Does Google Require GMB Re-Verification?

Short Answer: Yes, if the GMB email/profile has not been accessed and contact (email) attempts have gone unanswered.

Solution: Simply login or re-verify listings as needed. Doing this once every 5 months would avoid the need for GMB re-verification.

Impact: Specifically there is not a ton of buzz around the potential impact. From forum experts and general opinion there seems to be little to no impact ranking wise. Google reviews seem to drop due to unverified listing not being a part of Google’s review database. This is not to say usability declines which can indirectly effect ranking. Below is a discussion between a Google verified expert and a business owner.

Troy Stevens Stelzer Painting 3/21/14

I've read the FAQs and searched the help center. 

My URL is: www.paintcontractorportland.com

For over a year now, I've been paying a marketing company to develop and manage my social media sites, (as well as other tasks).  Despite the fact that I've told them several times that my Google Places Page for my company, Stelzer Painting Inc., wasn't verified, they kept reassuring me that it was verified...until today, when the owner of the company admitted it wasn't and that he'd take care of it.  My question is, would having an unverified Google Places Page negatively impact my rankings?  I would certainly assume so, but wanted to hear from an expert.  Just fyi, I do have a Google Plus Page which has been verified.  

Hello Troy,

Unverified Local listings should not have a penalty ranking over verified ones, one of the common complaints in the forum is from business owners with verified business listings asking why unverified ones rank better than theirs.

I see that you have a verified Local listing for some time now
https://plus.google.com/+PaintContractorPortland/about?gl=us&hl=en
It is a Google+ Page

That is all you should need, I do not know what procedure your marketing company used to create it but they should not attempt to create another one through Places. There can be only one verified Local listing per location regardless if the business listing was created through Places or Google+

Treebles 3/22/14

Troy Stevens Stelzer Painting 3/23/14

Thank you for your reply.  One quick follow-up question if you don't mind...Would having an unverified Google Places listing keep Google from compiling reviews of my company?  I read that once your Business Places Page is Verified, Google will begin to compile reviews, (at their discretion), from various directories, to display with a users search query.  Either snippets of those reviews and/or a rating system, (up to 5 stars), is also displayed.  My marketing company said that they only begin to do this after you have 30 reviews.  Is that true?

Hello Troy,

The ratings appear after your Local listing gets 10 reviews, Google keeps changing the threshold, it might be lower now but definitively it is not 30.

I do not know what you mean by unverified Places listing in this context.

Unverified Places listings cannot be part of the Local database and collect reviews, but you have a verified Local listing and it is collecting reviews so I am not sure what you are asking.

Treebles 3/26/14

Source: http://bit.ly/1QJIiZ3

Issue/Scenario: When a client creates or verifies their GMB profile but never logs back into their profile or email Google looks at this as stale/old information that could be incorrect. In an effort to avoid a bad user experience they have made a hard rule that business owners must login at the least to show some activity or confirmation that the listing is still accurate. Below is a direct message from a Google employee explaining in more detail the reasoning for the re-verification process.

In some cases, we may contact Google My Business users via email to confirm that they are still actively managing a business page. If a user is unresponsive to our attempts to contact him or her and has not logged into Google My Business for a significant length of time, then we may unverify pages in the account. We're doing this in order to continue to provide users with the best experience when they’re looking for local businesses like yours. If you find that a page in your account has been incorrectly unverified, please contact support to get assistance restoring verification.

It's a good idea to keep an eye on the inbox associated with your Google My Business (Locations) account. It's also a good idea to regularly log into Google My Business (Locations) to confirm that your business information is current and accurate. – Jade W (Google Employee)

Source: http://bit.ly/1QJIiZ3

They do try to avoid this issue as much as possible. They try to make contact to the business owner with an email explaining the need to login and double check their information for accuracy. That way the business listing can stay verified and labeled as such. Below is an example of an email sent to an advertiser regarding their business listing. 

Dear business owner,

Thanks for being part of the small business community on Google. This email requires action from you so your Google My Business pages can maintain their current ‘verified’ status. It’s very quick—it shouldn’t take more than a couple of minutes.

We’re doing this because we haven’t heard from you in a while, and we want to make sure that people looking for your following businesses find the most up-to-date information on Google:

• Googleplex (business name)

Simply follow these three easy steps:

1. Sign in to your Google My Business account. Click here if you have any trouble signing in.
   
2. Review and update your information for each page.
   
3. Click the “Done editing” button.
   

 That’s it! Please note that if you don’t take action before May 29th, 2015, you’ll have to verify your pages again for future updates to be shown on Google.

 If you have any questions, you can contact us anytime. Thank you for helping us make Google Maps better.

Sincerely,
The Google My Business Team

Source: http://bit.ly/1QmqSaf