Originally launched in Feb 2019, the business redressal complaint form now includes an additional selection for, this business does not exist.
Five years later I still think this should be called Spam Report!
What Can you Report
The form clearly states what you can report, and what this form is intended for:
If you come across misleading information or fraudulent activity on Google Maps related to the name, phone number, or URL of a business, you may use this form to submit a complaint. Complaints submitted through this form will be reviewed in accordance with our guidelines for representing businesses on Google Maps.
Please note that completing and submitting this form does not guarantee that any action will be taken on your request. Also, if your complaint is not related to fraudulent activity on the name, phone number, or URL of the business, we will not be able to review your complaint. Please use these steps to report problems for all other Google Maps features.
If you simply need to correct an incorrect business name, phone number, or URL, do not use this form.
Title or Business Name:
This would be if they keyword stuffing their business name and / or not using their real world name like; Bobs Plumbing – Emergency Plumbers in Corby – Should be – Bobs Plumbing
However if there are a few additional keywords within the business name and the business legitimately exist, this report will be downgraded to a very low priority and very unlikely to be acted upon.
Address:
This could be if the business is using a virtual office, mailbox, postal forwarding address or they are a SAB and using a home address when it should be hidden.
Phone Number:
This could be if the phone number is not the actual businesses number and is a call centre / redirects to main call handling number.
Website:
This could be if the website listed is not the businesses, redirects to another named business indicating a lead gen or spam listing or even if its been hacked and contains malicious content.
Business Does Not Exist:
If this business does not exist either at location or is a lead gen profile that does not actually serve customers.
As with any successful report, please provide detailed information why you are reporting and reference guidelines where applicable. The more details you provide the better chances of this being actioned.
You can also report multiple instances by uploading a spreadsheet and again make this as detailed as possible.
Does the Report Work?
In our recent 2024 Google Summit, we revisited the complaint form with the team about users feeling that they are not taken seriously. Or rather, people using the form don’t seem to see the results of the reports.
The team confirmed that the reports are checked and acted upon when they are deemed to violate guidelines. One of the reasons that a user may not see any results is because the report may actually have a larger footprint and all the reports are collated into a larger action that the reporter has not seen.
If you feel that action has not been legitimately taken (don’t report a few keywords in a name) please user the Google Business Profile community forum.
Online Ownership provides a Google Business Profile consulting if your business is being affected by fake or spam profiles. Feel free to reach out to us for a chat.
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