Transferring Google Business Profile Ownership: Owners, Managers and Ownership Requests

An employee left, an agency contract ended, or the business was sold, and the Business Profile on Google Maps is still in someone else's name. This guide explains, from Google's help pages as they stood on 8 October 2026, how to add an owner or a manager, how to transfer primary ownership, and how to request a profile someone else verified, without losing the reviews.

The three roles

• Primary owner: only one per profile, and it cannot be removed until primary ownership is transferred to another account.
• Owners: full control of the profile: adding and removing users, managing the information, even deleting the profile. A profile can have several owners.
• Managers: most of the owners' permissions, except adding or removing users and removing the profile.

Google Groups cannot be added as owners or managers, and every person needs their own Google account; Google says plainly that sharing passwords should be avoided.

The golden rule before anything else

Make the primary owner an account the business owns (an address in the business's name, not an employee's), and give agencies and staff the Manager role, not Owner: a manager replies to reviews and edits information but cannot remove you or delete the profile.

Adding an owner or a manager

1. Go to your Business Profile at business.google.com.
2. Click "More", then "Business Profile settings", then "People and access".
3. Click "Add".
4. Enter the person's email address.
5. Under Access choose "Owner" or "Manager".
6. Click "Invite".

The invitee becomes a user as soon as they accept, and you get an email. To cancel an invitation that was not accepted yet, find the person under "Awaiting invitation response" and choose "Cancel invitation".

Changing a role or removing a user

1. From People and access, select the user.
2. Next to Access click "Edit", choose the new role, then "Save".
3. To remove: select the user, then "Remove user".

Only owners change roles and remove other people; if you cannot select the user, your access is a manager's. A removed user is emailed and can no longer edit, but their earlier replies to reviews and posts stay on the profile.

The seven-day rule

For 7 days after being added as an owner or manager you cannot delete or undelete the profile, remove other owners or managers, or transfer primary ownership. So plan a handover at least a week before the person who holds the profile leaves.

Transferring primary ownership

The current primary owner first adds the new account as an owner, then makes it the primary owner from People and access (Google describes the step on its transfer-primary-ownership page), and can then stop managing: select their own account, then "Stop managing", then "Confirm". A primary owner cannot remove themselves before the transfer.

Requesting a profile someone else verified

1. Go to business.google.com/add.
2. Enter your business name and address.
3. Select your business from the list; a notice says someone else manages the profile.
4. Click "Request access".
5. Fill in the form and click "Submit".

You receive a confirmation email and the current owner is notified by email; they have 3 days to respond. If they approve, you are emailed and can start managing. If they decline, you can suggest an edit to the profile or ask for a review of the decision. If they do not respond within 3 days: open the confirmation email, click "View request", then "Verify", and follow the instructions; Google warns that this option is not always available. If your business's profile was never verified, what you need is to verify it, not to transfer it; that is covered in verifying your business on Google Maps. A business that serves customers at their locations with no premises contacts support and writes Transfer ownership of listing.

If your business has no verified profile and you want to verify it yourself, SMTAK's Google Maps verification service helps with the verification process.

Common cases

• The agency contract ended and the profile is in its name: ask them to add you as an owner, transfer primary ownership to you, then stop managing. If they do not respond, request ownership from business.google.com/add.
• The employee who was the primary owner left: the same route, and make the new account the business's own, not another employee's.
• You bought the business: do not create a new profile; transfer ownership so the reviews and history stay with you.

Where SMTAK helps

SMTAK connects the profile through an owner's or manager's account with Google's own sign-in and profile-management permission only. If ownership moves to another account, reconnect from the new account; the reviews and earlier replies stay in your dashboard as they are.