How to get ownership of your Google Business Profile.

Ask the current owner first

The quickest route is the person who owns the profile now. A primary owner can add you as an owner and, once Google's seven-day wait is over, make you primary owner, all from the profile's settings. No forms, no verification. So find out who it is before anything else.

Start by checking that it is not you already. Sign in to each Google account the business has used, and search for the business on Google. If one of them can edit the profile, you have it. If you go to business.google.com/add and Google says someone else may manage the profile, it belongs to an account you do not hold.

Then think about who set it up. The usual answers:

• A former manager or employee, often with a personal Gmail account.
• A web designer, marketing agency or SEO company, past or present.
• A booking provider or an SEO company, both of which Google counts as authorised representatives.
• The previous owner, if you bought the business.
• Somebody you have never heard of.

Ask the likely person in writing, and say exactly what you need: "Please add our business account as an owner of the Business Profile, wait the seven days Google requires, make it the primary owner, then remove yourself." A clear request gets done. A vague one gets put off.

Owners, managers and the primary owner

It helps to know what you are asking for. Google gives each profile one primary owner, and any number of other owners and managers:

• The primary owner is the only person who can pass primary ownership to someone else, and cannot leave until they have.
• Owners have full control, including adding and removing people and deleting the profile.
• Managers can edit the information, reply to reviews and publish posts, but cannot add or remove people or remove the profile.

Anyone newly added must wait seven days before they can remove other people, delete the profile, or take or pass on primary ownership. So a handover takes at least a week, even when everyone helps. Ask for the owner role first, then for primary ownership once the week is up.

Use Google's request form

If you cannot reach the owner, or they do not answer, Google will pass the request on for you. For a business with premises customers visit:

• Go to business.google.com/add, signed in to the business's own Google account.
• Enter the business name and address, and choose your business from the list.
• When Google says someone else may manage the profile, choose Request access.
• Fill in the form and submit it.

Google emails the current owner, who has three days to respond. You hear back by email either way. If they approve, you can manage the profile straight away. If they refuse, you can still suggest edits to the public details, and you can appeal the decision. The link in your confirmation email shows where the request stands.

If you serve customers at their address and nobody visits yours, the form is not for you. Google asks service-area businesses to contact its support team and choose Transfer ownership of listing as the issue. Google Business Profile for a business without a storefront covers how those profiles work.

When nobody answers in three days

Silence is common. The account often belongs to someone who left years ago, and nobody reads it. Google says that if you get no response after three days, you may be able to claim the profile yourself: open the confirmation email, choose View request, then Verify, and follow the steps. You can also sign in to your Business Profile and look for a Claim or Verify button.

Google adds that the option is not always available. If it is missing, contact Business Profile support from the help centre, with the details of your request.

Verification works as it does for a new profile. Google picks the method, which may be a call, a postcard or a video of your premises, and says reviews take up to five business days. How to set up a Google Business Profile covers the methods, and what a verification video should show.

Do not create a new profile while you wait. A second profile for the same business is a duplicate, Google does not show duplicates on Search or Maps, and you end up with two problems instead of one.

When a former employee owns it

Google's own guide for service businesses calls this a surprisingly common situation, and it is usually the friendliest. Say the practice manager at a dental practice set the profile up years ago on her own account, then left on good terms. She is probably happy to help and has simply never thought about it.

Send a short message, then call. Ask her to add the business account as an owner and, once Google's seven days have passed, to make it primary owner. If she has lost access to that old account, use the request form.

Her past replies to reviews and her posts stay on the profile after she is removed. Google keeps them, so there is nothing to clean up.

Then fix the cause. Keep the primary owner role on an account the business controls, give staff manager access from their own accounts, and remove people the week they leave.

When an agency or web designer owns it

Google's rules for agencies are clear, and they are on your side. Its policy for third parties that manage profiles says:

• An agency may claim a profile only with the business owner's express consent, and spoken consent is not enough.
• The business must keep ownership or co-ownership of its profile at all times.
• Within seven business days of the business asking, the agency must let it take back sole control, and give up its own access.
• An agency may not hold a profile hostage for money, or promise top placement on Google.

