Google Business Profile manager: roles and access

The Google Business Profile manager is wherever you edit your business on Google: Search or the Maps app for one business, signed in with the owner's account, and the business.google.com tools, once Google My Business, for 10 or more locations. "Manager" is also a role, for someone who can edit your profile but can't add or remove users.

Before you change anything, it's worth knowing where your listing actually shows. A free Google Maps rank check reads one search from 25 spots around your business, with no sign-up, so you can see whether the profile you're about to edit is the one customers find.

How to get into your Google Business Profile

Sign in with the Google account that owns or manages the profile, then use whichever of these fits. Google's help page Edit your Business Profile covers the first two.

Google says it reviews changes "before we update them live on your profile", so an edit may not show at once. The 10-location line is from Google's bulk location management overview.

If the profile doesn't appear at all, check first that you're signed in with the right Google account. If you set the profile up years ago, it may be on an email you no longer use. Sign out, try the other accounts you have, and only then look at asking for access.

If nobody you know has access, Google has a request ownership form. You start at business.google.com/add, find your business, select Request Access and fill in the form.

The current owner "has 3 days to respond". After that, Google says "you may have the option to claim the profile", though not always. Once you're in, the profile may still need verifying.

Owners, managers and the primary owner

A profile has one primary owner, any number of other owners, and managers. Managers can do nearly everything an owner can, but they can't add or remove users or remove the profile. Only the primary owner can hand primary ownership to someone else.

That comes from Google's page on owners and managers, which lists what both roles can do: edit the main business information, hours, services and attributes, manage photos, publish posts, respond to reviews, use messaging and download insights.

Managers used to be called "site managers", which is why older guides use that name.

How to add a manager to your Google Business Profile

Owners add people from People and access. Google's steps:

1. Go to your Business Profile.
2. Select More, then Business Profile settings, then People and access.
3. At the top left, select Add.
4. Enter the person's email address.
5. Under Access, choose Owner or Manager.
6. Select Invite.

Each person needs their own Google Account, and Google Groups can't be added. The invite shows under Pending until it's accepted, and you get an email when it is.

New owners and managers wait seven days before they can delete the profile, remove other owners or managers, or be made primary owner. If they delete their Google Account in that first week, they're taken off the profile.

For an agency, a freelancer or a member of staff who replies to reviews, Manager is usually enough. They can keep the profile up to date without being able to remove you or anyone else.

How to see who has access, and take it away

Access sits in two places, and it's worth checking both whenever someone leaves or you change agency.

1. People and access. It lists every owner and manager by name and email, plus pending invites. To remove someone, select them, then Remove person. Google emails them, and their past replies and posts stay on the profile. If you can't select a person, you probably only have manager access yourself.
2. Your Google Account's linked apps. Review tools, schedulers and rank trackers that you connected by signing in with Google aren't users, so they don't appear in People and access. Google lists them on your account's linked apps page, myaccount.google.com/linkedapps. Select the app, then Remove access. Google's page on apps from other developers explains each kind of link.

Old access is the thing to look for. A former employee who is still an owner can add people. An agency you stopped paying can still edit your hours. A tool you tried once may still hold a connection. None of it shows on the public profile, so the only way to know is to look.

Changing the primary owner

The primary owner should be someone who'll still be at the business in five years, signed in with an address the business controls. To move it, following Google's transfer primary ownership page:

1. Go to your Business Profile.
2. Select More, then Business Profile settings, then People and access.
3. Select the person who'll become primary owner.
4. Next to Access, select Edit.
5. Choose Primary owner and save.

Only the current primary owner can do this, the new one needs to have been on the profile for seven days first, and you can't remove yourself until you've handed it over.

What a connected tool can and can't do

Most tools connect through Google's own sign-in rather than being added as a manager. Google's consent screen for Business Profile data says "manage", because that's the only permission it offers, so read what the tool says it does with it before you agree.

Kerbrank, for example, reads the profiles your Google account manages and each one's calls, direction requests and website clicks, and puts them beside your weekly Google Maps positions. On Pro and above it sends a post only when you press Publish or schedule it.

It doesn't add users or change your details, hours, photos or reviews, and you choose which profile goes with which business. The guide to linking a profile has the steps, and you can start a 14-day free trial to try it on your own listing.

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Google My Business, Business Profile Manager: the names

Google My Business is the old name. Google renamed it Google Business Profile in November 2021, moved single profiles to Search and Maps, and kept the website for people running many profiles, which it said would become the Business Profile Manager (Search Engine Journal, 4 November 2021).

That's why both "Google My Business manager" and "Business Profile Manager" still get searched.

App stores also carry apps from other developers with "Business Profile Manager" in the name. Check the developer on the store page before you sign in to one with your business's Google account.

When the problem isn't access

If you're in but the profile isn't showing, or Google has suspended it, access isn't the fix. Start with a suspended Business Profile. If everything works and you want more from it, the Business Profile optimisation checklist and Business Profile posts are the next things a manager can work on.

Common questions