What is the Difference Between a Disabled and a Suspended Google Business Profile?

According to Brad Wetherall, former Director of Google Business Profile Team at Google, in order to understand the difference between a disabled and suspended listing, you first have to understand the fact that Google works with multiple databases.

The Google Business Profile Database vs the Google Maps Database

When you have a Google Business Profile (GBP), there are two databases of information, the GBP Database and the Maps database.  The GBP database is where all the business data lives.  This is what you see/edit when you go to business.google.com. The Maps database is where all the information lives about the location.  

The Maps Database is public and viewable, while the GBP database is where you make edits.  Since the GBP database is not live and viewable to the public, this is why you may see things like “pending.”  So, once that “pending” flag goes away and the edits are published, they are then pushed to the Maps database.

What is a Disabled Google Business Profile?

A listing is disabled when the connection between the two databases is broken, so you cannot make any changes to the listing. 

Often this means that disabled listings still exists on the map side and should be viewable to the public, but you have no access to it via the profile dashboard.

It’s possible that a listing is disabled and also unverified, which Google sometimes does for retired practitioner listings, and in those cases the listing would not be live anywhere on Google Maps. 

What is a Suspended Google Business Profile?

A Google Business profile is suspended when issues have come to Google’s attention, which pulls the listing down on the maps side and marks it as “suspended” on the GBP database side.  The only way to get it back is to fix the issue that got you suspended.