Gidday all, did you get an email from G saying "We’re simplifying our policies and guidelines"?

Went to check it out, and saw that I'm no longer an "eligible business".

"Ineligible businesses

The following are examples of businesses that aren’t eligible for a Business Profile:

Rental or for-sale properties such as vacation homes, model homes, or vacant apartments. Sales or leasing offices, however, are eligible for verification.
An ongoing service, class, or meeting at a location that you don't own or have the authority to represent.
Lead generation agents or companies.
Brands, organizations, artists, and other online-only businesses.
Any business whose address is listed as a P.O. box or mailbox in a remote location."

Well that rules out a lot of online only businesses, doesn't it?

Especially those in the travel and tourism vertical. And those, like me, who live at a "remote location".

And given a recent Skift report by Dennis Schaal, on July 27th, 2023 asked; "Has travel been downgraded a tad at Google? This much is clear: Executives don’t talk about travel as among the company’s highest priorities.

Parent company Alphabet’s chief business officer, Philipp Schindler, told analysts Tuesday that Google’s “three key priority areas” are Artificial Intelligence, retail, and YouTube. For retail, think fashion, electronics, and furniture, for example.

In the previous two quarters, Google specifically cited retail and travel as driving revenue growth in Google’s “Advertising, Search and Other” segment."

So, perhaps that's why online and travel vertical businesses have now been explicitly excluded from GBP?

If so, I'm breathing a sigh of relief actually. My GMB profile was always a bit of a pain to manage, so it's one less thing to have on a checklist.

(And maybe I'll ramp up my YouTube channel instead?)