OAKLAND (KCBS RADIO) – An East Bay moving company that has been doing brisk business during the pandemic has abruptly hit a brick wall with Google.
For more, stream KCBS Radio now.
The search giant recently and inexplicably removed "Big Family Movers" – a two-decade old Oakland-based independent company which specializes in residential and small business moves – off the Internet, severely drying up its profits.
The mysterious suspension from the platform interrupted what had been one of the business' most successful stretches.
"We've been in business for 20 years and the last three or four years have been the best year that we've ever had," owner Noah Smith told KCBS Radio.
The company was buoyed by a surge of people trying move out of both San Francisco and California during the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, Smith said phone calls from new clients suddenly dropped way off approximately one month ago. He quickly realized that his business profile for Big Family Movers had disappeared from Google search results, including all of their reviews, their location in Oakland, and their phone number.
"Which is frustrating because we have got eight families that we're trying to support, we're trying to get other families to move and they're not finding us because our Google profile has disappeared,” he told KCBS Radio.
"We were still getting business from our regular customers, thank God," he continued. "But new customers, it just got a lot slower."
Smith said he's had multiple conversations with representatives for the tech firm explaining that the company has been in business for 20 years, is licensed and insured, but still did not receive an explanation for why its profile was suspended.
"If I knew how to address it then I could fix it," he explained. "They have refused to reinstate us still with no explanation."
In a statement to KCBS Radio, a Google spokesperson did not specifically address why Big Family Movers's business profile was suspended, but said that companies without physical storefronts – like Big Family – need to set up a business profile in Google Maps.
"We have published guidelines about the information businesses need to provide in order to list themselves on Google, to ensure that users find the most helpful and accurate information," the spokesperson said. Smith said he's met all the requirements, and they are still losing customers by not having a business profile with Google.
Big Family's misery appears to have company, as there has been a recent spike in the number of businesses reporting that their profiles have been removed from local search results, according to Search Engine Roundtable. It’s not known if the problem is a bug with Google or if the company is now enforcing policies it had not enforced before.
DOWNLOAD the Audacy App
SIGN UP and follow KCBS Radio
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
Related
