How I reinstated my Google Business Profile within 12 hours

and more local SEO hacks

February 02, 2026

Hello local SEO enjoyers,

Coffee in hand? Here’s your weekly recap of the most important tips and news ☕️

1. My Google Business Profile was back in 12 hours!

I recently went through the Google Business Profile reinstatement appeal process for Whitespark’s own listing, and I learned a lot along the way.

The appeal itself doesn’t actually take that long. The hard part is everything you need to do BEFORE you submit it.

In my latest YouTube video, I will walk you through:

  • The most common reasons Google Business Profiles get suspended

  • How to fix Profile violations properly

  • What you need to do before submitting a reinstatement appeal

  • Each step of the reinstatement process, explained in detail

  • Common mistakes that lead to denied appeals

Watch the video 👇️

2. A real example of Google Business Profile management done right

This dental client has been working with Whitespark for over a year now. Compared to the previous year, we’ve seen a strong increase in both keyword rankings and overall visibility:

  • 101% increase in phone calls

  • 51% increase in review count

  • 39% increase in website clicks

  • 35% increase in driving direction requests

Dentistry is extremely competitive, so those numbers didn’t happen by accident. They’re the direct result of actively managing and optimizing the client’s Google Business Profile.

Here’s HOW we did it:

  • Researched and added every relevant GBP category for the business.

  • Built out the Services section and kept it updated over time.

  • Added new attributes and kept them updated over time.

  • Researched, added, and continuously updated Q&A (which is going away, sadly).

  • Uploaded a new, optimized cover image.

  • Uploaded new photos and videos on a regular basis.

  • Published weekly Google Posts with fresh, relevant content.

  • Worked with the client on a review strategy to keep reviews coming in consistently.

  • Responded to every new review promptly.

  • Monitored the Profile for changes and dealt with issues immediately (using our GBP Management software Local Platform).

  • Tracked performance and adjusted based on what the data was telling us (using our Local Rank Tracker).

Ongoing work on your Google Business Profile is key if you want to attract and convert more potential customers.

We get results like this for all our clients. Check out the link below to learn how we can get you these kinds of results, too.

3. You need a new strategy for the new “Ask a Question” GBP feature

Now that the AI-powered AAQ feature (acronym for “Ask a Question”, coined by Miriam Ellis) is replacing the Google Business Profile Q&A, you have to know how to effectively feed your business information to AI.

Luckily, Google’s AI-generated answers in Google Maps will give you clues as to where the information comes from.

Instagram Reel

Miriam wrote this excellent checklist for feeding AAQ as much data as possible so that it doesn’t respond with “I don’t have enough information about this place,” which can make your customers move on to a more informative competitor listing:

Learn more about this feature and how to prepare your business accordingly in Miriam’s newest blog post 👇️

4. Catch up on the pod

In last week’s episode of The Whitespark Local Update, Claire and I broke down Andy Crestodina’s video on building a custom ChatGPT that sounds like you and thinks like you, essentially an AI clone of yourself. We also discussed:

  • Query Fan-Out in Practice (Francine Monahan)

  • Tough Reinstatement Season Reminder (Vinay Toshniwal)

  • Common Crawl is Interesting (Cyrus S.)

  • Google’s Announcement on the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) and What It Means for Ecommerce SEO (Aleyda Solis)

  • Meta Title Tags Length SEO Experiment (Dr James Davidson)

Watch the episode here 👇️

🎧 Or if you prefer listening, find it on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

If you’ve missed us over the last couple of weeks, we’d really appreciate a quick review on Apple Podcasts. It helps the show and means a lot to us 🙏

Darren

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