A Google My Business listing can help a small business’s internet presence in a variety of ways. By adding people to your Google listing, you save time while improving management and control. Furthermore, by adding several individuals, your company has a faster reaction time when communicating with clients on your listing. Find out everything you need to know about adding users to your listing and granting access in Google My Business by reading on.

Google Business Profiles (GBP), also known as Google My Business, is a free tool offered by Google that allows businesses and organizations to manage their online presence on Google. GBP is a platform that allows businesses to create a profile that displays information about their company, including their location, hours, website, phone number, and reviews directly on the search results pages.

So when your ideal customer is searching on Google, for example, for a query like “Plumbers in my area” or “Plumbers in New York City,” the information displayed in the search results often comes from the Google Business Profiles of the plumbers that set up their profile correctly.

As you can see, this makes GBP an essential tool for your business to manage its online reputation and ensure that your (potential) customers have accurate information about your business.

Google Business Profiles also allow you to post updates and photos, respond to customer reviews, and see insights about how people find and interact with your business online. It’s a powerful tool that can help your business to attract new customers, increase its visibility in search results, and better understand your audience.

When you share the administration of your Google listing, any user will be able to access and amend the information. Be cautious about who you provide this access to, as the administration of your business listing also represents the legitimacy of your company. To log in, each user will need their own password.

When you first create a Google My Business account, you are automatically designated as the primary owner of your business listing. Simply do the following to add users to your listing:

• Sign in: Once you are logged into your Google My Business account. When you  land on your dashboard, on the left navigation click on ‘Users.’ 
• Choose location: If you have already set up more than one location in your business listing, you have the option to add a new user to a selected location
• Add user: Click on the ‘Users’ options menu on the left and this will open up a new window. Then, enter the email address of the user you want to add. 
• Invite user: When clicking on ‘invite now’, take note of the drop-down menu underneath which shows ‘choose a role.’
• Select role: You can choose which type of access you want the user to have to the Google My Business listing. 

You have now successfully added a user to your Google listing! Once this process is completed, the new owner or manager will need to wait 7 days before they can manage all the features of the business profile. 

After you add a user to your Google listing, you can specify what role they will have. Each role has different rights to make changes to the listing. For this reason, it is important to understand the different roles before deciding which level of permission to give your new user.

Primary Owner: This is the highest level of access. Whoever claimed the listing, will initially be set to be the primary owner. Unless they transfer ownership to another user. 

Owner: A Google My Business profile can have multiple owners. Each of the owners will have the ability to add or remove profiles, edit business information and add or remove users.

Manager: Google listings can have multiple managers as well, and each of them will be able to edit business information. However, they are not permitted to add or remove users. 

Rights	Owner	Managers
Add & delete users	Yes	No
Modify essential information of listing (name, categories, website, URL, phone number…)	Yes	Yes
Delete listings	Yes	No
Add and delete logos	Yes	Yes
Add and delete products	Yes	Yes
Download statistics	Yes	Yes
Answer questions	Yes	Yes

It’s important to note that you can change users’ access to your Google business profile. You might want to do this action if an employee of your company is leaving, or to give more ownership to others and for them to gain more responsibility. It’s convenient to know that the access can be changed depending on whichever situation. 

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To do so, head over to your Google My Business dashboard. Click the ‘Menu’ and then ‘Managers.’ You will then be directed to a page where you can see the different users and you will be able to click on the person you want to change their access to. Select the role, either Primary owner, Owner or Manager. Lastly, click save! 

As your business grows, you might want to revert the roles of the users in your listing. There are multiple reasons why a business owner would want to remove users from the listing. This may be due to an employee leaving the business, or you may no longer wish to use the services of your communications agency or manager. For this reason, it is beneficial to understand how to remove a user.

To remove a user: 

1. Log into your Google My Business dashboard
2. Click on ‘User’ on the left-hand side of the menu 
3. Click on the cross next to the role of the user you wish to delete and then delete

Once this process is completed, the user will be informed via email. Following this action, the user will no longer be able to edit your Google My Business account. However, all their posts and comments which are already published will remain.

Sharing access to your Google Business Profile is essential in managing your business’s online presence. It allows other individuals, such as employees or marketing agencies, to help update and manage your business’s information on Google.

There are various reasons why you might need to share access to your Google Business Profile. Potential reasons are:

• collaborating with employees to keep your information up-to-date and respond to customer reviews,
• outsourcing marketing to third-party consultants or agencies to make updates and track performance,
• managing multiple locations by giving managers access to their respective profiles.
• on top of that, sharing access can help avoid mistakes and ensure accurate, and up-to-date information about your business is displayed on Google.

