How to request ownership of a Google Business Profile that someone else controls

If a web developer, an agency, a former employee or the previous owner of the business set up your Google Business Profile, there are two ways to get it into your hands. The fast one is theirs: they add you as an owner and then make you the primary owner. The other is Google's: you request ownership at business.google.com/add, Google emails the current owner, and that person has 3 days to respond. If no answer comes, Google may let you claim the profile and verify the business yourself.

What follows is what Google's Business Profile help pages say, in Google's order. It is not legal advice. Where you and the other person disagree about who is entitled to the profile, Google's process is the one described here, and what your contract says is a question for the two of you.

Check that it is not already yours

Google's page on requesting ownership opens with a caution: if you look for your profile and find no "Claim this business" or "Own this business" button, you might already be the owner. A profile is found from the Google Account it belongs to, so sign in to each Google Account the business has used and search Google for the business's name and city.

If the profile is in an account whose password is lost, that is an account problem, and Google sends you to its Accounts troubleshooter for it.

The roles Google defines

Google's help describes two roles, owner and manager, and says a profile can have several owners but only one primary owner. Managers used to be called "site managers". A Google Group cannot be given either role.

On removal, the roles page ticks "Remove Business Profiles" for every owner, and the page on removing a profile says only the primary owner can. Choose owners as if any of them could.

First, ask the person who holds it

If the person can be reached and is willing, this needs nothing from Google. Send them these steps, which are Google's, and the email address of a Google Account that belongs to you or to the business.

Neither of Google's pages says outright whether a holder can hand primary ownership to someone added less than 7 days ago. If the holder gets an error at the second step, try again after the seventh day.

If you bought the business, this is also the route Google's guidelines give: the previous owner adds you as an owner and transfers ownership to you. Google's transfer page says that transferring primary ownership keeps the business's information, such as its reviews.

If they cannot be reached or will not: request ownership

Google's request is for a profile that is verified and owned by someone else. The steps below are for a business with a location customers visit, which Google calls a storefront, or one that both receives customers and travels to them, which it calls hybrid.

A service-area business, one that works at its customers' locations and has no shop or office, does not use this form. Google's page says to contact its support and give "Transfer ownership of listing" as the issue.

What the current owner receives, and what happens next

You get a confirmation email. The current owner is notified by email and, in Google's words, "has 3 days to respond." You can check where the request stands by signing in to your Business Profile or from the link in the confirmation email.

On an appeal, Google's pages say that one is possible and nothing more: no form, no steps and no time for an answer. If the rejection email shows no way to appeal, ask Google's support.

Claiming the profile when nobody answers

When the option is offered, open the confirmation email, select "View request", then "Verify", and follow the instructions. Google says you can also sign in to your Business Profile and look for a "Claim" or "Verify" button.

Google's verification page says verifying a business is how you gain ownership of its profile. The methods on offer (a phone call or text, an email, a video, a postcard) are decided by Google and cannot be changed, and its review of what you send takes up to 5 business days and, on rare occasions, longer. Google says not to share a verification code with anyone, including someone who manages the profile for you.

If nobody has verified the profile

A request for ownership is for a verified profile. If the business appears on Google Maps and nobody has verified it, there is no owner to ask. Google's steps are to open Google Maps on a computer, search for the business's name and city, select "Claim this business", then "Manage now", and choose a verification option. Google says that once verification is complete, you own the profile.

If no profile exists at all, the same address, business.google.com/add, is where one is created.

What Google requires of an agency or anyone you hire

Google has a policy for third parties: agencies and others who manage a profile for a business they do not own. Its central line is that clients "must retain ownership or co-ownership of their Business Profile at all times." The same policy says:

• The business has the right to decide whether a partner is a co-owner, a manager or has no access at all.
• Within 7 business days of notice from a client, a third party must let the client detach the Google Account that manages the profile from the third party's services and regain exclusive control of it, and must give up any permissions of its own.
• Keeping a profile hostage in exchange for money is prohibited, and so is threatening a client with the loss of a profile.
• A third party may claim and manage a profile only with the business owner's consent, and in a conflict must be able to show written or digital proof of it.

Google's tips for businesses add that only profile owners control who has access, and that a third party cannot remove a business from Google.

If a company that managed your profile will not let go of it, the policy page links to a form for reporting a third party. Google says it may not reply to you personally, and that it investigates and acts where necessary.

With anyone who manages the profile from now on, put three things in writing before they start. Each is what Google's policy already asks of them.

• The business is the owner. They are invited as a manager.
• They tell you about every change they make to the profile.
• When the work ends, they remove the profile from their account.

Keep hold of it

• Make a Google Account that belongs to the business the primary owner. Not an employee's personal account, and not an agency's.
• Add a second owner you trust, such as a co-owner of the business. Google allows several owners, so the profile does not have to hang on one login.
• Make everyone else a manager. A manager can do nearly everything an owner can, except add or remove people and remove the profile.
• Remove people when they leave. In "People and access", select the person, then "Remove person". Google says they get an email, and that their replies to reviews and their posts stay on the profile. The same screen lists every current user and pending invitation.

What not to do

• Do not create a second profile for the same business. Google's guidelines say there should be only one profile per business. Its page on duplicates says that more than one is against its policies and that a profile considered a duplicate is not shown on Search or Maps.
• Do not share a password. Google's roles page says each person needs a Google Account of their own, so that nobody has to. Its policy tells third parties not to share passwords with clients either.
• Do not sign in to an account that is not yours, even if you know the password. The request form is there so that you do not have to.

The website's part

Whoever set up the profile often also holds the domain, the hosting and the WordPress administrator account. Each has its own route back: see how to take over a WordPress site when your web developer has disappeared.

The two meet in one place. Google's verification page says that in some cases it verifies a profile instantly, and that this can happen when you have verified your website in Search Console. That takes control of the website.

Once both are yours, check that they say the same things about the business: name, address and phone on a WordPress site covers the site's side. If you would rather have someone do that work, WP Ministry's local SEO service works inside a profile only as a manager that the owner adds and can remove.