Someone took over your Google Business Profile: how to get it back

For a local business, the Google Business Profile is often the front door. It's the box with your phone number, hours, directions and reviews that appears when someone searches your name or "plumber near me."

So when it's taken over, customers feel it first. The number rings someone else. The website link goes to a competitor or a scam. The hours say you're closed. Or you try to sign in and find you're no longer the owner.

Here's how to get it back, in order.

First: what kind of problem is it?

What you see	What it usually means
You can sign in, but details have changed	Someone suggested edits and Google accepted them, or a manager on the profile changed them
You can't sign in, or you're no longer listed as owner	Someone else has claimed the profile, or your Google account was taken over
A sudden wave of 1-star reviews, then a message asking for money	Review extortion. See the section further down.

If you can still sign in

1. Fix the details now. Correct the phone number, website, hours and address. Changes can take a little while to appear.

2. Check who has access. In the profile's settings, look at the list of people who can manage it. Remove anyone you don't know, and anyone who no longer works with you, such as a former employee or an old marketing agency.

3. Secure the Google account you sign in with. Change its password, turn on two-step verification, and check the recovery email and phone number are yours. If the account is a personal Gmail an employee set up years ago, now is the time to move ownership to an account the business controls.

If someone else has claimed it

Google has a formal process for this, and it's the one to use. From Google's own instructions:

1. Go to business.google.com/add.
2. Enter your business name and address, and choose your business from the list.
3. You'll see a message saying someone else may manage this profile. Select Request access.
4. Fill in the form and submit it.

The current owner is emailed and, per Google, has 3 days to respond. If they don't, you may be offered the option to claim the profile yourself through the link in your confirmation email, followed by verification. Google notes the option to claim isn't always available. If it isn't, or your request is denied, follow the appeal options in the email and contact Google Business Profile support. (Google: request ownership of a Business Profile)

While you wait, put the correct phone number on your website, social accounts and voicemail, so customers who notice something is off can still reach you.

If it's review extortion

The pattern: a burst of 1- and 2-star reviews from strangers, then a message, often over WhatsApp or Telegram, offering to stop if you pay.

Google's guidance is clear: don't pay and don't negotiate. Paying encourages more of it and doesn't guarantee the reviews come down. Instead:

• Take screenshots now of the demands, showing the date, time and the sender's details, and copy the links to the suspicious reviews.
• Report it on Google's merchant extortion form, with the dates the reviews started and the demand arrived. (Google: report review extortion)
• Flag each fake review as well, through the review's own report option.

How profiles get hijacked

• The Google account behind the profile was taken over, usually through a reused password or a fake sign-in page.
• An employee or agency created the profile under their own account, then left.
• Someone claimed an unverified profile before you did.
• Edits suggested by strangers were accepted because the owner wasn't watching notifications.

What keeps it safe

• Own it with a business account, not someone's personal Gmail, and add a second owner you trust so you're never locked out by one person.
• Two-step verification on every account that manages the profile. See multi-factor authentication explained.
• Keep the manager list short, and remove access the day someone leaves.
• Turn on notifications for edits and new reviews, and actually read them.
• A password manager, so the Google account has a password used nowhere else. See passwords on the dark web.

What it costs, against what's at stake

	What it comes to
Our Essentials plan for five people	$375 a month. Includes a help desk, a 24/7 security team on every computer, and multi-factor authentication set up on your Microsoft 365 or Google email.
A week of calls going to the wrong number	Every new customer who searched for you that week
A competitor's link on your listing	The customers who clicked it
Review extortion	The rating it took years to build

We don't run your Google listing; that's your marketing. We make sure the accounts behind it belong to the business, use strong sign-in and can't be taken over with one stolen password.

Next steps

1. Check who owns and manages your profile today, while nothing is wrong.
2. Turn on two-step verification for every one of them.
3. Book a free Security Check if you'd like us to go through the rest of your accounts with you. And check the other account customers find you through: see what to do if your business Facebook or Instagram is hacked.