Who should own your restaurant’s Google profile

The listing has last year’s hours, the phone rings in a pocket you do not recognise, and the only person who can fix it left the agency in March. The Google account is theirs. The restaurant is yours. Guests are already using the broken version.

This guide is who should hold primary ownership, what a manager is allowed to do, and how to ask for a listing someone else verified. How verification itself works is in how to verify your restaurant on Google.

How an owner differs from a manager

Google’s help on users splits the profile into owners and managers. A profile can have several owners and only one primary owner. Owners can add or remove users and can delete the profile. Managers can do most of the daily work and cannot add or remove users or remove the profile. You cannot add a Google Group as either. That page is Manage your Business Profile owners and managers.

Transferring primary ownership is how the reviews and the rest of the listing stay put when the business changes hands. Google says to transfer that role to the new owner rather than start again. Only the primary owner can do the transfer, and only an owner can change other people’s roles. A brand-new owner or manager waits seven days before they can delete the profile, remove other users, or become primary owner. If they leave during those seven days, Google removes them and they have to be invited again. The steps are in Transfer primary ownership of a Business Profile.

When the restaurant should hold the role

How to put the restaurant in control

1. 1

   Use an email the business owns

   A role address or an owner’s account that a second person can recover. Not the personal Gmail of whoever built the site, and not an inbox that dies when a contract ends.

2. 2

   If the listing already exists, request access

   Sign in with the account you want to use, add the business, and choose it when Google says someone else may manage it. Request access and keep the confirmation email. The current owner has three days. Approved means you can manage it. Denied means you can appeal and you can still suggest a public edit, which is not the same as access. After three days with no reply, a claim option sometimes appears. Google says it is not always available. Do not open a second profile while you wait. Duplicates can be kept off Maps, which is Resolve duplicate profiles and ownership issues. The request steps are in Request ownership of a Business Profile.

3. 3

   Make the restaurant the primary owner

   If you already have access but the agency is primary, they transfer primary ownership to you after any seven-day wait on their own access. You then add a second owner at the business. The phone and the website on the profile should be the ones you can verify, which is the point of which phone number belongs on your site.

4. 4

   Add suppliers as managers

   They can change hours, photos, and replies. They cannot remove you or delete the listing. Google’s eligibility rules say only an owner or an authorised representative should verify and manage the profile, and that a representative transfers ownership to the business owner when asked. That is Business eligibility and ownership guidelines.

5. 5

   Remove people when the work ends

   The week a manager leaves, or a contract ends, take them off People and access. Do not wait until you need a password you were never given. If you are selling the restaurant, transfer primary ownership so the reviews stay with the listing. How the move itself should be published is in what to do when your restaurant moves.

6. 6

   Read the user list twice a year

   Open People and access. You should recognise every email. Pending invites that nobody answered should be cancelled. If you cannot see this screen, you are not an owner, and that is the problem to fix before the next holiday closure.

What each person should be allowed to do

The public page is separate from this login. Guests see the listing and the website. They do not see who the primary owner is. The card below is a restaurant’s public site: the Google account behind the listing should still be one the business can open.

When ownership fails

• The agency is the only user. The contract ends. Hours stay wrong until someone at Google agrees you exist.
• You created a second listing to escape them. Guests now see two restaurants. One of them can be removed as a duplicate.
• You transferred primary ownership on day two. The new person cannot complete the transfer during the first seven days.
• The owner’s email is a former employee. They are helpful until they are not. There is no second owner.
• A manager was told they could add a colleague. They cannot. Only an owner adds users.
• You suggested an edit and thought you owned it. A public correction is not access.

What ownership does not do

It does not verify the business by itself, and it does not write the hours or the category. It does not let a representative claim a profile the owner has not agreed to. It does not rank you. What Google says about local results is in what restaurant SEO actually changes. And holding the profile is not the same as having a website: the listing still needs a page you control for the menu and the booking. Primary ownership is the key to the listing. It is not the listing’s content.

Frequently asked questions