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Small Google Business Profile Updates Triggering Re-verification

October 31, 2024 /
All industries  /   Google Business Profile 

Losing verification of your Google profile locks you out of listing features and requires significant time to navigate back to verified status. Claiming one’s listings is one of the first and most crucial steps a business undertakes to optimise its online presence, so reverting these listings to an unclaimed status is a substantial setback for marketers. Business owners would go to great lengths to avoid such a scenario, but a recent update from Google is now causing otherwise routine business profile updates to result in a loss of verification status.

A significant rise in unverified listings throughout October prompted an investigation into the issue. With the number of routine updates made by numerous businesses across various aspects of their Google Business Profiles, it was challenging to pinpoint the exact cause. After several weeks of DAC investigating what triggered the unverification for our clients, we believe the primary cause is alterations to a profile’s business categories.

DAC’s testing revealed that updating aspects such as hours, phone numbers, Google posts, Q&A, and other business details is generally safe. However, businesses are advised to proceed with caution. For businesses that optimised by adding new secondary categories or modifying their primary category for improved positioning, these changes often triggered the need for re-verification. We also noted that Google recently updated its help documentation to specifically mention that altering categories could unverify a listing. This suggests that Google’s decision to reverify listings was intentional rather than a technical glitch.

Not every category alteration results in re-verification, but it occurs frequently enough that business owners should be aware. Marketers now need to weigh the benefits of improved performance from adding a category against the effort it might require to navigate the verification process. Unless Google relaxes its stance on adding categories, businesses can no longer make these changes swiftly or without risk. Ultimately, it becomes a case-by-case decision whether to proceed with optimisations that may necessitate the additional work of potential re-verification, as there is no alternative to completing that manual process.