You go to claim your listing and Google tells you someone else already manages it. Usually it is an ex-employee, the previous owner, a marketing agency you stopped paying, or whoever set it up years ago and left.
You can get it back. It just takes longer than people expect.
Try the easy path first
Before anything official, work out who it is. Google will show you a partially masked email address when you request access, which is often enough to recognise them.
If you can reach them, ask them to transfer ownership. It takes them two minutes and it saves you weeks. This works more often than people assume, particularly with old agencies who have no reason to hold on.
Requesting access through Google
- Search your business while signed in to the account you want to own it.
- Hit Request access on the listing.
- Fill in the form stating your relationship to the business.
- Google emails the current owner. They have seven days to respond.
- If they approve or ignore it, you get options. If they deny it, you escalate.
If they deny it
You appeal, and this is where proof decides it. You are establishing that you are the legitimate business.
- ABN registration showing you as the entity.
- A lease, rates notice or utility bill for the address.
- Photos of signage with your business name.
- Branded invoices or letterhead.
- Anything linking you to the phone number on the listing.
Submit it once, properly. Repeated appeals do not help.
What not to do
- Do not create a second listing. This is the big one. You will end up with a duplicate that competes with the original, and it usually gets suspended. Then you have two problems.
- Do not change the business name or address to differentiate it.
- Do not keep submitting requests daily.
Why it is worth the wait
The existing listing has the reviews, the history and the ranking. Starting fresh throws all of that away, and you cannot move reviews between listings. Six weeks of process beats starting from zero reviews.
While you wait, carry on collecting reviews the usual way. They will land on the listing once it is yours.
Rather not do this yourself? Our Google Business Profile management handles the profile, the posts and the reviews every week, for one monthly fee.