Earlier this year, I sat down to log into my emails and was informed by the mighty Google Gods, in the most matter-of-fact way possible, that no such account existed.

I tried a different browser. Same message. 

A different laptop. Same message. 

My Google account - and with it, my Google Business Profile, my reviews, everything I'd built up over years - had simply gone. 

No warning. No explanation. Just gone.

So, I want to tell you that story, because I think there's something pretty important in it for every business owner in this community.

The hours that followed

The email situation was the most immediately alarming part. Everything runs through Google these days - calendar, contacts, correspondence. The thought of losing all of it was fairly horrible. I had literally over a decade of emails in there (I know, that’s not healthy!)

Fortunately, my emails were restored within a few hours with no damage done. That particular crisis passed quickly.

But my Google Business Profile, with its reviews, its listing, its local search visibility, that was a different story entirely.

 Eight months of trying to get Google's attention

Here's something I think most people that have to deal with such things already know, but nobody warns you before hand: getting Google to actually help you is an experience that will test every last ounce of your patience.

Fortunately, because thebestof is a franchise, I had access to our switched-on IT support - people who know their way around this sort of thing far better than most. They tried. And they simply could not get a response from Google. Not a useful one, anyway.

For eight months, thebestof Sudbury was without any profile: a blank where my business presence used to be. Eight months of chasing a company that, for all practical purposes, doesn't really have a front door you can knock on. 

In that time my business life continued as usual. I hosted an Expo, took on new business and held my monthly networking events. So, to those that this happens to, it’s not the end of the world. 

After eight months of getting precisely nowhere, I realised help wasn't coming, so thought, I might as well just start again from scratch.

So I did. I went through the process of setting up a new Google Business Profile and applying for verification.

I was verified that same afternoon.

Eight months. Countless attempts at getting through to Google. Experienced IT support hitting the same walls. And the answer was there the whole time, waiting for me to just go ahead and do it myself.

I should have done this months ago. And that thought - that slightly rueful, slightly funny realisation - is actually the whole point of this post.

The lesson I Learned

I'm not telling you this to put you off Google. A Google Business Profile is still worth having - it's one of the first things a potential customer sees when they search for you locally, and the reviews that sit on it carry real weight. 

But here's what eight months without one taught me, more clearly than anything else could have:

We do not own any of this.

Google, Meta, Instagram, TikTok, whatever platform you've built your presence on - you are merely a tenant, not an owner. You're building on someone else's land, under someone else's rules, with someone else in charge of whether the lights stay on. And those rules can change without warning, without explanation, and with very little you can do about it.

I know people whose personal Facebook profiles have simply been removed. And because they were the only admin on their business page, that page went with them. Years of content. A decade's worth of followers. Gone. No appeal, no resolution, no path back in. (Please take this as your sign to add a trusted person to co-admin your business page incase something goes wrong!)

It could happen to any of us. It happened to me.

Rented space vs owned ground

The way I think about it now is this: social media and Google are rented space. Brilliant for visibility, useful for reaching people - but rented. And tenants don't get to make the rules.

Owned ground is different. Your website. Your email list. Your real-world reputation and relationships in this community. Your thebestof listing - which sits on infrastructure that isn't subject to the whims of a single algorithm or the inexplicable decisions of a platform you can't get hold of.

These are the things worth investing in. Not instead of social media and Google - alongside them. The goal is to use the rented space to bring people to the ground you own, not to build everything on a foundation someone else controls.

A simple sense check for your own business

Ask yourself honestly: if your Facebook page disappeared tomorrow, what would you lose? If the answer is "most of my customer contact, years of content, and my main way of reaching people" - that's the thing to address.

Here are the owned assets worth having in place:

- A website you control - even a simple one - with your own domain

- An email list, however small, that you can contact directly

- Your contact details and story somewhere platform-independent

- A Google Business Profile - but not as your only presence

- A thebestof listing - independently hosted, search-optimised, and not going anywhere 

None of this means abandoning the platforms you use. It means not being entirely at their mercy.

One last thing...

If you're reading this and your Google Business Profile needs attention - whether it's out of date, unverified, or you've been putting off setting one up - do it today. Don't wait eight months like I did.

It took me an afternoon. I should have done it months ago.

Want to talk about your digital presence?

If you'd like to think through where your business is visible, what you own, and what you're leaving to chance - I'm always happy to have that conversation. Drop me a message.