How to Claim Your Google Business Profile (Even If Someone Else Already Did)

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Short answer: Search for your business in Google's Business Profile Manager, then click Claim or Request Access and pass Google's verification. If the listing is already owned by someone else, you submit a Request Access form and wait up to 3 days for them to respond. If you find duplicate listings, report them.

Most owners who search how to claim a Google Business Profile don't need to build one from scratch. One already exists. Google creates basic listings for businesses it knows about, so the version of your shop that shows up on Maps may have been sitting there for years, either unclaimed or held by someone you've lost touch with. Claiming means taking ownership of that existing listing so you control the phone number, hours, photos, and replies to reviews.

That is worth the effort. Google's own data says customers are 70% more likely to visit and 50% more likely to consider buying from a business with a complete profile, and 2.7 times more likely to see it as reputable. You cannot complete a profile you don't control.

Three walls stop most people. The listing exists but nobody has claimed it. The listing is already claimed by someone else. Or there are two of them fighting for the same customers. Find which wall you're behind, then follow that path.

Find your business before you touch anything

Open Google and search your exact business name plus your city, or type the name into Maps. Then read what the listing tells you.

If you see a link that says "Claim this business" or "Own this business?", the listing is unverified and free to take. That is Scenario 1.

If you see "This business is already verified," a small masked email like j••••@gmail.com, or a note that someone else manages it, the profile is owned. That is Scenario 2.

If two versions of your business appear, maybe one with your current address and one with an address you left three years ago, you have duplicates. That is Scenario 3.

Naming the wall first saves you from clicking through the wrong flow and getting stuck.

Scenario 1: Claim and verify a listing no one owns

This is the easy path. When Google shows "Claim this business" or "Own this business?", the listing is a shell waiting for an owner.

Sign in with the Google account you actually want tied to the business, not a personal address you might lose access to later. Use one the business will keep.

Click Claim or Manage now. Google walks you through confirming the business name, category, and address. Check every field, because whatever is already there was guessed or pulled from public sources and is often wrong.

Then Google asks you to verify that you're really connected to the business. You don't get to choose how. Verification methods are set by Google and can be phone or text, email, or a live video call, and Google states these methods are determined automatically and can't be changed. Which one you're offered depends on your business type, the public information about you, your region, and your hours. The mechanics of each method are their own topic, covered in verifying your business on Google.

Once you pass verification, the listing is yours. If Google has genuinely nothing for your business at all, no listing to claim, you're creating a new one instead, which is the from-scratch route in adding your business to Google Maps.

Scenario 2: Request access to a profile someone else owns

Here is where most owners get stuck. You search your business and Google tells you it's already verified by an email you don't recognize. Usually it's an ex-employee who set it up, an old marketing agency you stopped paying, or a stranger who claimed it years ago.

Go to Business Profile Manager, search for your business, and select it. When Google shows the masked owner email, click Request Access and fill in the form: your name, your role at the business, and how Google can reach you.

Colan Nielsen, a local-search specialist at the agency Sterling Sky, describes the flow plainly: if you don't recognize the email address linked to the account, you click Request Access, the current owner is notified that someone is trying to take over the listing, and they can accept or deny you. It is a request, not an instant transfer.

How long do you wait? Google's help documentation says the current owner has 3 days to respond to your request. If they don't respond within those 3 days, you may get the option to claim the profile yourself, though Google notes that option isn't always available. So submit the request, then wait it out. Don't panic on day two.

Appeal or suggest an edit if you're denied or ignored

Sometimes the owner clicks deny. That isn't the end.

Google states that if your request is denied you'll get a rejection email, but you can still suggest an edit to the profile and appeal the decision. So go back to the public listing, use Suggest an edit to correct anything that's plain wrong, and file an appeal proving you're the real owner. As Nielsen puts it, if the owner denies your request you can still appeal it and verify that you are the true owner of that listing.

If the reason you can't get in is a suspension rather than a rival owner, that's a different fix, walked through in recovering a suspended Business Profile.

Scenario 3: Report duplicate listings so only one profile survives

Picture a salon owner who moved across town two years ago. She updates her new listing every week, posts photos, replies to reviews. What she never sees is the old listing, still showing the address she left, quietly collecting three or four reviews a year from customers who found the wrong pin. Those reviews go nowhere. She doesn't even know they exist.

That split is exactly what duplicates do. Google states you can have only one Business Profile for each business, that multiple profiles for the same business may mislead customers and break its policies, and that a profile flagged as a duplicate won't show on Search or Maps at all. So a duplicate isn't just clutter. It's reviews and clicks draining into a listing Google is actively hiding.

When we clean these up for owner-run businesses, the pattern is almost always the same: the duplicate carries an old address or an old phone number, it has a handful of reviews the owner never replied to, and it has been sitting there long enough that customers occasionally still call it. Nobody set it up on purpose. It gets created when a business moves, rebrands, or gets auto-generated twice, and it keeps working against the real listing until someone reports it.

To resolve it, don't create a fresh listing to "fix" the wrong one. That just makes a third duplicate. Instead, open the duplicate on Maps, use Suggest an edit, and mark it as a duplicate or as closed or moved, or report it through Business Profile Manager if the profiles are already under your account. Google then reviews and either merges or hides the extra one, and the reviews and traffic consolidate onto the profile you actually manage. Consolidating those stray reviews is also the first step to getting more Google reviews that count.

If your listing still doesn't appear after the duplicate is cleared, that's a visibility problem rather than an ownership one, and it's covered in why your Business Profile isn't showing up.

How long the whole thing takes

For an unclaimed listing, claiming is instant and verification is the only wait, often minutes for a text code, a few days if Google mails a postcard or schedules a video call.

For a contested listing, the clock is the owner's 3-day response window, plus your own verification after you get in.

For duplicates, Google's review can take a few days to a couple of weeks. None of it is one-click, but none of it needs an agency either.

Frequently asked questions

How long does it take to claim a Google Business Profile?

If the listing is unclaimed, claiming is immediate and you only wait on verification, which can be a few minutes by text or a few days by postcard or video. If someone else owns it, add 3 days for the current owner's response window before you can move forward.

What if the person who set up my listing doesn't work here anymore?

You use Request Access, not Claim. Google emails the old owner, they have 3 days to respond, and if they ignore it you may get the option to take over. If they actively deny you, you can still suggest an edit and appeal with proof that the business is yours.

Can I have two Google Business Profiles for one business?

No. Google allows only one profile per business, and any it treats as a duplicate is hidden from Search and Maps. If you spot a second listing for your shop, report it rather than managing both, because the hidden one is silently taking reviews you'll never see.

Do I have to accept the verification method Google gives me?

Yes. Google decides whether you verify by phone, email, or video based on your business type and public data, and that choice can't be changed. If the method offered doesn't work for you, contact Google support rather than trying to force a different one.

The bottom line

Back to that salon owner. The moment she reported the old listing and pulled her reviews onto the profile she actually manages, the phantom version stopped competing with her. That is the whole job: one business, one profile, in your hands. Fonzy keeps an eye on your listing after that, so a stray duplicate or a lost login doesn't quietly cost you customers again.

Sources

Roald

Founder Fonzy. Obsessed with scaling organic traffic. Writing about the intersection of SEO, AI, and product growth.