You now have four days to reject edits to your Google Business Profile. Two more rules changed too.

Your Google Business Profile is the listing people see when they look you up on Google. Three changes surfaced this month. Each one needs an owner who checks the profile, and the inbox tied to it.

1. Four days to reject a suggested edit

Google gets suggestions from users to update business profiles. Google’s help page now says that once you are notified of a suggested edit, “you have 4 days to accept or reject the suggestion.”

If you don’t answer, the page says, “Google may automatically publish the update if it is supported by other publicly available information, such as your business website.” The notice may come by email or inside the product. Google also says it may apply some suggested edits to your business information without asking you first.

Search Engine Roundtable reported the new wording on September 23.

2. Reviews can pause after a spam spike

On September 22, Search Engine Roundtable reported a new Google email, based on a screenshot shared on LinkedIn. The email says Google detected a spike in spam reviews on the profile and removed them so they would not affect the rating.

It goes on: “To protect your Business Profile, new ratings, reviews, and other user contributions have been temporarily paused.” The email says Google will lift the pause once the risk is mitigated, “typically within a few days.” If you think real reviews were removed by mistake, it says you can request a review.

One commenter quoted in the report said a former client asked about this email after opening a new location. The commenter said the client is always good at getting a steady stream of reviews, and thought Google questioned the client’s methods.

3. Contact details in Google Posts

Google’s content policy page now says, “To avoid fraud or abuse, we may remove posts with unverified contact information.” It adds that this includes phone numbers, email addresses and social media handles.

A second help page says posts with a phone number in the description “might get rejected if they cannot be verified as being connected to the business on which they are posted.” Search Engine Roundtable reported both changes on September 25. The earlier policy said posts could not include a phone number at all.

Your weekly profile check

1. Make sure the email on your Business Profile goes to someone who reads it every day.
2. When Google tells you about a suggested edit, accept or reject it within four days.
3. Keep your website’s hours, phone number and address the same as your profile. Google says it may publish an edit that your website supports.
4. If you plan a push for reviews, spread it over weeks, and keep a record of who you asked and when. You will want it if you ever need to request a review.
5. Take phone numbers, email addresses and social handles out of your Google Posts. Hiroko Imai, quoted in Search Engine Roundtable’s report, suggests using the post’s link buttons to send people to your website.

What to do this week

• Check which inbox gets your Business Profile notices.
• Compare your website and your profile line by line: hours, phone, address and services.
• Remove contact details from your Google Posts.
• Write down your review count and rating today, so you can spot a pause.

In New Reward’s Rival Map, each question your customers ask is marked you, your rival, or nobody, and every mark is dated.