The Hardest Decision He’ll Ever Face
Last Updated: September 8, 2025
Google’s August 2025 Spam Update: What Local Businesses Need to Know
Last Updated: September 10, 2025
If you’ve noticed some changes in your Google rankings lately, you’re not imagining things. On August 26, 2025, Google rolled out a major Spam Update focused on cleaning up local search results. And yes, it’s hitting Google Business Profiles (GBPs) hard.
For any business that depends on local visibility this update could mean a drop in traffic… or a big opportunity to move up.
Let’s break down what’s happening and what you can do about it.
What’s This Update All About?
Google is targeting spammy tactics in local search. That includes:
- Fake reviews
- Keyword-stuffed business names (like “Appliance Refrigerator Oven Repair Dallas TX” or “Best HVAC Company in Denver”)
- Duplicate or fake listings
- Virtual offices and P.O. box addresses
- Scraped or AI-generated content that provides little or no value
- Cloaking (showing different content to users and search engines)
This is all being driven by SpamBrain, Google’s AI system that helps detect and demote low-quality listings. The update is still rolling out, so expect some ranking shifts over the next few weeks.
Now, Google says the goal is to make things cleaner and more trustworthy. And sure, we’re already seeing some of the junk disappear from local results. But let’s be realistic, this is a moving target, a bit of a cat-and-mouse game. If Google can make even a 20% dent in the spam clutter, that’s a win. Just don’t expect 100% success, because some of this junk will always sneak through.
We’ve All Seen These Tricks Before…
We’ve all run into listings like:
- Appliance Repair Dallas
- Appliance Repair Fort Worth
- Appliance Repair DFW
Annoyingly, we all know these are the same business, just using multiple keyword-stuffed names to game the system. It clutters up the map and confuses potential customers, and takes up spots that other businesses should be occupying.
This is exactly the kind of behavior Google is trying to crack down on (finally!) If you’ve been losing visibility to fake-looking listings like these, this update might (maybe, hopefully) finally level the playing field.
Why It Matters
Your Google Business Profile is often the first thing people see when they search for services, shops, or professionals in their area. If you show up in the local pack (those top 3 map results), it can lead directly to calls, clicks, and visits.
Here’s what’s happening on the ground:
- Some businesses saw traffic or visibility drop within 24 hours
- Legit listings are climbing, while keyword-stuffed or fake ones are being pushed down
- Less spam = more opportunity for ethical businesses to be seen
If you’ve been doing things the right way, you could benefit from this shift, but don’t expect the landscape to be totally clean overnight.
What You Should Do Right Now
No matter your industry, it’s a good time to give your online presence a quick tune-up. Here’s where to start:
1. Audit Your Google Business Profile
- Make sure your business name matches what’s on your signage and marketing.
- Skip keyword stuffing (e.g., “Smith’s Plumbing Dallas” should just be “Smith’s Plumbing”).
- Confirm your address is a real, physical location, not a virtual office.
- Merge or remove any duplicate listings using Google’s support tools.
2. Clean Up Your Reviews
- Watch for unusual review patterns, like sudden 5-star spikes.
- Use GBP’s built-in tools to report fake or suspicious reviews.
- Ask real customers to leave reviews through follow-up emails or QR codes.
- Encourage reviews with specific details, not just a star rating.
3. Strengthen Local Signals
- Keep your hours, services, and photos current.
- Post updates regularly (e.g., “Now booking fall checkups!” or “New products just arrived!”).
- Make sure your name, address, and phone number are consistent across sites like Yelp, Angi, and local directories.
What This Means for You
Whether you’re running a plumbing company, a boutique, a dental office, or a fitness studio, this update is reshaping the local search landscape. And it’s doing it in a way that favors transparency and real-world legitimacy.
Here’s what many businesses are already seeing:
- Improved rankings for clean, compliant listings (some up 20–30%)
- Protection from shady review sabotage, which is all too common in competitive markets
- An edge without spending big, since real reviews and a clean listing cost next to nothing
And more importantly, it sets you up for long-term success as Google continues rolling out targeted updates like this one. Just keep in mind, spam isn’t going away entirely. If this update knocks down a fifth of it, that’s still progress.
Final Thought
The August 2025 Spam Update is a clear signal: Google wants authentic, trustworthy businesses at the top of local results. Or at least, that’s what they say.
If your profile is clean, your reviews are real, and your business details are accurate, this is your moment to shine. But don’t expect the spam problem to vanish. This is an ongoing battle, and there will always be people trying to game the system.
Need a hand making sure your GBP is squeaky clean? Or maybe you’ve gotten swept up in this dragnet and you’re dealing with a suspension? Don’t worry, we’re here to help! Just reach out and we’ll take care of everything.
Google August 2025 Spam Update FAQs for Local Businesses
The update began rolling out on August 26, 2025, and is expected to take a few weeks to complete. It applies globally across all regions and languages.
