Google Business Profile

Invite Us to
Your Google Business Profile.

Two to three minutes. You stay the owner. This gives us Manager access, which lets us do the work without ever taking control of your profile.

You are not giving anything away

Manager access lets us edit your profile. It does not let us transfer it, delete it, or remove you. You can revoke it in about thirty seconds, and we published exactly how, further down this page.

If anyone in this industry asks you for Owner access or for your Google password, that is the moment to stop and ask why.

The email to invite:

[email protected]

Start here: which situation are you in?

Four situations, and only one of them is yours. Pick it and skip the rest of the page.

Most people

You can already manage your profile You search your business name while signed in to Google and your own business panel appears with edit buttons on it. The one-location steps
You manage several locations from one account You use the Business Profile Manager dashboard rather than editing straight from Search. The multi-location steps
Someone else controls your profile A former agency, an ex-employee, or a Google account nobody has the password to. More common than you would think, and recoverable. Start this today, not at kickoff
You do not have a profile yet Nothing to invite us to. Creating and verifying your profile is part of every build from Presence up, and we will do it with you. Just tell us at kickoff

One location

Google moved profile management into Search itself, so you no longer need a separate dashboard.

Sign in with the account that owns the business If you are signed in as the wrong account you will not see the options below. Check the avatar in the top right first.
Search your business name on Google Your own business panel appears at the top of the results, with management buttons on it.
Open the three-dot menu on that panel Labeled More on some screens.
Choose Business Profile settings It is in that same menu.
Choose People and access This is the list of everyone who can currently touch the profile.
Click Add A plus icon on some layouts.
Enter our email and set the role to Manager Manager, not Owner. Manager lets us do the work. Owner would let us take control of your profile, and we never ask for it. The address is on your kickoff email: [email protected]
Click Invite We accept within a business day, and your list will then show us as a Manager.

Multiple locations

If you manage several locations, use the Business Profile Manager dashboard instead.

Go to business.google.com and sign in With the account that owns the group.
Open Businesses Your list of locations.
Decide: one location, or all of them To add us to every location at once, do it at the business group level rather than location by location.
Open the three-dot menu, then Business Profile settings, then People and access Same path as a single location, one level up.
Add our email as a Manager Manager, not Owner, exactly as for a single location. The address is on your kickoff email: [email protected]
Send the invite Then tell us how many locations you added, so we can confirm we received them all.

If someone else controls your profile

A former agency. An employee who left. An email address nobody remembers the password to. This happens constantly and Google has a process for it. It just takes patience.

Try the easy thing first

Email or call whoever set it up and ask them to add you as an Owner. Most of the time this takes five minutes and costs nothing. Even an agency you are leaving will usually do it, and if they refuse, that tells you something worth knowing about how they operate.

If that does not work

Search your business on Google while signed in Signed in to the account you want to end up owning it.
Look for Own this business? or Claim this business On the profile panel, or on the Maps listing.
Google tells you it is already claimed It shows a masked version of the current owner’s email, which is usually enough to work out who it is.
Click Request access and fill in the form Google emails the current owner on your behalf. You do not contact them yourself at this stage.
Wait The current owner gets a window to respond, usually up to about a week. This is the part nobody controls.
If they never respond, claim it Google then puts you through verification, usually a postcard to your business address. That is why this one starts today rather than at kickoff.

Start this today, not at kickoff

This is the one item on the onboarding list with a clock we do not control. A recovery can take two to four weeks, and it will hold up the local SEO work on a Foundation or Growth build.

If you suspect you might be in this situation, check now, sign in, search your business, and see whether you get edit buttons. Thirty seconds, and it is much better to find out in week one.

What we do with the access

Manager lets us edit the profile. Here is exactly what we will use it for, and what we will not.

What we use it for

Categories and services. Your primary category set correctly, the secondary ones that genuinely apply, and every service filled in with a real description.
Business information. Hours including holidays, service area, attributes, description, and your NAP in the exact format we use everywhere else.
Photos and posts. Your real job photos uploaded, the profile kept fresh with posts, and anything that should not be there removed.
Reviews. Monitored, with responses drafted. We will not post one in your voice without your say-so unless you have explicitly asked us to.
Insights. The numbers that go into your monthly report: calls, direction requests, searches, and what people found you for.

What we will never do

Take ownership. We will never request Owner access. If a task genuinely requires it, we ask you to do that one thing yourself and explain why.
Remove you or anyone else. Your access is yours. We do not touch the people list.
Buy, incentivize or write reviews. It violates Google’s terms, it is illegal under FTC rules, and it is the fastest way to lose a profile you spent years building.
Keyword-stuff your business name. Dave’s Plumbing Waterford Emergency 24/7 Drain Repair is a suspension waiting to happen. Some shops do it because it works briefly.

How to remove us

Publishing this is the point. Access you cannot revoke is not access, it is a hostage situation.

Sign in and open your profile settings The same place you went to add us.
Go to People and access The list of everyone with access to the profile.
Find our entry and remove it That is the whole process, and it takes effect immediately. The address to look for is [email protected]

You do not need to tell us first and you do not need a reason. If you are ending the arrangement we will remove ourselves anyway as part of handover, but you should never have to wait for us to do it.

If something is not working

I cannot find “People and access”

Almost always the wrong Google account. Check the avatar in the top right and switch to the one that owns the business, often a personal Gmail rather than the business address. If you are still stuck, Google may have moved the menu again; send us a screenshot of what you see and we will tell you where it went.

It says I do not have permission to add people

You have Manager access rather than Owner. Only an Owner can add users. Find whoever is the Owner, the People and access list will show you, and have them either do it or promote you.

I have several locations and only want you on one

Select that location first, then add us from inside it. If you want us on all of them, do it at the business group level instead, much faster and much less error-prone than repeating it twelve times.

How long until you accept?

Within a business day, usually the same day. Your list shows us as “Pending” until we do and “Manager” after. If it still says Pending after two days, tell us, occasionally the invite email lands somewhere unhelpful.

Will this change who owns the profile?

No. Manager is a permission level, not a transfer. You remain the Owner, you keep the ability to remove us, and nothing about your control changes.

I do not know which Google account owns it

Search your business while signed in to each account you might have used, the one that shows edit buttons on the panel is the one. If none of them do, you are on the recovery path above.

There are two profiles for my business

Duplicates split your signals and one of them is usually the one ranking, so this matters more than it looks. Tell us and we will sort it. It involves reporting the duplicate to Google and merging where possible. Do not just delete one; deleting the wrong one loses the reviews attached to it.

My profile is suspended

Do not edit anything and do not submit repeated appeals, both make it worse. Tell us and we will look at what triggered it first. Suspensions are usually caused by a name change, an address issue, or a category that does not match what Google can verify, and the appeal only works if the cause is fixed before you file it.

Done?

Tell us on the project thread that you have sent the invite, and if you have multiple locations, how many. We will confirm once it is accepted.