How to Claim Your Google Business Profile (And What to Do If Somebody Else Already Has)

Google has probably already made a listing for your business. It builds them from phone directories and government registries and whatever else it can piece together, whether or not anybody asked it to. That listing has your name on it, possibly the wrong hours, possibly an address you moved out of in 2019.

Until you claim it, you cannot fix any of that. You also cannot reply to reviews or add photos or set the category that decides which searches you appear for.

Claiming takes about twenty minutes of actual work plus a wait for verification. It costs nothing. Here is the whole process, including the part nobody warns you about, which is what to do when the profile turns out to be owned by somebody who no longer works for you.

First, pick the right Google account

Do this before you touch anything, because it is the hardest mistake to undo.

Whichever Google account you use to claim the profile becomes the owner of it. Pick one you will still control in five years and one you would not mind an employee never having. A personal Gmail that your nephew set up is not it. Neither is an account belonging to the web designer who built your site.

If you have Google Workspace on your own domain, use that. If you do not, make a clean Gmail account in the business name and keep the recovery phone and email pointed at you rather than at staff.

You can add managers later, so there is no reason to claim from a shared account for convenience. Own it from one account and delegate access from there.

Find out which of the three situations you are in

Sign in with that account, then search your business name plus your town on Google.

Nothing comes up at all. No listing exists. You are creating one from scratch, which is the cleanest path.

A listing comes up with a "Claim this business" or "Own this business?" link. The listing exists and nobody has claimed it. This is the most common case and the easiest.

A listing comes up looking maintained and there is no claim link. Somebody already has it. Skip to the section below on getting it back.

Look carefully at that middle case before assuming it is unclaimed. Google sometimes shows a listing that has an owner who never finished setting it up, which reads as abandoned but is not.

Claiming an unclaimed listing

The old standalone dashboard is gone for single-location businesses. You manage the profile directly from Google Search and Maps now, signed in, which confuses owners who last did this years ago.

Click the claim link. Google walks you through confirming the business name and the category and the address or service area. Answer honestly and precisely. The primary category in particular is the setting that decides which searches you are eligible for at all, so pick the exact one rather than a comfortable general one. A mobile detailer is a car detailing service, a different category from a car wash.

Then Google decides how it wants to verify you.

Verification: you do not get to choose the method

This is the part that surprises people. Google assigns the verification method based on your category and your address history and factors it does not publish. You cannot pick the fast one.

Video verification has become the common one, especially for businesses that travel to customers. Google asks for a single unbroken recording, usually a few minutes, that proves three things without cuts. Where you are, so start outside with the street and any signage. That the business is real, so show tools and stock and a branded vehicle and equipment with serial numbers if you have them. That you are the one running it, meaning access to the locked areas or the back office or the till.

Do not stop recording. A cut is the most common rejection reason there is. Walk it in one take, narrate what you are showing, and film in daylight.

Phone or text sends a code to the number on the listing. Fastest when you get offered it.

Email sends a code to an address on your business domain. Also fast.

Postcard mails a code to the address. Usually a couple of weeks, sometimes longer. It goes to the exact address on the listing, so make sure that address is right before you request it.

Instant verification occasionally happens if the same Google account already verifies your website in Search Console. Nice when it works and not something to count on.

If a verification is rejected, you generally get another attempt. Read what it asked for and give it exactly that. Vague filming is the usual culprit rather than anything being wrong with the business.

When somebody else already owns your profile

This one comes up constantly. The old marketing company claimed it. A former partner claimed it. A well-meaning employee claimed it on a personal account and left two years ago.

Start with the boring solution. Ask them. An email requesting they transfer primary ownership to your account takes a day when the relationship ended well, and it is far faster than anything Google offers.

If that fails or you have no idea who holds it, click "Request access" on the listing. Google emails the current manager and gives them a window, currently seven days, to approve or deny. If nobody answers, you can usually take over the profile. If they deny it, Google offers an appeal where you provide evidence that you are the business.

Two things to know while you wait. Do not create a second listing to get around the problem. Duplicates split your signals and Google will eventually merge or suspend them, and you will have made the real problem worse. And gather your evidence now rather than later, meaning the business registration and a utility bill at the address and photos of signage, because the appeal moves faster when you already have it.

The trap that catches service businesses

If you go to your customers rather than having them come to you, hide your address.

Google's rule is that you show an address only where customers can physically meet you at it. A plumber working out of a garage sets a service area and hides the street address. A clinic with a waiting room shows it.

Owners get this wrong in both directions. Some publish a home address and end up with strangers at the door and a listing at risk of suspension. Others hide a real storefront that people could have walked into, which quietly costs them the local searches nearest their door.

The first hour after you are verified

Resist the urge to change everything at once. A profile that alters its name and its address and its primary category within a day of verification can get pulled for review, which is a slow problem to unwind.

Work through it steadily instead. Set the hours honestly, including the holiday ones. Add the phone number you actually answer. List your services in the words customers use. Upload real photos of real work rather than stock. Write a description that sounds like a person rather than a brochure.

Then keep it alive. A post every week or two and a reply to every review is enough, and it puts you ahead of most of your competition, because most of them stopped at claiming it.

Claiming is where the work starts. The businesses winning the map results are the ones who kept the profile current and kept asking for reviews long after the novelty wore off. If you would rather have someone keep the profile posting every month alongside the website, that is part of the Tekton Sites plans.

Common questions