Claim, verify and protect your profile

Picture this. Your phone rings. “Hello, this is Google. Your business listing will be switched off today, unless you read me the code we’ve just texted you.”

It sounds official. It isn’t. Google warns business owners about calls like this. So in this lesson, we’ll make sure your profile is really yours, and that it stays that way.

We’ll do four things: find your profile, claim it or get access, verify it, and protect it. Then you’ll check exactly who else can change it.

Step one: before you create anything, search for your business on Google Maps, by name and town. Your business may already be there, even if you never set it up.

Google allows one profile per business, and a profile it treats as a duplicate won’t show on Search or Maps. So if yours is there, claim it. Don’t start a new one.

If you see “Claim this business”, nobody has claimed it yet. Select it, then “Manage now”, and follow the steps. If you’re not on Google at all, add your business at business.google.com/add. Both are free.

But if Google says “Someone else may manage this Business Profile”, someone already owns it. That’s step two.

This can happen when a former employee, an old web designer or a previous owner set the profile up.

Go to business.google.com/add, enter your business name and address, and choose your business from the list. You’ll see that message, and a “Request access” button. Fill in the form and submit it.

Google emails the current owner, and they have three days to respond. If they approve, you’re in. If they deny it, you can appeal. And if there’s no reply after three days, you may get the option to claim the profile yourself, though Google says that isn’t always available.

If you visit customers and have no shop or office, the route is different: contact Google’s support team and ask them to transfer ownership.

Step three: verify. Verification tells Google you’re allowed to represent the business, and Google says that makes your profile more likely to show up in search results.

Google decides which methods you’re offered, and you can’t change them. It might be a phone call or a text, an email, a live video call, a video recording or a postcard. Sometimes it’s instant. If you’re offered a video recording, Google recommends it.

Google’s review can take up to five business days, and you’ll get an email when you’re verified.

If it’s a postcard, most arrive within fourteen days, and the code expires after thirty. While you wait, don’t edit your name, address or category, or the code won’t work. And don’t ask for a new code, because that cancels the one in the post.

Step four: protect it. Three habits.

One: Google says it will never ask for your verification code. So never read one out to anyone. Enter codes yourself, in your own account.

Two: Google never asks you to pay to keep your profile. If a caller asks for money to keep you on Google, it isn’t Google.

Three: turn on 2-Step Verification for the Google account that owns your profile.

And tell whoever answers your phone: Google really does sometimes use automated calls, texts or WhatsApp messages to check details like your opening hours, and what you tell it can be added to your profile. So answer accurately. But a code, a password or card details? Never.

Let’s check your own profile.

First, verification. If your profile shows a “Get verified” button, Google hasn’t finished verifying you. Select it and complete the method you’re offered.

Now, who can change your profile. On a computer, go to business.google.com, and select “More”, then “Business Profile settings”, then “People and access”. Here’s everyone with access, and their role.

There are two roles. Owners have full control: they can edit everything, add and remove people, and even delete the profile. Managers can do almost everything else, but they can’t add or remove people, or remove the profile. And one owner is the primary owner.

My rule: the business keeps ownership. Your agency, your web designer, your office manager: make them managers. A manager can’t remove you.

To add someone, select “Add”, type their email address, choose “Owner” or “Manager” under “Access”, and select “Invite”. To remove someone, select their name, then “Remove person”. Google’s own advice is to remove ex-employees' access, so do it the day someone leaves.

One more thing. For seven days after someone becomes an owner or manager, they can’t remove other people or become the primary owner. If that doesn’t work straight away, that’s why.

A quick rules check for anyone working with an agency. Google’s third-party policies say getting access to a profile without the business’s direct and written authorisation isn’t allowed. And a third party mustn’t change or switch off profile features without your explicit consent. So agree in writing what your agency will do, keep ownership in the business, and never approve an access request from someone you don’t know.

If a scam call or text pretends to be Google, report it. In the US, Google’s help page points to the Federal Trade Commission, and you can forward scam texts to 7726. In the UK, forward scam texts, and the numbers of scam calls, to 7726, and report fraud to Report Fraud, or to Police Scotland on 101 if you’re in Scotland. In Australia, report scams to Scamwatch.

Trade tip for clinics, salons and restaurants with a front desk: stick a note by the phone. “Google may call to check our hours: answer accurately. We never give codes or card details.”

Let’s recap. One: find your profile before you create anything, then claim it or request access. Two: verify with the method Google offers, and never share a code. Three: keep ownership in the business, make everyone else a manager, and remove people when they leave.

Your task: open “People and access” and check every name. Remove anyone who shouldn’t be there, and make sure your primary owner is someone in your business. Then start page W3 of the workbook, your business facts sheet. Write down your owners and managers, and whether you’re verified.

Next lesson: the rules for your name, address and service area. They’re the rules that keep you visible.

And if someone else controls your profile and won’t reply, our team can talk you through Google’s ownership request. It’s optional, and nobody can promise the outcome.