Your Google listing might not actually be yours
If your Google Business Profile is unclaimed, anyone can change your hours and you cannot reply to reviews. Here is how to check and how to fix it.
A customer drives across town on a Sunday because Google said you were open. You were closed. They leave a one star review about the wasted trip, and you cannot reply to it, because the listing that gave them the wrong hours is not one you control.
That happens more often than most owners realise, and it usually starts the same way. Nobody ever created the listing. Google made it automatically, or a customer added the business to Maps years ago. It sat there quietly, collecting reviews and showing information nobody checked, and the owner never knew it existed.
If you have never logged into a Google Business Profile, there is a good chance yours is unclaimed right now.
How to check, in about ten seconds
Search your business name on Google. Look at the panel that appears on the right, or tap the listing on Maps.
If you see the words "Claim this business" or "Own this business?", the profile is unclaimed. Nobody has verified they run the business, so Google has nobody it trusts to manage it.
If you do not see that text, somebody has claimed it. That might be you, from years ago. It might also be a former employee, an old marketing company, or whoever built your website in 2018.
Both situations are fixable. They just get fixed differently.
What an unclaimed listing actually costs you
The obvious problem is that you cannot update anything. The less obvious problems are worse.
Anyone can suggest an edit. Google lets the public suggest changes to business information, and on an unclaimed listing there is nobody to approve or reject them. Your hours can change. Your category can change. In some cases the business name itself can be altered. You will not be notified, because Google does not have anyone to notify.
You cannot answer a single review. Reviews still arrive on an unclaimed profile. Good ones and bad ones. Every person who looks you up sees a run of complaints with no response, which reads as a business that either does not care or is no longer paying attention.
You rank lower. Google gives preference to complete, active, verified profiles. An unclaimed listing tends to sit further down the results, and there is nothing you can do to improve it while it stays unclaimed.
You are invisible in the searches that matter most. Until a profile is verified, its visibility in local search is limited. That includes the "open now" filter, which is how a large share of people find a local business when they need one immediately.
How to claim it yourself
You do not need to hire anyone for this part. Here is the process.
- Get a Google account if you do not have one. Any personal Gmail works to start.
- Go to business.google.com and search your business name.
- Click "Claim this business" and follow the prompts.
- Choose a verification method. Google decides which ones you are offered.
The verification methods and roughly how long each takes:
- Phone or email. Immediate, when offered. Take this if you can get it.
- Video verification. You record a short video showing your location, your equipment or signage, and yourself with proof you manage the business. Reviewed within about 24 to 72 hours.
- Postcard. Google mails a code to your business address. Five to fourteen days, sometimes longer, and postcards do go missing.
Until verification finishes, the profile stays limited. That is normal. Do not fill everything in and assume you are done.
What if someone else already claimed it
This is common, and it is usually not sinister. An old web developer set it up. A former manager verified it with their personal email. A franchise head office claimed it and never handed it over.
Search your business, and instead of "Claim this business" you will see "Own this business?" Click it and request ownership. Google notifies whoever currently manages the listing. If they do not respond within seven days, ownership transfers to you.
If they do respond and refuse, there is an appeal process. It is slower and it asks for documentation showing you run the business.
The best time to sort this out is before you need to. The worst time is the week you change your hours or your phone number.
This is more common than you would think
We looked at 44 independent businesses in Fredericton earlier this year across auto repair, dental, physiotherapy, plumbing, electrical, heating and roofing. We opened each listing and recorded what was publicly visible.
Five of them were still unclaimed. Not new businesses either. Established shops with dozens of reviews, some with a 4.7 star average, sitting on profiles that nobody had ever logged into.
Nine had no website at all. And the single most common gap by a wide margin was reviews with no owner response, including on listings that were still collecting new reviews every few weeks.
None of those businesses are struggling for customers. They are busy. That is the point. The gap is not demand, it is nobody minding the channel where customers decide whether to call.
What to do this week
Search your own business name. Look for those two words. If they are there, start the claim today, because if the verification comes by postcard you will be waiting anyway.
While you are in there, check three things you can fix in ten minutes: your hours, your phone number, and whether your listed category matches what you actually do.
If any of that turns out to be more tangled than it looks, or you find a listing claimed by someone you cannot reach, we do a free review of your website and Google presence for businesses in New Brunswick. We send back a plain English write up within one business day. No pressure and no sales call.
Call +1 506-801-9970 or email info@qhike.ca. We serve Fredericton, Moncton, Saint John and all of New Brunswick.