Hi everyone,
I’m new here on Local Guides Connect, but I’ve been a Local Guide for many years Google Maps
, mostly contributing by adding missing public places such as sculptures, monuments, and tourist attractions.
For the past week, I’ve tried adding more than 30 new places – ranging from public sculptures to well-known local landmarks – and not a single one has been accepted. Until recently, this always worked fine, and the same type of contributions were approved without problems.
I always make sure the places I add are real, verifiable, and publicly accessible.
Has anyone else experienced this recently? Could this be some kind of temporary restriction, a change in the approval process, or a technical bug?
Any advice or insight would be greatly appreciated – I’d really like to continue helping keep the map in my area complete and accurate.
Thanks in advance,
Vela
Hi everyone,
I’m a Local Guide at Level 8 Google Maps
and have been contributing for many years, mostly by adding missing public places such as sculptures, monuments, and playgrounds.
Until recently, adding new places worked without any issues. For the past few days, however, I haven’t been able to add any missing places at all.
I always make sure the places I add are real, verifiable, and publicly accessible.
Has anyone experienced the same issue lately? Is this maybe a temporary restriction or a known bug?
Any advice or insight would be greatly appreciated – I’d like to continue helping keep the map in my area complete and accurate.
Thanks in advance,
Hi @VelaVela welcome to Connect 
I am quite an active contributor myself when it comes to making edits, and I have not really noticed anything different these past few weeks (and some of those were edits in Germany as well, since I work there), everything gets approved quickly. Although I have to admit that it’s been a while since I tried adding places, I typically make edits to existing data.
Can you give some specific examples of POIs you have tried to add?
Hi @VelaVela
I merged your two posts on the same topic.
Please share you Maps profile link.
Here is my profile
https://www.google.com/maps/contrib/109958279877756835971/edits/@51.331609,12.3759825,5486m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m3!8m2!3m1!1e1?authuser=0&entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDgwNi4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D
Thank you for the quick reply.
Here are some examples – and there are many more, some even located very close to previously approved places. For the past week, I haven’t been able to add a single new place; every submission gets rejected.
I have even tried submitting the same places multiple times under slightly different names, but none of them were accepted. This has never happened before, and it really feels like some kind of invisible restriction or “shadow ban.”
Has there been any recent change to the place-approval process, or could this be a technical glitch?
Hi again @VelaVela
Thanks for your profile link. Please unselect Restricted profile under Settings then Privacy in Maps.
Strictly we can not add places without a proper name. Just using a description or repeating the category in the name field is not good.
Also, trying different spellings of the name is not helpful.
You may want to take a look at
https://www.localguidesconnect.com/t/how-to-get-edits-and-new-places-approved/374518
When the spam filter start not trusting your edits, it will get harder to get new places approved.
All right, thanks, so “shadow ban” after all.
@VelaVela
Thanks for unrestriting your profile.
I see quite a few recent photos not belonging to a place on Maps. Those are probably from your failed attempts to create new places.
Early in my LG career I also did focus on adding sculptures. Here are some tips you can try:
I found an online database with outdoor art. They have a page per sculpture. I make sure to add the correct deep link when creating a new sculpture on Maps.
I decided on the following naming structure: Name of the art piece followed by “by” and then the artists/sculptors name.
Avoid mentioning the term sculpture in the name as this is taken care of in the category field.
Most of your photos are of details zoomed in quite a lot. See https://maps.app.goo.gl/BmGHx8cSJHaLgwxL8. And they seem very similar and dark.
Try adding fewer photos and make sure at least one shows the sculpture in it entirety with some of its surroundings.
And as mentioned before, avoid trying to add places without a proper name.
I hope this helps. You just need to rebuild your trust score for adding new places. It can take some time but don’t give up. Follow the above tips including adding a link mentioning the same name.
Best of luck
Additional remarks to the tips @MortenCopenhagen already shared: in some of your submissions, I notice that you have added a house number. This is something I only do for businesses actually located inside the building the house number belongs to. For playgrounds, sculptures that are near a particular house number, I never include that number, as this is not factually correct. I do make sure the pin is set at the exact location and then only include the street name.
I have no idea if this is one of the reasons your submissions got rejected, but in my view that is the best practice.
Have fun making more edits 
Feel free to restrict your profile again.
Thank you all that responded to my post, I think I have got the shadowbann because I created places too fast and too many in a short time. Unfortunately, there is not really a Google Maps support that you can write and that can solve my Problems. I can only wait and hope that the shadowbann will go away some day.
Best regards
I have to disagree. You can do much more than wait and hope. Delete all photos not attached to a place. And follow my tips and you will likely be up and running again with in a few weeks.
Hello friends,
I wanted to share with you that Google Support has contacted me and apparently wants to look into my issue. Thank you all for your support.
