Chapter 6: Finding, Adding and Claiming the Correct Profile

6.1 Search Before You Create

One of the easiest ways to make a mess of a Google Business Profile is to create a new one when the business already has one.

A client tells you they do not have a Business Profile. You check the Google Account they use, find nothing and create one.

Then somebody searches Google Maps and finds the profile the business has had for the last eight years.

The one with 147 reviews.

Now you have two.

That is why I start by looking for an existing Business Profile.

Search Google and Google Maps for the business name. Add the town if necessary. If the business has changed its name, search the old name as well. If it has moved, look for a profile associated with the previous location.

Then look at what you find. Does the telephone number match? Does the website belong to the business? Do the photographs show the right place or team? Do the reviews clearly describe this business?

For a service-area business, the address may be hidden, so those other clues become particularly useful.

What we are trying to establish is simple:

Does Google already have a profile representing this business?

When somebody says, "We don't have a Google Business Profile," they may really mean, "We don't have access to it."

A former employee may have created it. A previous agency may have managed it. The owner may have set it up years ago using a Google Account they have forgotten about. Or an unverified profile may already exist on Google.

Those situations each have their own route to the correct profile.

Google's current process makes the distinction clear. If a Business Profile does not exist, an authorised person can add it. If an unverified profile already exists, it can be claimed and verified. If somebody else already controls a verified profile, an authorised person can request ownership.[1][2]

That gives us the rule for this chapter:

Search before you create.

Google says there should only be one profile per business, apart from specific exceptions such as individual practitioners and departments. Profiles identified as duplicates will not show on Google Search or Maps.[3]

If the correct profile already exists and contains years of reviews, photographs and history, that is the profile we need to deal with.

The existing profile may need updating.

The business name may be old.

The address may have changed.

The telephone number or website may be out of date.

Businesses move and rebrand. Contact details change.

The question is whether the underlying business continued.

Google says that when a business moves, the existing Business Profile should be updated rather than creating a new one simply because the address changed.[3]

So find out what is already there before you add anything.

If nothing exists, create the correct profile.

If the correct profile exists but is unverified, claim it.

If somebody else controls the verified profile, request ownership.

If several profiles appear to represent the same business, stop and work out why before you do anything else.

Deal with the profiles that already exist.

6.2 Create, Claim or Request Ownership

Once we know what exists, the next step depends on what we found.

If there is no profile, create one using the real business name, the correct business type, the genuine location or service-area configuration, the correct contact details and the appropriate category.

Chapter 5 established the business structure.

Now we are representing that structure on Google.

If an unverified profile already exists, claim it rather than creating another. Google's current guidance allows an eligible person to claim an unverified Business Profile and then complete verification.[1]

We will deal with verification properly in Chapter 8 because Google determines which verification methods are available and those methods vary by business.

The third situation is the one that causes more confusion.

The correct profile exists, but somebody else controls it.

A previous agency may have created it.

An employee may have set it up years ago.

A former business partner may still have access.

Or nobody at the business may know who owns it.

Google provides an ownership request process. For storefront and hybrid businesses, an authorised person can request ownership from the current owner. Google says the existing owner then has three days to respond.[2]

If the request is approved, access is granted.

If it is denied, Google says the requester can suggest an edit and may be able to appeal.

If there is no response after three days, Google may provide an option to claim and verify the profile, although Google warns that this option is not always available.[2]

Service-area businesses have a different route. Google's current ownership guidance says that if the business serves customers at their locations and does not have a physical shop or office, ownership should be requested through Google support rather than the normal storefront or hybrid process.[2]

Before starting any ownership request, speak to the client.

Who used to manage the profile?

Has another agency worked on it?

Could a former employee have created it?

Does anybody recognise the partially hidden email address Google shows?

Quite often somebody says:

"Oh. That's Dave's email."

Good.

If Dave still has legitimate access, the problem may be solved without an ownership dispute.

If the correct profile already exists, we have found the thing we need to manage.

The job is to obtain the right access to it.

6.3 Who Should Control the Profile?

Getting access to a Business Profile is one thing.

Deciding who should control it is another.

For agencies, my principle is simple:

The client should retain control of its Google Business Profile. The agency should have the access it needs to manage it.

