Last week the Google listing was there. This week it is gone, and the email says deceptive content. You work from the house. You go to the customer. The van is lettered. The invoices are real. It still feels like you got accused of running a fake shop.
That label does not always mean you invented a business. On a legitimate Canadian home-based service-area profile it often means the public facts look like a storefront that is not there. A house address showing as if customers walk in. A website that never says the province. A category that is a side credential, not the trade. Reviewers sitting in another country cannot guess that “Maple Ridge” is in British Columbia.
This is not a 4,000-word do-it-yourself. If you want the long public walk-through of every button in Google’s form, that already exists elsewhere. This is the part we see Canadian trades skip — and the part that burns the next appeal.
Write down the last edit
Category, phone, pin, name, website. Whatever changed last is the first thing a reviewer will look at. If you do not remember, say so. Do not invent a tidy story for the form. A sloppy second filing can close the door.
Hide the house
If you have no shop counter and you go to the customer, hide the street address on the Google profile. Showing a house as a storefront is a common way a real SAB gets this label. Hiding the address is not hiding the business. It is how a service-area listing is supposed to look. The website can still say the city you verified from, the province, and the postal codes you serve. Town names alone are not enough.
A vendor who takes the login, pins the Maps marker on the house, then bills as “your Google account rep” is a public complaint pattern. We never take manager. You keep the account. Do not share the Google password with anyone, including us.
Do not rebuild
Do not open a second listing “just in case.” Do not delete this one and start again. Google’s own appeal help says not to create a new Business Profile for the same business while an appeal is open. A new listing does not skip the queue. Some statuses read “Can’t be appealed.” Deleting the listing does not reset that. We will not tell you to wipe the profile and rebuild.
Match the Canadian paper
Name and address on the files should match the listing under appeal. Unmatched docs are weak evidence. The named extracts sit on the evidence map.
- Ontario — Business Registry, WSIB, Skilled Trades Ontario. Ontario checklist.
- British Columbia — registry, WorkSafeBC, Technical Safety BC. BC checklist.
- Quebec — REQ, CNESST, RBQ. Quebec checklist.
Plus municipal or regional licence, CRA business number, Hydro in the operating name. A U.S. storefront photo and a utility bill in a residential name are a weak start for a Canadian home-based trade.
One appeal. Sixty minutes once the form opens.
Official Google Help — not us: once you open the evidence form, you must submit it within 60 minutes or it will not be attached to your appeal. Have the files named and ordered before you start. File one. Wait. Do not stack appeals for the same issue before a decision. Do not dump licences or Hydro bills in a public forum thread.
The public pre-appeal list is here: If your Canadian trade listing just died. The short deceptive-content page is here. After a deny: appeal path. After a deny: appeal path.
Official Google help:
If it comes back
Reinstatement means the listing is showing again. It is not a return to previous map rank, pack position, or review visibility. Google’s own help says reviews can be removed after a profile is reinstated. Nobody honest can promise Google’s answer. Back on Maps is not affiliated with Google. We are not a Google Partner. Partner is an Ads program, not a reinstatement queue.
We will not invent a win rate. We will not tell you the listing “usually” returns in a set number of days. A Google no is not a refund after the Packet files are sent. Diagnose first. Pay only if we take the file.
If you want a second pair of eyes, use the form. Tell us the province, storefront or service-area, how many appeals you already filed, and what the email said. If it is a fit, you get a payment link for the Packet (CA$129) or Done-for-you (CA$497). GST extra. If it is not, you owe nothing. No card on the form.
Request a diagnosis
Canadian trades and clinics only. Home-based SABs are the core. If it is a fit, you get a payment link. If it is not, you owe nothing.
Request a diagnosis