Help, my UK Google Business Profile Has Been Suspended!

Firstly, welcome to the I Hate Google blog. You are not alone in your suspension and you have my greatest sympathy. Depending on your business and whether or not you work from home, your suspension may or not be liftable. As a UK business it is especially difficult to lift a suspension, because Google will ask you for evidence of your business that just does not exist in the UK. I find that Google can be very stupid.

Lifting a Google Suspension – UK Business with Physical Premises

This is the good news area of the blog post! If you run your business from physical premises such as a shop, cafe, restaurant, builder’s yard etc then it is much easier to lift your Google Business Profile suspension. If you have a branded vehicle then even better! Check your emails and you should find one from Google telling you what evidence they want from you and a link to film and send a video. Follow the link and you will then need to give permissions on your phone for Google to access the phone and audio . Personally I choose “just this time” because I don’t want Google to have access all the time (am I just in denial that they don’t already?!). Send your video with all the evidence they ask for and you should be good to get your suspension lifted.

Lifting a Google Suspension – UK Business without Physical Premises (Ltd Company)

If you are a UK business and work from home and don’t don’t have a branded vehicle, but you run a limited company then you have a chance because you will (hopefully) have evidence of the limited company being registered. As above send the video and include evidence of your limited company,

Lifting a Google Suspension – UK Sole Trader without Physical Premises

Abandon hope all ye who enter. If you are a UK business and work from home (as a sole trader), and don’t have a branded vehicle then there is pretty much nothing you can do. The things that Google ask for don’t exist for work from home sole traders in the UK. Google asks for:

Business Licence – nope, no such thing in the UK as a sole trader

Business Registration – as a sole trader you have to register with HMRC for self assessment but there is no such thing as something that proves business registration if you are a sole trader. You simply register with HMRC and away you go

Tax certificate – I have no idea what a tax “certificate” is but I don’t have one as a sole trader

Utility bill – we all have lots of these I’m sure. But if you work from home as a sole trader, it’s highly unlikely that they will be in the business name. HMRC only allows you you to claim a small percentage of bills on your tax return and houses can’t ask for bills to be put in a company name because that then makes them a commercial premises.

Show that you are authorised to represent this business

This is something else that Google requested from me. I’m not sure what they actually do accept but logging into your website, showing that you can edit it and showing that the person who owns the business and whose face is on the About page in my case, was not enough to show that I am authorised to represent my own business.

You’re Stuffed

So, if you came here as a sole trader, looking for the solution as to how to get your Google Business Profile suspension lifted I’m sorry to disappoint. I don’t think there is one. But you to have my sympathy and if you want a good moan about it, do feel free to reach out and contact me. If things change and I find a way back, I’ll update this.