In general, sharing access to your Google Business Profile can save you time and ensure that your business’s online presence is managed effectively, but it’s crucial to share access only with trustworthy individuals and remove access for those who no longer need it.

How Can You Share Access to Your Google Business Profile?

Sharing access to Google Business Profiles is rather straightforward:

1. Go to https://business.google.com/ and sign in or, in the top right, switch to the Google account that has access to the Google Business Profile listing (in case you’re using an agency account, you can skip to the steps below)
2. From the potential list of locations you might see after logging in, select the location you wish to grant a user access to.
3. A Google Search Results page will open with the selected Google Business Profile at the top. Choose to open the menu by clicking the three dots (1) in the top left corner and select “Business Profile settings” (2) from the menu that opens
4. Select “Managers” in the pop-up that opens
5. Click on the “Add” button so that you can grant access to new user
6. Enter the email address (1) and select the correct user role you want to grant to the new user (2) and click on “Invite” (3)
7. The new user will now get an email that they are invited to manage your business, and by clicking “Accept,” they will have access to your Google Business Profile

If you’re a digital marketing agency like User Growth, you can also request access to your client’s business locations. For that, you will first need to sign up as an agency and create an agency account by following the following steps:

1. Go to http://business.google.com/agencysignup and follow the steps to set up your agency or freelancer account
2. You will need to enter your agency website and connect it to your Google account (make sure that your account doesn’t already own or manage any locations with a Google Business Profile)

After your account is created, you can sign in to your agency account and click on “Manage invitations” to see potential invites you received. Or you can also request access to other business listings that are already claimed by their owner (your clients):

1. Click on “Request access” in the top right corner
2. Type in the name of the business you want to request access to
3. Google will now tell you that the Business Profile is already claimed and gives you the option to “Request Access“
4. Click on the “Request Access” button
5. Fill out the requested information about your business so that the owner that will get the request can see that it is a valid request and confirm it

That’s it. You’ve now requested access to the Google Business Profile of your customer!

For Someone Else?

Sometimes it can happen that your business listing is claimed by someone else, or maybe it was claimed in the past by a former colleague, and you don’t have access to your business listing anymore. There are two options two get access back to your account.

Option 1 – If your listing is claimed by an email address you recognize (and have access to): sometimes you’re in luck, and you recognize the email address that claimed the business listing. If this is an account that you can access and log in to, then you can either transfer the ownership to a better email address or add yourself or other members of your marketing team as an owner or a manager.

A lot of times, businesses often use generic email addresses like info@yourawesomedomain.com or personal email addresses to claim their business listings but then forget about them.

If the email address you need to access is associated with a current or former employee or marketing team, there are a few ways to request access. You can either request access through Google Business Profiles (GBP), or contact the associated employee or team directly to request access.

Option 2 – if your listing is claimed by an email address you don’t recognize or do not have access to: If a business listing is already claimed, you will need to request access from the current owner. If the current owner does not respond, you can attempt to claim the listing over the current owner after seven days through one of the verification methods:

• Google Search Console: One of the fastest and easiest ways to verify ownership is through Google Search Console. If your business listing is tied to your website and you’ve already verified your website property through Google Search Console, you can verify instantly through Google Search Console.
• Email verification: Email verification is the second fastest way to claim your listing, taking only a few minutes to complete. In some cases, Google may be able to associate an email address or domain with your business listing and offer email verification as an option. However, it’s important to note that sometimes Google will only send a verification email to a specific email address, so you’ll need to use that particular email to complete the verification process.
• Postcard verification: Postcard verification is the longest method, taking five or more business days for a postcard to arrive at your business address and additional time for this information to be relayed.
• Phone call verification: Phone call verification may also be an option if you do not use a call tree, but this method comes with roadblocks as well. Most businesses don’t have a single person answering calls, and the call comes through as an automated call, so operators often hang up because it sounds like spam.

However, if the current owner responds and denies ownership, things can get complicated. Often, they will provide a reason or message for denial, and it’s essential to note that once someone requests access to a listing and are denied, they can’t request access again for a brief period. This is a security measure aimed at preventing unauthorized users from obtaining access to your listing.

But sometimes, you can appeal a denied request and go through an appeal process. This is only advisable if the current owner should not have access to the listing, such as if a former marketing team or employee is holding the listing hostage. In such instances, Google may intervene, conduct further verification processes, and even suspend the wrongful owner’s account, as this act is against Google’s guidelines for representing a business.

To learn more about requesting ownership of a business listing and other GBP guidelines, you can visit the Google Business Profile guidelines.

As you probably can imagine, it’s crucial to maintain ownership and control over your business’s online presence, which includes regularly updating and managing your business listings on platforms like Google. By ensuring you have the necessary access and control, you can maintain an accurate and up-to-date online presence, which can help you attract and retain customers.