Any content added to their Business Profile must accurately represent the location in question and follow the policies and guidelines. When violations occur, we’ll take necessary steps to restrict the content from displaying, or restrict access to the profile or merchant account.
All Google Business Profile policies & guidelines
This article outlines our key policies and explains the most common issues merchants may experience, but it is not comprehensive. View a complete list of Google Business Profile policies & guidelines.
Prohibited and restricted content
All content added to a Business Profile must abide by Google’s Prohibited and restricted content policies. These policies apply to all content formats, which includes Reviews, Photos, and Videos. Profiles and content that does not meet these criteria may be rejected from publication on Google.
Account level restrictions
Merchants can lose access to their Business Profile or have their access restricted for the following reasons:
Google Account not in good standingIf a merchant displays a pattern of violating Google Business Profile policies, they may have their Business Profile access restricted.
If a merchant’s account is restricted, all Business Profiles associated with that account will be suspended.
When an account is restricted, content added from the restricted account will be rejected. The account must be reinstated before any previously removed content can be successfully reinstated or new content added to the profile.
When a Business Profile is created via an account associated with another Google product, restriction of the non-Business Profile product account may result in suspension of the Business Profile.
When a non-Business Profile account is restricted, content added to the business profile from the restricted account may be rejected. The non-Business Profile account must be reinstated before reinstating the profile.
Eligibility
Google has the following restrictions and qualifications for Business Profiles:
Ineligible businessesTo qualify for a Business Profile on Google, a business must make in-person contact with customers during its stated hours.
For example, the following businesses are not eligible for a Business Profile:
- An ongoing service, class, or meeting at a location that you don't own or have the authority to represent.
- Lead generation agents or companies.
- Brands, organizations, artists, and other online-only businesses.
- Rental or for-sale properties such as vacation homes, model homes, or vacant apartments.
For more details on eligibility, review Business eligibility & ownership.
To keep data on Google as accurate as possible, Google uses information from different sources such as user reports and licensed content.
If we determine that your business doesn't exist in the location you claim, Google will disable your profile.
Merchants must accurately represent their business identity. Edits that significantly change business identity will be rejected. For more details, review the Misrepresentation policy.
Ownership
Issues with Business Profile ownership include:
Unauthorized profile accessPosting restrictions
When user contributions to a profile are consistently unhelpful, harmful, off-topic or generally violate Google Policies, we may limit or suspend user generated content for that profile. An example would be a series of poor reviews for a business for reasons not related to the business itself. Learn more about posting restrictions.
Reasons submitted content may be rejected
Content added to a Business Profile may be rejected for several reasons.
Deleted profileGoogle may reject contents and appeals when the associated profile is disabled before Google reviews or publishes the content.
Disabled profiles must be reinstated first before content can be successfully contributed to the profile.
Google may reject content and appeals when the associated profile is suspended before Google reviews or publishes the content.
Suspended profiles must be reinstated first before content can be successfully contributed to the profile.
To update your business name and other info on Google, you must first verify your business. Google may reject content added to unverified profiles.
For more guidance on getting verified, follow these steps.
Other reasons content may fail to publish or appeals may be rejected
Sometimes submitted content may fail to publish for non-policy reasons which may include:
