Your Google Business Profile got suspended.

Your Google Business Profile is the box with your hours and phone number on Google Maps and beside search results, and when Google suspends it, a good share of your calls goes to the next shop.

Trade businesses tend to break the same few rules, and two of them are about the address. You can fix most of them yourself before the appeal goes in, so the order matters.

What suspended means.

Google's help pages say it may suspend or disable profiles that don't follow its guidelines. It uses the two words side by side and doesn't define them separately, so there's no point losing an evening over the difference.

Where Google's policy overview does use them apart, disabled is the word for a business it decides doesn't exist at the location the profile claims. Suspended is the word for a profile that broke a rule, like using a P.O. box as the address. Both get fixed the same way, through Google's appeals tool, and in both cases the profile has to be reinstated before Google will accept anything new on it.

There's one more case that catches people out. If Google restricts the Google Account that owns the profile, every profile that account manages is suspended along with it. That one gets fixed in a different order: you appeal the account restriction first, from your My accounts page, and appeal the profile after it's lifted.

Why trade profiles get suspended.

These are the rules in Google's guidelines for Business Profiles that trade businesses run into. Read through all five before you appeal, because a profile can break more than one.

Your home address is showing.

A plumber or a roofer goes to the customer. Google calls that a service-area business, meaning one that visits or delivers to customers but doesn't serve them at its own address. Its guidelines use a plumber who runs the business from home as the example, and say to clear the address from the profile and list a service area instead.

You can set up to 20 service areas by city or postal code, and the whole area shouldn't stretch past about two hours of driving from where you're based. Plumbers and roofers almost always fall into this group, and if you run a plumbing shop, the page on SEO for plumbers covers what else the profile should say.

If you have a shop where customers walk in and talk to someone during your hours, Google calls you a hybrid business. You can keep the address on show and add a service area as well.

The address is a mailbox or a virtual office.

Google's guidelines say P.O. boxes and mailboxes at remote locations aren't acceptable, and its policy page says a profile with a P.O. box address will be suspended. A rented mailing address where you don't work isn't eligible either. A coworking desk only counts if your business has clear signage there and your own staff in it during your hours.

The roofer who rents a mailbox in the next town over to look local is breaking this rule, and so is the HVAC shop with a virtual office downtown and the trucks parked at home.

There are extra words in the name.

Google's guidelines say unnecessary information in the business name isn't permitted and could result in a suspension. The name on the profile should match the name on your signage and your trucks. "Northgate Plumbing" is a name. "Northgate Plumbing Emergency Plumber Red Deer" is a name with a sales pitch stuck to the end of it, and that's what the rule is about.

There's more than one profile.

Google wants one profile per business, and no more than one per location, whether they sit in one account or several. Trade businesses can end up with two by accident: an old profile a marketing company set up years ago, and the one you made when nobody could find the login. Sort out the extra one so the appeal is about one profile.

A big edit sent it back for review.

Google reviews every edit to a verified profile against its guidelines, and says most are done within 10 minutes, though some take up to 30 days. A name change can mean verifying the business again, and a move to a new address means you have to. A profile that broke one of the rules above for years without trouble can end up in front of a reviewer the week you change the name.

Fix the cause before you appeal.

The appeals tool shows the reason for the decision and links to the policy it's based on. Read that first, because it tells you which of the rules above Google thinks you broke.

Google's own first step is to make sure the profile follows all of its guidelines before you appeal. If the reason was the address, that means the address is hidden and the service area is set. If it was the name, that means the name on the profile matches the name on the trucks.

There are two things not to do. Don't make a new profile for the same business, because Google's help page tells you not to. And don't rush the appeal, because Google says an appeal can only be submitted once, so the first one needs to be the good one.

How to appeal.

The appeal goes through Google's Business Profile appeals tool. It takes three steps.

1. Sign in with the Google Account that owns the profile and open the appeals tool. If the account itself is restricted, clear that first.
2. Pick the profile and the decision you're appealing. The tool shows whether the decision can be appealed at all, and some can't.
3. Attach your evidence and a few plain sentences on why the profile should come back, then submit.

Google lists these as the kind of evidence it wants to see:

• Your business registration.
• A business licence.
• Tax certificates.
• A utility bill, such as a power or phone bill.

The rule that matters most is that the business name and address on every document match the profile. If your registration says "Northgate Plumbing and Heating Ltd." and the profile says "Northgate Plumbing", sort that out before you upload anything. Have the files scanned and ready before you open the tool, so you aren't hunting for a utility bill halfway through.

The written part should say what was wrong and what you changed. "We're a service-area business, the profile showed my home address, and I've hidden it and set our service area to Red Deer and Lacombe" is a better appeal than a paragraph about how long you've been in business.

How long it takes.

Google says appeal reviews and decisions can take up to five business days, and the decision arrives by email. You can also check the status in the appeals tool while you wait.

If the appeal isn't approved, you can ask for an additional review, and that's where any evidence you left out the first time goes. If the suspension came with a restriction on your Google Account, add the time it takes to clear the account first.

The cheaper way to do all of this is before Google does. The SEO strategy checks your profile against the same guidelines, along with the website, and tells you what to change before a reviewer finds it.

If you're a roofer working out of your garage with your home address on show, you don't need to book anything to fix that one. Hide the address and set the service area this week, while the profile still works.