How to Get Your Google Plus Account Unsuspended
If your Google Plus account or You Tube account has been suspended, you’re probably in a world of frustration and bewilderment. Welcome to the world of Google!
Don’t get me wrong, I love Google, always have. But when one company owns the other largest search engine on the market, bad things can happen. (Yes You Tube is actually just one big search engine)
And it did! It happened to one of our clients.
The What The #@$%^ Happened Moment
We happened to be reviewing their You Tube account one day, and found out that their account had been suspended because their Google Plus page had been suspended. Of course we immediately looked at their Google Plus page, and low and behold, their account had been suspended for being suspected of spam related issues. (This was where the “What the @#$% happened!”) No warnings, no real explanations, no emails, no phone calls, nothing! Not even a little kiss before they….. well, you get the picture! So because the Google Plus account was suspended their related You Tube account was suspended also. Thanks Google!
If this has happened to you, there is hope. If you have just created your Google Plus account and it has been suspended, you can request a second opinion to try and resolve the issue. But, if you have had your account for some time, as was the case with our client, then you are usually left with little information to determine what happened.
We knew from working with them on our inbound marketing program that the content that was published to both their Google Plus and You Tube accounts was original content and followed all white hat procedures. Their You Tube channel only had 4 videos and 3 of those were private! So why was it suspended?
Was this a Profile violation or a Page Suspension violation and what was the suspension based on?
What We Did
We first did a search on Google to determine if they had more than one Google Plus page. The thought was if they had more than page perhaps this was the reason one of them was shut down. Well, they did in fact have more than one Google Plus profile. But after reviewing the two pages it was clear that this had nothing to do with the suspension.
We were able to login to their Plus account but found no content that appeared to violate their policies. We looked everywhere to find out what was causing the suspension with no luck.
So rather than go through all the steps we had to take to find out how and where to contact Google, here is the magic answer!
Send your requests to [email protected]
Include your Google Plus profile and describe your situation.
This email address is actually from Google Places for Business. That’s where you actually need to start. Google has a couple of resources for you to review. Their online help resources center and community forum are full of information and tips to help manage your Google Places business information.
You can send additional emails from the online help resources page by clicking on the “Contact Us” link and Google will walk you through a specific process.
The Final Result
After we sent the email to Google, we received a response in about 2 days that said the following: (This is the actual content of the email)
Hi there,
Thanks so much for getting in touch with Google Places for Business support!
A member of our support team will be back in touch with you within 48 business hours with instructions and next steps. We appreciate your patience as we investigate. If you remember something else that you think we should know about your issue, please feel free to reply to this message with that information.
Also, feel free to check out our online help resources and community forum, which are full of useful information and tips to help you manage your business information and engage with your customers.
Very best,
The Google Places Team
This email was received on March 27, 2014. We waited the 48 business hours and received no instructions. We waited a little longer and then sent an additional email to find out why we had not heard back from them. On May 8, 2014 we received the follow up email that indicated they had resolved our problem and that the business listing had been verified correctly. (The listing had already been verified correctly since we were posting to it for several months) The account was removed from suspension and both the Google Plus page and You Tube channel were up and running with all the previous posts and videos still intact.
What to Learn From the Experience
Mistakes happen, and while Google is the master of the universe, they to make mistakes. Be patient when attempting to resolve the problem, but the squeaky wheel can potentially help get the issue resolved sooner. Keep your Google Places listing, Google Maps, and Google Plus page up to date and complete. Don’t leave profiles and business information half done.
We still do not know exactly why they suspended the Google Plus account but I suspect it had to do with something concerning the business listing verification on Google’s end that caused the confusion and suspension.
All’s well that ends well, as the saying goes. But it took a lot of frustrating work to get to his point. Hopefully, you will not have the same problems.
If you have had any issues similar to this one and have some additional solutions for others to use, we’d love to hear about them in the comments section!
