescue your Google Business Profile today!

Genius Success Story: Four Years of Growth and Expansion

Last Updated: October 19, 2021

We’re back with a new client success story!

This week, we’re showcasing the amazing progress of Professional Answering Service.

An answering service for businesses and organizations, Professional Answering Service joined our program in March 2017. They started with a CoreSite for a single location in Cleveland, OH.

Since then, in addition to their CoreSite, they’ve signed up for several other Prospect Genius products, including:

  • Google Local Listing Optimization
  • Directory Dominator
  • Press Release Writing and Syndication
  • SocialStart
  • AdTrax
  • MapTrax
  • Custom Web Services
  • CallTrax
  • Facebook Ads

Thanks to their investment in our program and their own commitment to quality service, they grew and grew. In 2021, they launched their fifth location!

Today, Professional Answering Service continues to outperform expectations and dominate their sector. Their monthly lead volume over the past year—a notoriously challenging year for small businesses—speaks for itself:

Monthly leads from September 2020 through September 2021

Congratulations to Professional Answering Service on their incredible success!

[ninja_form id=6]

This Scary Email Scam Is Tricking Tons of Website Owners

Last Updated: February 15, 2024

Have you recently received an email stating that your website is “violating copyrighted images”?

This is a fabricated message that’s circulating like wildfire right now. It’s meant to scare website owners into clicking a link, which would then install trojan ransomware onto your computer.

Please, if you receive this email, delete it immediately. Do not click on the link.

Thanks to the email logs in our client portal, we were able to view multiple versions of this message in our clients’ inboxes. Take a look at the handful of versions that were spun, with different senders and slight variations in wording:

Version #1: From “Allison”

"Hi! My name is Allison. Your website or a website that your organization hosts is violating the copyright protected images owned by myself. Check out this doc with the URLs to my images you utilized..."

 

Version #2: From “Megan”

"Hi there! My name is Megan. Your website or a website that your company hosts is violating the copyrighted images owned by me personally. Check out this report with the hyperlinks to my images you utilized..."

 

Version #3: From “Kayla”

"Hi there! My name is Kayla. Your website or a website that your organization hosts is infringing on a copyright protected images owned by me personally. Check out this official document with the URLs to my images you utilized..."

 

Version #4: From “Monica”

"Hi there! My name is Monica. Your website or a website that your company hosts is violating the copyright protected images owned by myself. Take a look at this report with the hyperlinks to my images you used..."

 

As you can see, the nearly identical messages come from “Allison,” “Megan,” “Kayla,” and “Monica”—and probably many more. Written with intimidating legalese, they have the potential to scare lots of regular folks into taking the bait. After all, average email users and small business owners may not know how to recognize malware and internet scams right off the bat.

Fortunately, a number of our clients called us immediately upon receiving these emails, so we were able to advise them against clicking on the link and reassure them that their websites do not infringe on any copyright laws.

If you want to find out more about this malware scam, check out the impressive digging done by Josh Kirschner over at Techlicious.

Blocked From Signing In to Old Google Business Accounts – FIXED!

Last Updated: December 8, 2020

If you’re a local SEO practitioner or a small business owner managing your own Google account, you’ve almost certainly received this Google security alert at some point:

It looks like someone else might be trying to access your Google Account. For your protection, you can’t sign in right now.

Try again later or sign in from a different device.

That’s the exact message we receive when Google blocks us from logging into a client’s old Google business account when the account has been inactive for a few years.

To date, we’ve been unable to find a reliable workaround for this common roadblock. None of the suggested solutions we’ve found online have been helpful, either, because they tell you to sign in from the original device that the account was created on—the theory being that you can take advantage of the old session cookie to remember your credentials. However, when you no longer have access to a device or machine from several years ago—which most people don’t—this trick doesn’t work.

And somehow, this is still the prevailing solution floating around the internet. Until now.

After wasting countless afternoons over the years banging our heads against our desks, we finally had a breakthrough today. We figured out how to resolve this Google login problem ourselves. And we’re now going to share it with you.

How to Get Unblocked From a Google Business Account

The next time you see that dreaded security message when signing into an old Google account, here’s what to do:

  • Go back to the login page.
  • Enter the username or email address.
  • Click “Forgot Password.”
  • Go through the steps of account recovery:
    • Enter the last known password.
    • Wait for an email confirmation from Google.
    • Send the SMS code to a real cell phone number that hasn’t been used on any other accounts recently.

That last step is key.

If you’re a local SEO practitioner like us, you may be in the habit of using the same company phone when setting up your clients’ Google My Business accounts. It makes the job a lot faster and easier. However, it appears Google is detecting repeat phone numbers, and recovering an account with one of those numbers doesn’t work.

We were shocked and relieved to finally discover a workaround* for this problem that has been driving us crazy for years. That’s why we wasted no time in sharing it with you here on our blog. All of us SEO practitioners have to stick together if we want to keep pace with Google.

So, try out this trick and let us know if it works for you! Good luck!

 

*So far, we’ve only had one case where this workaround failed, generating this error message: “You’re trying to sign in on a device Google doesn’t recognize, and we don’t have enough information to verify that it’s you. For your protection, you can’t sign in here right now. Try again later or sign in from a different device.” With this message, we can’t get Google to do anything other than ask us for username and password. Even the usual account recovery steps are unavailable. 

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