Here is a question that sounds too simple to matter: who owns your Google Business Profile? Not who manages it, and not who set it up years ago. Who is listed as the primary owner?
For a lot of Charleston small businesses, the honest answer is “I’m not sure.” The listing went up when the business opened. Maybe a web designer did it, maybe a marketing company, maybe a relative who was good with computers. It shows up on Google Maps, the phone rings, and nobody thinks about it again.
That works fine until the day you need to change something and find out you can’t.
What happened to one shop
We worked with an auto body shop that wanted to update its listing. New photos, corrected services, the normal stuff. When we went to make the changes, we found the listing was owned by a previous marketing vendor. The shop had stopped working with that company a while back, but nobody had moved ownership over.
The shop was the business on the sign. It was their address, their phone number and their reviews. On paper, though, Google treated someone else as the owner. Getting that fixed took weeks of requests and back-and-forth. During that time, the shop couldn’t fully control the profile customers see when they search for a body shop nearby.
Nobody did anything shady. It’s just how things drift when a business changes vendors and nobody checks the paperwork. That’s why it’s worth checking now, while nothing is on fire.
How to check who owns your profile
It takes about five minutes:
- Sign in to the Google account you use for your business.
- Search Google for your business name. If you manage the profile, you’ll see an editing panel at the top of the results.
- Open the menu (the three dots) and look for Business Profile settings, then People and access.
- Look at the list. Each person will be marked as Primary owner, Owner or Manager.
You want to see your own email address marked as Primary owner. If you see an address you don’t recognize, a former employee, or a company you no longer work with, that’s what to fix.
Owner vs. manager, in plain English
- Primary owner: one per profile. Has full control, including adding and removing everyone else.
- Owner: nearly full control. Can add or remove managers.
- Manager: can edit info, post updates and reply to reviews, but can’t remove owners.
A healthy setup for most small businesses: you are the primary owner, maybe a business partner is an owner, and anyone helping you (an employee, a marketing company, us) is a manager. That way the people helping you can do the work, and you can take their access away any time with a couple of clicks.
If someone else is listed as primary owner
Start with the friendly route. If it’s a former vendor or employee and you’re on good terms, ask them to transfer primary ownership to your email. They can do that from the same People and access screen. Most people are glad to help once they know.
If you can’t reach them, or they don’t respond, Google has a process to request access to a profile you don’t control. You’ll submit a request, the current owner gets a set amount of time to respond, and if they don’t, you may be given a way to verify and claim it. It isn’t instant, and it can take a few rounds. Keep notes of what you submitted and when.
A few habits that prevent this
- Use a business email you control, not a personal account belonging to one employee.
- Give helpers manager access, not ownership. That goes for any agency you hire, including us.
- When someone leaves, employee or vendor, open People and access and remove them that week.
- Check it once a year. Put it on the calendar next to renewing your business license.
The same idea applies to your website domain, hosting and social media pages. If it carries your business name, your name should be on the account.
Why this matters for getting found
Your Google Business Profile is often the first thing a Charleston customer sees, before your website and before they call. Hours, photos, services and reviews all live there. If you can’t edit it, you can’t keep it accurate, and an out-of-date listing quietly costs you calls.