Google allows several people to manage a Business Profile using their own Google Accounts. There is no need to share passwords.[4]

A profile can have multiple owners, but only one primary owner. Managers can handle much of the day-to-day work, including editing information, responding to reviews and managing posts, but they cannot add or remove users or remove the profile.[4]

An agency therefore needs enough access to do the work.

The business can retain primary ownership while the agency receives the access it needs to manage the profile.

Imagine an agency creates a client's profile through an account controlled entirely by the agency. Three years later, the client leaves. Nobody at the business has ownership, and the employee at the agency who originally created the profile has left too.

Everybody now has an access problem that should never have existed.

A cleaner arrangement is for the business to retain appropriate ownership while the agency and individual staff members receive the access they genuinely need through their own Google Accounts.

Then, if the agency relationship ends, the agency's access can be removed without taking the client's control of the profile with it.

The same principle applies when staff change.

If somebody leaves the business, remove their access.

If an old agency no longer needs access, remove it.

Review access regularly so old users do not accumulate.

There is one timing restriction worth knowing.

Google says a new owner or manager must wait seven days before they can perform certain actions, including removing other owners or managers, deleting or undeleting the profile, and transferring primary ownership.[4][5]

When you inherit a badly structured profile, get the right people added first and allow for Google's seven-day restriction before completing the ownership changes.

Then sort out the ownership structure properly.

The principle matters more than the terminology.

The business should retain control of its own profile.

The agency should have the access it needs to do the work it has been hired to do.

Everyone should use their own Google Account.

Get those three things right and ownership becomes fairly boring.

Which is exactly how it should be.

6.4 When the Existing Setup Is a Mess

Most Business Profile setups are straightforward.

Occasionally, you inherit a mess.

There may be two profiles for the same business, an old profile at a previous address, a profile controlled by somebody who left years ago, or several profiles that nobody can properly explain.

First work out what each profile represents.

If two profiles genuinely represent the same business, Google may consider them duplicates. Google provides a process for dealing with duplicate profiles and says that when profiles are merged successfully, their reviews can be combined, although replies to reviews may be lost.[3]

That is very different from two legitimate businesses sharing an address, or one organisation having several genuine locations.

We covered those distinctions in Chapter 5.

Establish what the profiles represent before deciding whether they should be merged.

Moved businesses create another common mess.

If the same business relocates, Google says the existing profile should normally be updated rather than creating a new profile for the new address.[3]

Google also says reviews can be moved across profiles in certain circumstances, including when a business changes location and keeps the same business name, although there are exceptions.[6]

Ownership problems need the same disciplined approach.

If a previous employee or agency controls the correct profile, use Google's ownership process to regain the appropriate access.

Google's seven-day restriction means some access changes may need to be completed later.[4][5]

Whenever you inherit a messy Business Profile situation, use one rule:

Understand before you change.

Work out which profiles represent genuine businesses or locations, which appear to be duplicates, whether the business has moved, who currently has access and which profile contains the history that belongs to the continuing business.

Once you understand that, the route forward is usually much clearer.

Understanding the existing setup first gives you a much cleaner route to fixing it.

Notes

1. Google Business Profile Help, “Add or claim your Business Profile”, https://support.google.com/business/answer/2911778?hl=en-GB. Checked 3 September 2026.
2. Google Business Profile Help, “Request ownership of a Business Profile”, https://support.google.com/business/answer/4566671?hl=en-GB. Checked 3 September 2026.
3. Google Business Profile Help, “Resolve duplicate profiles and ownership issues”, https://support.google.com/business/answer/12756178?hl=en-GB. Checked 3 September 2026.
4. Google Business Profile Help, “Manage your Business Profile owners and managers”, https://support.google.com/business/answer/3403100?hl=en-GB. Checked 3 September 2026.
5. Google Business Profile Help, “Transfer primary ownership of a Business Profile”, https://support.google.com/business/answer/3415281?hl=en-GB. Checked 3 September 2026.
6. Google Business Profile Help, “Move your reviews across Business Profiles”, https://support.google.com/business/answer/3098204?hl=en-GB. Checked 3 September 2026.