This episode documents the fifth failed attempt to verify a Google Business Profile despite meeting stated requirements, revealing Google’s inconsistent verification standards and the strategic importance of organic search rankings. The verification process now demands permanent outdoor signage, live video walkthroughs, and physical business infrastructure—a dramatic increase from the simple process five years ago.
Key Takeaways:
- Google’s verification goalposts shift between review attempts Yard signs passed initial guidance but failed actual review; printouts worked previously but now require permanent plaques or banners nailed to exterior doors.
- Organic traffic ROI justifies significant hassle SEO consultant confirms Google Business Profiles serve as anchor nodes for both traditional search and AI rankings, delivering 100x+ returns despite verification obstacles.
- Appeal processes disappear into corporate black holes Three-strike policies trigger without notification, requiring manual case reopening; large corporations provide essentially zero functional customer service for resolution.
The full episode details specific workarounds for home-based businesses navigating Google’s opaque verification maze while explaining why the effort remains worthwhile.
(Podcast transcript below)
Welcome to Get Serious. I’m returning to that topic about the Google Business Profile verification process, yet another update and failure to have to overcome in regard to that. And I know for some of you, it’s like, yeah, Chris, why are you talking about this one so much, this particular issue? And,
Again, first you have to just know your numbers, where your leads primarily coming in, what’s your best advertising mechanism to generate business. And for us, that’s been organic traffic, kind of by a long shot. Word of mouth, all that kind of plays a role into doing that. in terms of just resources thrown at advertising, the organic side has just worked extremely.
well for us and we have an excellent foothold there. So it just comes back into, you know, dealing with kind of the, you know, quote unquote boring sides of the business is how do you optimize for, for what’s working and you know, get an even bigger leg up on areas of the business that you already have an advantage in and organic traffic is that area for us. So,
Yeah, to bring folks up to speed a bit is we’ve been trying to get verified on Google My Business. I’ve mentioned this a few times over the past couple months here. And it’s because our SEO consultant just keeps remarking, hey, Google is just they’re paying to work with, but so many of the kind of SEO crawlers and both the GEO crawlers, which are the AI, LLM,
mechanisms like they use Google Business Profiles as a kind of core node to build up authority for SEO and geo purposes. And I don’t know all the exact particulars. It’s just our consultant who has done excellent work for us and is very well informed. like, yeah, if you guys can figure this out, great. But it’s just that Google has upped their…
you know, the moat to get accepted as a Google business profile significantly. Again, I remember it used to be like a couple step process a few years ago, maybe five years ago. Now it’s just way harder to do a whole video verification process. You know, if you’re a brick and mortar, it’s no problem at all here, but you know, how many of our businesses are just online focused or almost exclusively online, in which case, you know, Google says, hey, you shouldn’t
We don’t even…
you know, allow for Google business profiles. So, you know, I have to kind of stretch the truth a bit because technically we do have some type of clients that will show up at the office. You know, we have no reason here. So we have a physical location to host our business operations. But, you know, like almost everything is online oriented and because they run the business almost exclusively out of my home office.
you know, in a relatively suburban neighborhood of Austin, like, you know, it’s not like there’s a ton of kind of commercial activity in the area. So it would just be odd to have kind of physical advertising. It’s not like, you know, we have walk-in customers or anything. So, but that’s what Google requires to get accepted here. And so the previous version or the previous update to this story is that
When I was on another live video call with a Google rep, they said, hey, you need permanent signage. You know, I had like a printout on my door, which had gotten accepted a couple of times prior, just on the like AI reviewed verification. But this time they were like, no, you need permanent signage. You need like a plaque or a banner, something nailed to the door wall of the business or even a yard sign. Like that perked my ears up. Yard sign seems like.
