Google My Business Support – [The Missing Link]

Are you one of the businesses owners who need Google My Business Support but have no idea where to turn?

Google My Business Support, Contact & Help. Every day I’m inundated with the same question… Can You Help Me? Whilst I can give sensible advice as a Google My Business Expert, I still come back to the same answer for 75% on my enquires.

Your Question:
Can You Help Me?

My Answer:
I’m so sorry. In this situation, you will need to contact Google My Business Support.

However I felt it would make more sense to give you a detailed answer that covered the following and in that way would prove a lot more useful to you and would give you a place to come back to for the correct support links and missing helplines etc

This article will take a look at:

• Google My Business Support – The 2 types of help explained
• Video: Google My Business Support – The Missing Link
• Google My Business Phone Number and Other Supports
• Help With Google My Business
• Summary: Google My Business Support

Google My Business Support – The 2 types of help explained

The confusion often lies in the ability to understand who manages what. Google ultimately has the control and ownership of your Google My Business listing. You as the business owner have the responsibility to add appropriate detail without misleading or making false claims. For the details, you can read the guidelines here.

Google, however, has the ability to change listing details, remove or add additional information and even soft or hard suspend if it feels its guidelines have been abused or believes there has been some report from several visitors that has a claim of truth to it.

So its worth deciding on which camp your issue falls into.

• Support For You The Business Owner, On Things You Can Do
• Help and Support For You The Business Owner, On Things You Can Not Do

Support For You The Business Owner, On Things You Can Do

Locate the problem. Issues could include …

• Redirect / spamming links
• Tracking URL’s
• No physical location or a PO box
• Registered an account twice
• Information or NAP is incorrect

Just follow the process below

1. Complete the Reinstatement Form on https://support.google.com/business/troubleshooter/2690129?hl=en
2. Let a few weeks pass by
3. Look at the email from the quality assurance team hopefully, they have removed the suspension
4. If you receive an email from the Google My Business Quality Assurance team with your business is still in suspension call the Google My Business support team
5. Discover why Google My Business Support team still feel your worthy of suspension and follow out their recommendations and implement them on your Google My Business Page
6. Re-apply again when fixed

Help and Support For You The Business Owner, On Things You Can NOT Do

You can not get any direct clarity on why Google My Business change things or even suspend your listing. All you will generally get is “Suspension is for Quality Issues“

But you are not without hope as any genuine mistake or issue can be resolved if you jump through the relevant hoops and address all the common issues. So below we have a list of the forums, contact numbers, and experts that are there to give you the needed support when it’s all going wrong, This page will be updated so its always going to be relevant and up to date for you.

Video: Google My Business Support – The Missing Link

Google My Business Phone Number and Other Supports

I still find Twitter seems to get the quickest response time. So you may want to start off by Tweeting to @GoogleMyBiz

You can contact Google My Business Support on Facebook and using their direct message service at https://www.facebook.com/GoogleMyBusiness/

The Google Business Phone Number according to Wordstream is 1-866-2-Google (1-866-246-6453) from 6:00 am – 5:00 pm PST, Monday through Friday. I must add I haven’t used it and I can not guarantee it is an authentic number. It appears its setup for the USA only.

Reinstatement request https://support.google.com/business/troubleshooter/2690129?hl=en

Contact Google directly on https://support.google.com/business/gethelp

Put your question to a community of Google experts (they are volunteers) on https://support.google.com/business/thread/new

Register your business if you haven’t done so on https://www.google.com/business/

Check out the common issues on https://support.google.com/business/

Covid-19 Support is on https://smallbusiness.withgoogle.com/

Download the App at Google Play: https://business.google.com/playstore?campaign=messagingSignUp

Download the App at App Store: https://business.google.com/appstore?campaign=messagingSignUp

Help With Google My Business

If you just need Google My Business help and its the area that you need to manage then you are in the right place as that’s what Zanet Design can offer. You can either follow our simple tutorials free on my Google My Business Youtube Channel and mange all your business details yourself.

Or how about following this quick guide for starters

It’s assumed you have already registered your business
if you haven’t then here are the 6 basic steps

1: Sign in to Google My Business https://www.google.com/business/

2: Add your business to Google Maps and Search engine

3: Chose the most appropriate category or more than one if needed

4: Enter your address and details and chose if this is a shop front or service you want to cover an area location

5: When you receive a postcard, verify your business

6: Now promote and optimise your business by doing the following regularly as possible

Now you are up and running head over to this video and join me there its going to make sure you dont get suspended

Help Coming out of COVID-19

With the Coovid situation recently Goole released some support links for businesses to post directly to their Business Profiles on Google, starting first in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.

These new links from Google, have enabled Donations and Gift Cards within the GMB knowledge Panel:

• Donations with PayPal and GoFundMe
• Gift Cards with eligible partners Square, Toast, Clover and Vagaro.

Helping your business through COVID-19 is another area Google has been proactive in
Google has been addressing the challenges small businesses are undergoing with COVID-19.

This link gives some tools from Google along with support resources, and insights you need to continue driving productivity as we come out of COVID-19 lockdown.
https://smallbusiness.withgoogle.com/

How you can manage your Google My Business listing the right way

When you visit and update your business listing, or if someone finds you through a search it can give somepositive signals to Google and increase your ranking.

So you or I, if I’m hired to manage it for you, can regularly update the following Top 10:

1. Upload photos and videos on a regular basis using geolocation where possible
2. Business descriptions with keywords for SEO benefits
3. Add posts and products and events and promotions with coupons, “Remember its a business, not a blog” This needs to be at least once a week.
4. Register and fill in ALL details correctly
5. Download the app and enable messaging
6. Answer FAQs with keywords
7. Reply to all reviews with keywords and encourage them through the review link and short name
8. Add correct hours and holidays and regularly review
9. Make sure you have the right category, as they do change.
10. Check your analytics and insights to adjust what’s working and locate new traffic sources

Summary: Google My Business Support

Google My Business will really be useful for every business if you follow the guidelines. From time to time things can go wrong. Don’t panic. Just take a look at who does what above. If you can do anything to increase the likelihood of keeping close to the guidelines then you should be fine. If it’s down to Google to intervene then contact them. Keep it polite, be patient and be prepared to give them all the proof they need. photos of the business or of the shop front can often help resolve an issue quite quickly. If your GMB listing is stagnant, then think in terms of marketing, SEO and advertising.

Google My Business is still free, though may well change soon. Google rewards active GMB listings with a lot of traffic and genuine local enquiries from real clients. So its worth the investment of your time or having it managed by an expert.

What Next?

Google My Business is for those businesses that want to target local clients and customers. If you need expert help in registering or creating a Google My Business account, then contact me at Zanet Design for me to arrange to help you.

Want to start doing it yourself?

Head over to the popular How to Max Out Google My Business