Who Has Access to Your Google Business Profile?

Why this matters for a small trade business

Some profiles are set up by someone other than the owner: a relative, an office manager who has since left, a sign shop, or a marketing company from a few years back. The profile keeps working, so nobody looks at who still holds the keys. Then the day comes when you need to change your hours or answer a bad review, and you find out you can't.

Google's help page on owners and managers spells out who can do what (source). This post turns that page into a short audit you can run from your phone.

Step 1: Find the list

Go to your Business Profile, open More, then Business Profile settings, then People and access. Google says you can find all current users and pending invites on that page (source). If you can't open it at all, you may not be a user on your own listing, which is the first thing to fix.

Step 2: Know the two roles

Role	What Google says it can do
Owner	Full control: add or remove users, manage profile info, and delete the profile
Manager	Mostly the same access, except they can't add or remove users or remove the profile

A profile can have several owners but only one primary owner (source). That primary owner should be the person who owns the company. Anyone helping you, us included, should be a manager.

Step 3: Read every name

For each person on the list, ask three questions:

• Do I know who this is? An unfamiliar Gmail address deserves a closer look before anything else.
• Do they still work with me? A former employee or an agency you stopped paying shouldn't still be able to edit your phone number.
• Is the role right? Helpers get manager. Owners are people with a real stake in the company.

Then look under Pending. Google lets you cancel an invite there (source). An invite you didn't send is worth asking about.

Step 4: Remove who shouldn't be there

Select the person, then Remove person. Only owners can remove other owners and managers, so if the option is grayed out you probably have manager access only (source). Two things to expect:

• The person gets an email saying they were removed.
• Their past review replies and posts stay on the profile. Removing someone stops future changes; it doesn't erase what they already did.

Step 5: Mind the 7-day wait

New owners and managers wait 7 days before they can delete a profile, remove other users, or transfer primary ownership (source). If you were just added back to your own listing, plan the cleanup for next week rather than today.

Step 6: Never share the password

Google's tip is that each user needs their own Google Account, so nobody needs your password to help (source). If a company asks you for your Google login, that's a reason to stop. Invite them as a manager instead, and you can take that access back with one tap.

One outside company at a time

Google's page on working with third parties says the profile itself costs nothing, that outside companies often charge, and that you should get an official copy of any agreement and work with one third party at a time (source). If you're switching, remove the old one after the new one is in.

A two-minute access card

Check	Pass if
You can open People and access	Yes, from your own Google Account
Primary owner	You, or a co-owner of the company
Every user	Someone you know and still work with
Helpers	Manager role, not owner
Pending invites	Only ones you sent
Outside companies	One, with a written agreement

Then look at what the profile says

Once you know who can edit it, check what it shows customers. Our free Map Check covers that part: you fill in a short form and get a screen-recorded video, about 3 minutes, of your listing next to the ones Google shows first, with the three fixes we'd make. There's no charge, and you don't have to give anyone access to get it.