Google is targeting fake reviews, keyword-stuffed business names, duplicate or fake listings, virtual offices or P.O. box addresses, AI-generated or scraped content with little value, and cloaking tactics.
Spammy Google Business Profiles may be demoted, while legitimate profiles may move up in local pack rankings, leading to improved visibility and potentially more traffic.
SpamBrain is Google’s AI-powered spam prevention system that has been enhanced with this update to better identify and penalize listings that violate spam policies.
Audit your Google Business Profile and website. Remove keyword-stuffed names, fake duplicates, false reviews, and thin or AI content. Focus on genuine, valuable, user-first content and adhere to Google’s spam and quality guidelines.
Expect ranking volatility during the rollout. Avoid making hasty changes. Monitor metrics using Google Search Console and analytics, and wait until the update is fully rolled out before assessing impact or making adjustments.
Dog Mischief
Last Updated: September 4, 2025
Google’s Secret, Unpublished, But Very Real Business Hours Rule
Last Updated: September 3, 2025
You’ve probably spent way more time than you’d like to admit fiddling with your Google Business Profile. From double-checking your categories to making sure your service area is up to date, most folks assume that if you just follow the rules, your listing will stay safe and visible. But what if the rules aren’t actually published?
That’s exactly what we discovered with one of our clients in the taxi industry.
The Mystery of the Repeated Suspensions
Over a six-month span, this taxi company kept having its Google Business listing suspended, again and again. Each time, we combed through the profile, double-checked the policies, and made sure nothing looked off. No keyword stuffing, no fake reviews, no duplicate locations. Just a clean, rule-following listing.
So why the suspensions?
After a long back-and-forth with Google support, we finally got a surprising (and honestly, kind of ridiculous) answer: taxi companies aren’t allowed to list business hours on their Google profile.
Wait… what?
The Official Word from Google (Sort Of)
In a message from a Google support rep, we were told:
“Please mark the business hours as open with no main hours on the profile as the taxi services are not allowed to have business hours.”
Let that sink in for a second.
This isn’t mentioned anywhere in the public-facing Google Business Profile guidelines. No footnotes, no asterisks, no helpful tooltip saying “Hey, taxi folks — leave your hours blank.” Nothing. Just a secret, unpublished rule that you’d never know about until your listing gets nuked for violating it.
Why This Matters for Every Local Business
Now, you might be thinking, “Okay, but I’m a plumber — not a cab company.” Fair. But this story isn’t just about taxi businesses. It’s a reminder that:
- Not all Google rules are public
- Even if you follow the published rules, you can still get penalized
- Sometimes the only way to get real answers is to push through layers of generic support until you reach a human who knows what’s actually going on
What You Can Do
If you’re in a niche or highly regulated industry (like taxis, cannabis, locksmiths, or even mobile repair), it’s worth doing a little extra homework, or working with someone who’s been through the wringer with Google before. Here are a few quick tips:
- Don’t assume the rules are complete. Sometimes, Google makes internal changes that don’t show up in the documentation.
- Keep records of your interactions with support. If you do get a real answer, you’ll want proof.
- Join industry-specific forums or groups. Other business owners often uncover these secret rules before Google ever acknowledges them.
- Work with an expert. If you’re not sure what’s triggering suspensions, a professional can help identify red flags you might not see.
Final Thoughts
Google’s local business ecosystem is powerful, but it’s also a bit of a black box. As this experience shows, even when you’re doing everything “right,” you can still run into invisible walls. The good news? With a little persistence (and the right support) you can figure it out.
And if you’re a taxi company, now you know: don’t list your business hours, no matter how weird that sounds.
We’ll keep sharing what we learn as we uncover more of Google’s behind-the-scenes quirks. Stay tuned.
Hidden Google Business Profile Rule FAQs
Some taxi company Google Business Profiles can be suspended for listing business hours, due to a hidden rule not published in Google’s official guidelines. Google support informed a client that “taxi services are not allowed to have business hours”—a policy you won’t find publicly.
Yes. Google sometimes enforces internal rules that are not in its public documentation. Businesses may follow published rules perfectly and still face penalties if they violate an unpublished policy.
According to a communication from Google support, taxi companies are specifically instructed to mark their business hours as “open with no main hours” because listing hours is not allowed—yet this restriction is not included in any public guidance.
To uncover unpublished Google Business Profile rules, document all support communications, ask probing questions to support staff, engage in industry-specific forums, and consider speaking with marketing or GBP experts who may have discovered such hidden rules before.
Niche or regulated businesses (like taxi, locksmith, cannabis, mobile repair, etc.) should assume the public guidelines may be incomplete. They should track support records, connect with industry peers, and enlist professionals experienced with Google Business Profile complexities.
Keeping detailed records of support conversations can provide proof of an unexplained rule if a suspension happens. Working with an expert who’s navigated similar issues helps anticipate and avoid unpublished pitfalls before they lead to penalties.
