Google Publishes Tennessee Search "Blacklist" Guidance

Search Engine Journal reports that Google has published new guidance specifically for Tennessee small businesses in response to SB 2262, a state law taking effect July 1 that creates legal accountability for search engines that “blacklist” small businesses or remove significant portions of their reviews. The law applies to businesses with 50 or fewer employees.

What’s actually new

SB 2262 defines “blacklisting” in three ways: reducing a small business’s search visibility, removing its site from results entirely, or deleting 25% or more of its reviews. The amended version of the law (changed April 6, 2026) dropped the original requirement that search engines proactively notify businesses of blacklisting. Instead, it gives small businesses the right to contact the search engine and demand an explanation, which must be provided within five business days — including the appeals process and steps to get restored or re-indexed. Violations give small businesses standing to bring a court action.

Google’s concrete response is a set of guidelines telling Tennessee businesses to do two things: verify their website in Google Search Console, and claim their Google Business Profile. Search Console will surface notifications about spam/policy violations, legal removals, and security issues. The guidance also mentions Merchant Center listings.

What it means for your config

This isn’t a developer tooling change — there are no new APIs, schema properties, or configuration flags. Google isn’t introducing a new notification channel; it’s pointing businesses to existing tools (Search Console, Business Profile) as the mechanism for receiving the notices required under the law.

That said, if you manage Search Console or Business Profile configurations for clients — particularly small businesses operating in Tennessee — this is worth flagging. The legal requirement for Google to respond within five business days to blacklisting inquiries only works if the business has actually claimed and verified its properties. For agencies or consultants running multi-site setups, this is a good prompt to audit whether all client sites are properly verified and all Business Profiles are claimed, not just the ones you’re actively optimizing.

There’s nothing here that changes how you’d write a sitemap, configure structured data, or set up indexing rules. The law operates at the policy and legal layer, not the technical config layer.

Recommended next step

If you work with small business clients in Tennessee, treat July 1 as a deadline to confirm Search Console verification and Business Profile ownership across your portfolio. The legal protections in SB 2262 are only accessible to businesses that have these basics in place. Beyond Tennessee, this kind of state-level legislation is worth watching — if other states follow suit, having clean Search Console and Business Profile hygiene becomes not just good practice but a prerequisite for legal recourse when search visibility drops unexpectedly.

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Read the full announcement on Search Engine Journal → Google Publishes Tennessee Search “Blacklist” Guidance