Google Business Profile verification: what to film, and what to do when it fails

How verification works

Google won’t show a new profile, or some edited ones, until it has checked the business is real and you run it. The methods are a phone call or text, email, a live video call, a postcard, a video recording, or instant verification for some businesses already proven elsewhere. Google picks which ones you get, from your business type, public information, region and hours. You can’t choose, and some businesses have to do more than one. [1]

A postcard code usually arrives within 14 days and expires after 30. A live video call only happens during your business hours. A video recording is reviewed within about five business days, occasionally longer. [1]

The video recording: what Google wants to see

Every video must be one continuous, unedited recording of at least 30 seconds, filmed live on your phone and uploaded from it. Pre-recorded clips are not accepted. [2] Then it has to show three things:

The wording in each row is Google’s. [2] Leave out bank, tax and ID numbers, private information and other people’s faces.

If you work from home

Many trades in the Fraser Valley run from a home and a truck. Google still asks for identifiers at your business address, so film there, not at a job site or a friend’s shop. A sequence that covers all three rows:

1. Start at the street sign nearest your address, then walk or pan to the house number. You don’t need to show the house itself.
2. Without stopping, go to the truck or the garage: the tools, the equipment, the stock you work with. A truck with your business name on it helps, though that is practitioner advice, not Google’s wording. [3]
3. Unlock the truck or the tool storage, or open the invoicing app on your phone with your business name on screen.
4. Keep family members and neighbours out of the frame.

Your address stays hidden on the profile either way. Hiding it is what Google requires of a business that doesn’t serve customers there. A virtual office or a mailbox address is a common reason verification fails, hidden or not. [3]

Why verification fails

The reasons practitioners see most often: [3]

• The name, address or phone on the profile doesn’t match what Google finds elsewhere, or what the video shows.
• Keywords added to the business name (“Smith Plumbing – Best Plumber Abbotsford”).
• The video doesn’t show one of the three things: where, the business, and that you run it.
• A duplicate profile for the same business.
• Lots of edits to key details in a short time.
• A PO box or virtual office as the address.

Switching the profile to a service-area business does not get you out of video verification. [3]

Edits that make you verify again

Google says that if you change your business name you might need to verify again, and if you move address you must. [4] Practitioners also report re-verification after big category changes, though Google’s help page doesn’t say so. Make key edits together, in one session, rather than one a day. The same profile also feeds Local Services Ads: as those move into Google Ads, a name or address change is reported to trigger a review that can pause the campaign. [5] Local Services Ads vs SEO.

What the result means, and what to do

• “Review issues” with reasons: it was rejected. Fix what it names and film again.
• A retry button and no reasons: it failed; film again, covering all three rows. [3]
• Another method offered: the video passed, and Google wants one more check.
• Still under review after a week: contact support from the verification status screen. [3]
• Suspended: use Google’s appeals tool, with your business registration, licence or a utility bill showing the same name and address as the profile. You can appeal once; Google may offer a further review if it is denied. Never create a new profile for the same business. [6]

Where Merkat sits

For a new client, we prepare the profile with them and plan the verification video before they start, shot by shot, so the first attempt has everything Google asks for. The client creates and owns the profile; we get manager access.