Google My Business Verification during COVID-19, Updated 21st March 2020 – Verifying your Google My Business listing during the Coronavirus outbreak might prove challenging.
In this post I am going to explain what to do if you are struggling with verifying your GMB listing.
If you want to know how to temporarily update your business listing, make sure you read my previous post on how to update Google My Business during COVID-19.
Google gives you a few options:
The majority of small and medium businesses get to do their Google My Business verification by mail (the other options are available only for selected businesses).
An actual postcard is sent to the physical location of the business within 2-3 weeks from the request.
The postcard includes a PIN that you need to use to verify the listing.
One of the challenges of verifying your business during COVID-19 might be that the physical location of your business is actually closed.
Another challenge might be that the postcard never makes it to your premise, like in the case of this user:
If you can’t verify your business listing by mail and you have already waited more than three weeks, you can try one of the following methods:
Note that Google states how ‘As a precautionary health measure for our support specialists in light of COVID-19, we’re operating with a limited team’.
At the time of writing, I have already raised the issue on two of the contact methods listed above, Facebook and Twitter, and I am still waiting for a response.
In a recent official answer Google states:
Our support team will manually review new listings, claims, and verifications for critical health-related businesses. While we prioritise these critical services, please expect a delay for publication of new listings, claims, and verifications for other types of businesses to Google Search and Maps.
https://support.google.com/business/answer/7107242?hl=en
https://unsplash.com/@gaspanik
https://support.google.com/business/answer/9792336
Pasquale is Founder at Increasily.com, a H2H marketing agency based in Dublin, Ireland, and owner at print-on-demand ecommerce Mintycase.com. Pasquale has worked in Digital Marketing and Account Management since 2004. He currently lives in Dublin with his wife, stepdaughter and cat.
Pasquale Mellone