Show Me the Google Business Profile and I’ll Show You the Violation
Last Updated: September 3, 2025
Google feels more Soviet every day. They demand that we “optimize” our profiles, update them often, and keep everything accurate and fresh (in other words, do their work for them.) The problem is that Google’s rules for Business Profiles are so convoluted, ever-changing, and sometimes completely undisclosed that it’s almost impossible not to step on a landmine.
The Moving Goalposts
Remember when they encouraged everyone to set up review kiosks so customers could leave feedback on-site? Business owners invested time and money to follow the advice. But as soon as Google gained ground on Yelp, they flipped the policy. Suddenly, kiosks were forbidden, and anyone using them risked suspension. You changed nothing, yet overnight, you went from doing what they asked to being branded a violator.
These Days: What Triggers Suspensions Now
Fast forward to today, and while review kiosks are no longer the hot-button issue, the story hasn’t changed much. Businesses are still being penalized for well-meaning changes. The most common triggers we see right now are:
- Adding extra categories that don’t perfectly fit your business, often because a tool or consultant suggested it as a ranking hack.
- Tinkering with business hours in ways that don’t reflect your true availability, like extending them just to “beat” competitors.
- Falling into unpublished or hidden rules, where entire industries have restrictions that aren’t even spelled out in Google’s documentation.
- Adding new locations (for example, trying to add a nearby town) that can trigger Google’s system to suspend or re-verify your entire profile.
Why “Trick-of-the-Day” Advice Is Dangerous
This is where we see the most damage. Tools like Pleper, or sales reps promising quick ranking wins, often push these very tactics. They sound clever in theory (find a low-competition category, set longer hours than competitors) but in practice, they’re landmines.
The truth is, Google doesn’t reward shortcuts. If anything, they punish them. The category that seems like a smart add-on may cause a suspension. The extended hours might flag your profile as misleading. And the unpublished rules? You’ll never see them coming until it’s too late.
A Real-World Example: The Lawyer Who Lost His Reviews
We once worked with a lawyer who frequently handles cases involving juveniles in detention centers. Thinking it would help him show up for relevant searches, he added “juvenile detention center” as one of his business categories. What he didn’t know was that certain categories (like jails, detention centers, and police stations) are not eligible to receive reviews. As soon as he made the change, all of his reviews disappeared overnight.
This wasn’t manipulation. It was an honest attempt at optimization that ended in disaster.
The Bigger Problem
We see situations like this all the time through our GBP Rescue service. Business owners are told to “optimize” their listings, so they do. They’re given advice by tools, salespeople, or even Google itself, and they follow it in good faith. But because the rules are complicated, ever-changing, and sometimes not even published, they end up in trouble anyway.
The worst part is that once you’re caught in a violation, recovery is slow and uncertain. Google gives you limited chances to appeal, and the turnaround time can take weeks. That’s business you may never get back.
Proceed With Caution
This isn’t to say you should never update your GBP or use tools to help. But you do need to be cautious. If a piece of advice sounds like a clever shortcut, or if it feels like a gray area, it probably carries more risk than reward.
At the end of the day, most small businesses just want to play by the rules. The trouble is, Google doesn’t always make those rules clear, and sometimes, they don’t publish them at all. That’s why we recommend keeping your optimizations simple, sticking closely to the guidelines we do know, and getting expert help if you’re unsure. And if you ever find yourself penalized for an honest mistake, our GBP Rescue service is here to help you get back on track.
Google Business Profile Violation FAQs
Your Google Business Profile may have been suspended after updating it due to violating Google’s complex and often unpublished rules. Common changes like modifying categories, altering business hours, or adding locations can trigger automatic suspensions, even if done in good faith.
Common mistakes that lead to Google Business Profile violations include adding extra categories that don’t exactly match your business, adjusting hours to appear more competitive, attempting to list new service areas without proper verification, and unknowingly triggering hidden or unpublished rules.
Yes, adding new categories to your Google Business Profile that do not precisely match your core services can result in suspension. Google may interpret these changes as misleading or manipulative, especially if suggested by third-party tools or consultants.
All your Google reviews may disappear if your business category is changed to one that is ineligible for reviews. For example, adding categories like ‘juvenile detention center’ or ‘police station’ can instantly trigger the removal of all reviews, even if the change was made unintentionally.
Prospect Genius’s GBP Rescue service helps businesses recover from Google Business Profile suspensions and penalties. The service supports owners who were penalized due to unclear rules or bad advice, offering expert help to restore visibility and correct compliance issues.
To safely optimize your Google Business Profile, stick closely to published guidelines, avoid risky ‘trick-of-the-day’ tactics from tools or consultants, and make only accurate, honest changes that reflect your real-world operations. When in doubt, consult professionals like Prospect Genius.
