Auto Repair & Automotive Businesses

This happens because Google's algorithm sees the same address, same phone area, and similar business name and treats it as one entity even though you are running three different departments. To avoid this you need to give each department a distinct name (not just "XYZ Motors" three times), separate phone number for each one and if possible a slightly different entrance or suite number, this way Google's spam detection doesn't auto-merge them.

Yes you can legally create separate listings, Google actually allows this for dealerships as long as each department has its own distinct signage, unique phone line and provides a direct service to walk-in customers (not just an internal department with no public facing function). What gets you suspended is when all three listings share identical info like same generic name and same main phone number, that's when it looks like duplicate spam to Google and they can suspend the whole cluster not just one.

Ghost listings are a huge problem in the tow truck and locksmith industry specifically, these are fake businesses set up by lead-gen scammers using virtual numbers and no real address. What you can do is report each one individually through the Google Business Profile Redressal form with screenshots proving they don't have real presence, you can also flag them directly on Maps by clicking Suggest an Edit and marking it as fake business. It takes time and Google won't remove them overnight so you may have to report the same listings more than once.

First thing, do not try to counter it by buying fake positive reviews, that will make your case worse. Collect all evidence, screenshots of the suspicious reviews, timestamps, and any pattern you notice like all reviews coming in the same day or from accounts with no other review history, then submit an appeal through the Business Profile Help Center explaining it was a coordinated attack. Google usually takes a week or two to respond so don't panic if it's not immediate.

Best way is to catch them while they are still at the counter, send the review link right there through a text message or QR code on the receipt instead of waiting to email them later that day, by the time they get home they already forgot about it. Some shops also train the front desk staff to just ask directly "if you had a good experience would you mind leaving us a quick review" while handing back the keys, sounds simple but it actually works better than any automated follow up email.

Google's system often default to the broadest matching category specially if your business description or website doesn't clearly emphasize your specialty enough. Go into your GBP and manually set your primary category to the specific one like "Transmission Shop" or "Tire Shop" instead of leaving it as general auto repair, and add secondary categories too if you offer more than one specialty. Also make sure the word "transmission" or "tire" actually appears in your business description, Google's algorithm partly reads that to decide relevance.

Google treats reviews as part of the address and place history, not just the active business entity, even if you mark your listing as permanently closed the profile remains on Google Maps so users can see that it is closed and historical reviews stay. What you can do is reply to those reviews in a polite way and clarify that the location is closed and does not offer those services.