All right, that’s the easiest thing to put up the lease permit and can pass the verification. So I double checked and I confirmed it. Like you’re telling me like the yard sign is all I need to get accepted here. And like, yep, yeah, you can do that. we spent the 50 bucks, got a yard sign ordered. Then we had to go through a whole nother process of putting in a ticket to Google because they said we were out of verification attempts again. So we had to wait.
longer period of time to even allow ourselves to have the opportunity to get verified once more, which is just another pain that you have to deal with. Some of these larger corporations, they have no solid customer service. You’re just stuck in line for forever. Even though they said that, hey, you can jump right back on a video verification. No, that did not happen. So we just got our case.
you know, opened again today to where it’s like, okay, you can submit another live video. So I had my whole yard sign set up everything and went through the call and they had a couple of questions that the yard saying, like, Hey, you know, your rep said that was fine. Here it is. And then walked up to the office, show the workstation, but like they were kind of grilling me with questions. were like, you know, can, can you go through all of your kind of tech stack tools that you’re utilizing for the business? Um, do you have like dedicated and
employee related infrastructure within the improvement that you’re in, really the house, like a bathroom or office space and all that. I’m like, yeah, this is the office space. Here we have a dedicated bathroom. What have you? I’ll take clients downstairs. All of that is true. It’s just, again, kind of stretches what might be thought of as a pure commercial location.
And then I was just on standby and on hold for almost half an hour with the rep here. And he kept coming back. So, you know, it’s a long process. trying to get you verified and so forth. it’s just, it’s, it’s kind of crazy how many hoops you have to jump through, um, just to be able to list a business on, Google. Um, uh, uh, again, I know this is, you know, I’d already failed four times before, so maybe it’s just a higher threshold to, uh, to pass. Um,
And then they came back and they were like, Nope, you didn’t you didn’t pass again because you didn’t have permanent signage. I’m like, well, you know, you guys keep moving the goalposts. The previous reps that yard sign was going to work. Now you’re saying it’s not like you need to tell me 100 % clearly what is permanent signage actually mean? And they’re like, OK, you need some type of plaque or sign, even banner, you know, nailed or fixed to the door while the business. I’m like, OK, you know.
let me clarify this even more. you’re telling, I’m kind of thinking like, would be the simplest route to do? So if you’re telling me I got a vinyl banner affixed to the door of my business and you know, does that need, can that be on the office door itself? Can it be indoors? And they were like, no, it needs to be outdoors. Which again is another goalpost move because previous reps have told me I can be indoor on the wall of the office to enter it.
And so it’s like, okay, let me just keep again, like you’re talking to AI. Let me go keep clarifying these questions to make sure that I have, you know, full transcript and exactly what I need and like, okay, is there anything else related to our verification that did not pass or is it purely that like, yep, it’s just the permanent signage. You got to get that up and then you will pass. And it looks like I can immediately set up another live video call. So I don’t need to appeal the case again. So
What I went ahead and did was send all that info to our ops manager. like, okay, go to AI, take all this and figure out what is the simplest route to get permanent signage for the business. But it is like a huge hassle. I don’t know about huge, but it’s a significant hassle to have to go through. Cause like I live here, I have to affix something permanent, maybe even nail into.
my front door and then like immediately take it down once we do get verified. So, you know, there’s going to have to be some damage repair after, you know, for the sake of the business. If it brings us, you know, some more deals, okay, fine. That’s a, that’s a worthy sacrifice, but you know, it’s still a, a large step that we have to go through to even get verified in the first place. So we’re trying to work through that right now so we can order something else. Yeah, maybe we can even find some type of plaque that
You know, I don’t know maybe you could do like kind of those sticky hangers on the back That would probably be a little bit easier, you know, hang up You know like holiday decorations on or something. That’s actually
That’s actually probably a better better setup versus having to nail nail something in.
So yeah, I’m kind of even live thinking about it right now on the podcast, just again, trying to like figure out how do I get this thing to pass and not have to spend again too much money on it and then be able to take it down right away. So just wanted to mention all that again, because I have a feeling, you know, maybe none of you guys have thought or had to go through this process here, but again, know, SEO and GEO continue to be, you know, very significant.
benefits to most businesses, including ours in the land industry here. So, you know, it’s the boring stuff that makes progress. And so I just wanted to give you some tips so you can avoid, you know, failing this test five times in a row like we have, and you could just nail it on your first shot without, you know, losing two months of…
possible benefits because we have to keep going back to the well and keep fixing errors that we just keep making. hopefully this one is helpful today. Seriousland.capital for any of your funding needs. Again, 50K minimum purchase price. Just got a few big ones in today, actually. I mean, like a $2 million deal that we’re going to take a look at in North Carolina. And Land Daily Diligence Facebook groups or cost review of your land deals.
and Landpricer.ai, the most reliable land pricing tool on the market. With that in mind, take care, everybody. Subscribe and share. Bye.