Google's eligibility rules add that representatives must transfer ownership to the business owner immediately when asked.

So ask in writing, refer to the rule and give a date. For example: "We are moving all our accounts into the business's name. Please add our account as an owner of the Business Profile by Friday, and make us primary owner when Google's seven-day wait is over. You are welcome to stay on as a manager while we keep working together."

If there is a genuine unpaid invoice, pay it or agree a plan. If the agency refuses or ignores you, use the request form, and report it through Google's form for third-party policy violations. The rest of the handover, from the domain to the analytics, is in how to get your website back from a web designer, and what to check in a web design contract shows how to stop it happening with the next supplier.

When you bought the business

The profile, with every review it has gathered, is part of what you buy. Put its handover in the sale: the seller adds your account as an owner before completion and makes you primary owner afterwards. Ask for the website, the domain and the social media pages on the same list.

If the seller has gone, use the request form and verify. Have documents ready in the business's name at the address on the profile, such as the registration, a licence or a utility bill. They are what Google asks for in appeals, and they help if anything is questioned.

If you keep running the business as it was, keep the profile and its reviews. If you make a small change to the name, change the sign first and the profile second, because Google expects the profile name to match what customers see. If you turn it into a different business, as when a restaurant reopens with a new name and a new menu, Google's Maps help treats it as a new place: the old listing is marked permanently closed and the new one added.

When a stranger owns it

Sometimes the owner is an account nobody recognises. It might be an old supplier using a generic address, a lead generation company that claims profiles to sell the enquiries, or someone trying to take over the listing. Google's rules say only owners and their authorised representatives may manage a profile, and lead generation companies cannot have profiles of their own.

Use the request form. If the stranger refuses, appeal, and have your documents ready. Meanwhile, check the public details for damage, such as a changed phone number or website, and suggest corrections on Google Maps.

If you think the profile was hijacked, keep a record of what changed and when, and contact Business Profile support. Google warns that unclaimed locations are more prone to hijacking, so claim every location you have, including the quiet ones.

Handing over ownership on good terms

When you are the one leaving, a manager moving on or an agency ending a contract, work in this order, from the profile's settings under People and access (some versions call it Managers):

• Add the business's account as an owner, if it is not one already.
• Wait the seven days Google requires for new owners.
• Select that person, choose Edit next to Access, choose Primary owner and save.
• Check with the business that they can open the profile and edit it.
• Remove yourself, or stay on as a manager if you still work together.

Then send the business a note of the date and of anything linked to the profile, such as a Google Ads account or a booking provider, so nothing stops working when you go.

When someone requests your profile

If you own the profile, you may one day get an email saying someone wants access. Google's advice is not to approve a request unless you know the person. Owners can remove you, and scammers send these requests too.

• If you know them, such as a new member of staff or your new agency, add them yourself from People and access, as a manager. That gives them what they need without risking ownership.
• If you do not know them, refuse the request.
• Do not ignore it. Google tells requesters that after three days without an answer they may be able to verify the profile themselves.

Read the email with care before you click anything. Google says it never asks for a one-time password or a PIN, and does not charge for Business Profile, so a message that asks for either did not come from Google.

Stop it happening again

• The primary owner is an account the business controls, with 2-Step Verification switched on.
• At least two owners from inside the business, so one person's absence locks nobody out.
• Agencies, designers and booking companies as managers, never as primary owner.
• Each person on their own account, never a shared login.
• The list of people checked whenever someone leaves or a supplier changes.
• Every location claimed, including the ones that rarely change.

Every website we build has its domain, hosting and accounts in the client's name, as the prices page lists, and that includes the Business Profile we set up or tidy with it. See websites for what else a build covers.

Once you have it back

• Check every public detail: name, address, pin, hours, phone number, website and categories.
• Look for changes Google made, which show in blue under Edit profile.
• Read the list of people with access, and remove anyone who should not be there.
• Check linked accounts, such as Google Ads and any booking provider.
• Reply to the reviews that waited while nobody could.

Add the date and the names of the owners to the note you keep of the business's accounts, next to the domain and the website. The next handover is then quick.