Google may require double verification for some business profiles

Google updated its help documents to say that it may require you to verify your business with an additional method.

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Google has updated its document on how to verify your business in Google Business Profiles to add that you Google “may require you to verify by more than one method.” This might be related to some fraudulent business profiles being created using one of the verification methods.

Verification methods. Google currently offers several methods to verify a business listing with Google Business Profiles. When this first launched, Google had only the postcard method, where Google would mail the business address a postcard and pin. But Google has added numerous options since, including:

  • Phone or text
  • Email
  • Video recording
  • Live video call
  • Postcard

Double verify. Now, Google may request that some businesses use not just one verification method, but two. Here is a screenshot of the updated document:

Google Business Profiles Additional Verification 1646140395

Stefan Somborac who spotted this said on Twitter that maybe this will lead to “a stricter verification process” and thus possibly “reduce fake locations on Google Maps.”

Why we care. This may add additional steps for you and your customers when verifying their business profiles with Google but hopefully this will reduce fake business listings in Google Maps. Google has not commented on this change, so it is hard to know for sure why Google added that line, but we can all guess it is related to helping ensure the business is a real business.

You may want to communicate to your customers that they may need to verify their business more than one way, if you are working with a business that has yet to verify their business profile in Google.


About the author

Barry Schwartz
Staff
Barry Schwartz is a technologist and a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land and a member of the programming team for SMX events. He owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics.

In 2019, Barry was awarded the Outstanding Community Services Award from Search Engine Land, in 2018 he was awarded the US Search Awards the "US Search Personality Of The Year," you can learn more over here and in 2023 he was listed as a top 50 most influential PPCer by Marketing O'Clock.

Barry can be followed on X here and you can learn more about Barry Schwartz over here or on his personal site.

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