Google Business Profile suspended: how a law firm gets its listing back

SEO8 min readReviewed 11 September 2026

This article is the detailed version; for the wider setup and optimisation picture, see our Google Business Profile guide for law firms.

Why legal gets hit harder than most categories

Suspensions are not distributed evenly across industries. Law firms attract them disproportionately, and it is structural rather than bad luck.

• The premises rarely look like a business to Google. A large share of Australian firms occupy a suite on level four of a shared commercial building, or a first-floor office above a shop on a suburban high street, with no street-level signage bearing the firm’s name. Google’s verification process is looking for exactly that signage.
• Firm names change constantly. Mergers, partner departures and rebrands are routine in legal and rare in most other categories. A sudden change to name, address or phone is itself a trigger, and firms often change several at once.
• Multi-solicitor firms create multiple listings. Usually with good intentions, usually without meeting the conditions that make it permissible.
• Serviced offices are common. Regus, Servcorp and similar arrangements are popular with smaller and newer firms, and they are among the most reliable ways to get suspended.

Soft suspension vs hard suspension: check which one you have

These are materially different problems and the distinction determines how worried you should be.

Soft suspensions are both more common and more recoverable. A hard suspension means Google has formed a view about the legitimacy of the business itself, which is a longer conversation and needs stronger documentary evidence.

The six triggers, in order of how often we see them

1. An address that isn’t genuinely staffed during your stated hours. This is the big one. Google’s requirement is a real location where someone from your firm is present during the opening hours you publish and where a client could physically turn up. Listing hours of 9-5 for an office that is only occupied for appointments fails this test.
2. A virtual office, serviced office, coworking desk or mailbox. If your firm does not genuinely occupy the space full time, it is a breach regardless of whether you pay for the address.
3. Keywords in the business name field. "Smith & Co Family Lawyers Parramatta" is a suspension waiting to happen if the firm’s actual registered and signage name is "Smith & Co". The name field must match the real-world name, the one on your door, your letterhead and your ASIC registration. This one stings because the keyword-stuffed version genuinely does rank better, right up until it disappears.
4. Multiple profiles for one firm at one address. Covered in detail below.
5. Several NAP changes at once. Changing name, address and phone in the same week after a merger reads to Google’s systems like a hijacked listing. Stagger changes and expect re-verification.
6. Duplicate listings created during a previous problem. Often the residue of someone creating a "new" listing when the original stopped working.

The practitioner listing rule most firms get wrong

Google has a specific policy for what it calls individual practitioners, public-facing professionals with their own client base, a definition that explicitly covers lawyers alongside doctors and real estate agents. This is the most law-firm-specific part of the whole topic, and it is where well-intentioned firms create the most risk.

A solicitor may have their own profile alongside the firm’s, but only if:

• They are genuinely public-facing and carry their own client base, and
• They can be contacted directly at the verified address during the hours stated on the profile.

The conditions that catch firms out:

• One profile per practitioner, not one per specialisation. A solicitor practising in both family and criminal law gets one profile, not two.
• Of-counsel and contract lawyers generally do not qualify, because they do not maintain their own staffed location.
• If the practitioner is the firm, there should be one listing, not two. A sole practitioner trading under their own name does not get both a personal and a firm profile. This is one of the most common duplicate-listing suspensions in legal.
• It often doesn’t help anyway. Google filters listings sharing an address out of the local pack, so a firm with six solicitor profiles at one address will not occupy six of the three available slots. The upside is frequently zero while the suspension risk is real.

Video verification: what changed

Google now requires video verification for most new and re-verified profiles, which has quietly raised the bar for firms whose premises are hard to evidence. You are typically asked to record a single continuous walkthrough demonstrating three things: that the location is real and matches the address, that the business genuinely operates there, and that you are authorised to manage it.

For a law firm that practically means filming exterior signage bearing the firm’s name and, ideally, the street or building number, then walking to and into the office showing interior signage or reception, then showing something that proves management authority, a letterhead, a business card, a matter file cover, or the practice management system open on a screen.

Where firms fail: no exterior signage at all, signage showing the building’s name rather than the firm’s, a walkthrough that cuts between clips rather than running continuously, or filming a room that could be any office with nothing tying it to the firm.

The reinstatement sequence

Order matters here more than anything else. Most failed appeals fail because the firm appealed before fixing the breach.

1. Work out what the actual breach is. Google’s suspension notice is generic. Audit honestly against the six triggers above rather than assuming it was a mistake.
2. Fix it, properly, first. Remove keywords from the name field. Correct the address or switch to a service-area configuration. Delete genuine duplicates. If the issue is an unstaffed office, that is an operational decision to make before appealing, not after.
3. Gather evidence. Photographs of exterior and interior signage showing the firm’s name; a lease, rates notice or utility bill in the firm’s name at that address; and business registration documents, in Australia, your ASIC extract or ABN registration. A practising certificate proves you are a lawyer, not that you occupy the premises, so it is not the document Google is asking for.
4. Submit one appeal through the official appeals tool with the evidence attached and a plain statement of what was wrong and what you changed.
5. Do not create a replacement listing while the appeal is open. It muddies the case and can result in both listings being removed.
6. Wait. Three to fourteen business days for straightforward cases; three to six weeks for complex ones.

What this costs you while it’s down

For a firm relying on local search, a suspension is not a cosmetic problem. The map pack is where a meaningful share of "lawyer near me" and suburb-qualified searches convert, and a suspended profile removes you from it completely while your competitors stay put. Organic listings are unaffected, which is one practical argument for not depending on the profile alone, our local SEO guide covers how the two work together, and local SEO services if you would rather it were handled.

The other cost is reviews. A firm that abandons a suspended profile and starts fresh restarts at zero, and years of accumulated reviews do not transfer. That alone usually justifies appealing properly rather than starting again, see how to get more Google reviews for how long rebuilding actually takes.

Prevention: the pre-flight check

Before you change anything on a healthy profile, or set one up for a new office:

• Does the name field exactly match the name on your signage, letterhead and ASIC registration, with no added practice areas or suburbs?
• Is someone from the firm physically at the address during every hour you have published?
• Is there exterior signage with the firm’s name that could be filmed?
• Is there exactly one profile per genuine location, plus practitioner profiles only where the conditions above are genuinely met?
• If you are mid-merger or rebrand, are you staggering the name, address and phone changes rather than doing them together?

If you cannot answer all five cleanly, you have a suspension risk sitting on the shelf. Fixing it while the profile is healthy takes an afternoon; fixing it after a suspension takes weeks. If you would like someone to run this check across your firm’s listings, a free growth plan includes it.

Sources

• Google, Guidelines for representing your business on Google (business name, address and individual practitioner rules)
• Google Business Profile Community, Guide to handling suspensions (soft vs hard suspension, appeals)
• Sterling Sky, Top reasons Google suspends listings
• Sterling Sky, Guide to practitioner listings