What is triggering Google account suspensions?
-
Over the past 24 hours many of our clients have had their Google accounts suspended. The explanation has been:
"After reviewing your profile, we determined that it has been used to impersonate another individual or mislead other users. This violates the Google+ User Content and Conduct Policy."
We are NOT impersonating our clients, we have their permission. We are not misleading anyone, simply setting up profiles for our clients on Google+.
This has not affected all of our clients, but a significant number of them. We cannot find a common variable between the clients that have been suspended, and those who have not.
- Some have had other Google+ profiles in the past, in another account, some have not.
- Some have been previously verified via SMS, others by phone.
- Some have posts in their profile, others have only the profile info filled out.
Again, we are not trying to game Google, we are simply setting up authorship for them, with their permission.
I have not seen much in the SEO community about this today, and this is NOT related to fake reviews. We do not partake in that kind of activity.
We have written a post on the topic, and no matter how this shakes out, I think our take is solid. Authorship is changing the game, content is changing the game, trust is changing the game… and Google is getting serious about it.
We have also seen this happen to our clients, to our competitors' clients, and to other marketing firms' clients, outside of our vertical.
Does anyone know more about the topic, especially in regards to the suspensions over the past 24 hours?
-
Another point. It doesn't have to be the business owner who does the verification and uses his own IP address. It can be the receptionist or anyone else. All I need is for the business owner to tell the employee to expect my call and follow my instructions. On one occasion, the employee even called me from home because she had no web access at work.
-
I am completely with Daniel here - IP's can trigger this. I know you say you don't think this is IP related, but there are many other instances of this happening. Why Google might favour some over others is anyones guess, but this is where I would place my bets.
-
Thanks for your feedback Daniel. We've tried this before, but with our volume + limited access to the actual business owners, its very difficult. Again, I don't believe this is a IP issue. The same thing happened to competing company's clients in our vertical that are smaller than ours (including some individual consultants that wouldn't trip an IP filter), within the same 48 hour period.
-
FWIW, I try to have my clients set up their own Google+ accounts, then share the login and password with me.
This is generally done during one of my update calls or web meetings, with me talking them through the process
-
Boy the thought has crossed my mind that the number for verification might get tagged. Going to have to start creating Skype accounts or something?
-
Thanks for your response. I know they can track IPs, but this appears to be something different. It hit our clients, and our competitors clients, on the same day.
I am thinking they targeted our vertical for some reason.
Also, many but not all accounts were affected.
Smells like there's more to this story than just "IP volume tracking", since we deal with that and similar volume issues often (like using the same ph# repeatedly for verification).
-
Hi, Even though you are setting up accounts for your clients, creating too many from the same IP would trigger the suspension. This is nothing new. I remember hearing about this last year. Mash
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
When a company lets you go, what is the standard practice for a moz account? Do you simply turn it over and lose all access and moz identity? Or?
Since MOZ is a community, it seems odd to simply turn over my moz account now the company has let me go. Do people typically do this and simply start a new account every time they work someplace new? Or what? I wanted to seek out what the community thought about this -- so that I would have a better idea of how to handle this now and for the next time.
Industry News | | CCFilson0 -
Google penalty removal expert questions
We have searched online for a Google penalty “expert” (individual or company) and have located what appear to be “experts”. Please provide feedback on the following 2 individuals/companies we have found that can help with penalty removal. Have you or one of your clients used either of the “experts” below? What were the results? How many disavows and reconsideration requests did you/they have to make? 1.www.penaltypros.com . To give a quote and to see what your links are they use links from Google Webmaster Tools only. Penaltypros.com disavows first and then removes bad links second. This is opposite of what Google and Seo’s recommend but penaltypros.com claims 100% success using this non-traditional approach. See imgur.com link for screenshot. 2.http://www.hiswebmarketing.com/ To give a quote and to see what your links are they use links from https://ahrefs.com/ only. Please provide any and all feedback on the above 2 “experts” and also post the websites, individual names, company names of those that you consider Google penalty removal “experts” so that we may obtain a quote from them. Lp9F3FI
Industry News | | RetractableAwnings.com1 -
Google Penguin 2.0 - Coming soon
There is an interesting article on SEW that Google is going to update Penguin to the next major version - http://bit.ly/15Vkr6O So what do you think, what should we expect? And also, is there available updated webmaster guidelines?
Industry News | | ditoroin1 -
Will Google ever begin penalising bad English/grammar in regards to rankings and SEO?
Considering Google seem to be on a great crusade with all their algorithm updates to raise the overall "quality" of content on the Internet, i'm a bit concerned with their seeming lack of action towards penalising sites that contain terrible English. I'm sure you've all noticed this when you attempt to do some proper research via Google and come across an article that "looks" to be what you're after, then you click through and realise it's obviously been either put together in a rush by someone not paying attention or putting much effort in, or been outsourced for cheap labour to another country whose workers aren't (close to being) native speakers. It's getting really old trying to make sense of articles that have completely incorrect grammar, entirely missing words, verb tenses that don't make any sense, randomly over-extravagant adjectives thrown in just as padding, etc. etc. No offense to all those from non-native speaking countries who are attempting to make a few bucks online, but this for me is becoming by far more of an issue in terms of "quality" of information online as opposed to some of the other search issues that are being given higher priority, and it just seems strange that Google have been so blasé about it up to this point - especially given so many of these articles and pages are nothing more than outsourced filler for cheap traffic. I understand it's probably hard to code in something so advanced, but it would go a long way towards making the web a better place in my opinion. Anyone else feeling the same way? Thoughts?
Industry News | | ExperienceOz1 -
Google Will Penalize Sites Repeatedly Accused Of Copyright Infringement
Has someone filed a large number of DMCA “takedown” requests against your site? If so, look out. That’s the latest penalty that may cause you to rank lower in Google’s search results. It joins other penalties such as “Panda” and “Penguin.” We’re dubbing it the “Emanuel Update” in honor of Hollywood mogul Ari Emanuel, who helped prompt it. Read more here: http://searchengineland.com/dmca-requests-now-used-in-googles-ranking-algorithm-130118 What do you guys think MOZERS?
Industry News | | Chenzo0 -
Hello, Actually I have bit of doubt. If I create Google plus business page. Will it helpful or effects for my website ranking?
If I create Google plus business page. Will it helpful or effects for my website ranking?
Industry News | | jaybinary0 -
Has there been any feedback from Google regarding their mass mail blunder?
I received a mail yesterday from a Joseph Middleswart from Google welcoming me to the beta trial for real time analytics. But my enjoyment at finally being able to see what's happening with real time data on my site was tempered by the 100+ spam mails I received immediatly after from some of the 200 odd people he'd included in the bulk mailing. Coming less than a week after Google tells us it's withholding keyword data from GA in order to protect the privacy of logged in users, I'm absolutely dumfounded at their incompetence. How can they show such a flagrant disregard for my privacy in introducing a new service while dressing up a restriction on another service as a security / privacy matter? Did anyone else fall victim to this incompetence?
Industry News | | 2Stroke0 -
Is it Google's new interface for search result?
Hi, While searching on Google, i came across a new search result page without underlines in the titles of search snippets. Is Google experimenting with something new or there is some problem in my browser. I checked it in Firefox but at the same time when i checked it on IE, normal page was visible. Regards photostream
Industry News | | IM_Learner0