Someone else controls my Google Business Profile. How do I get it back?

This is one of the most common problems we see in Islamabad and Rawalpindi. Years ago a nephew, a front-desk manager or a freelancer created the profile with their own Gmail, and now nobody knows the password. The profile is still visible and still collecting reviews, but you cannot reply, change your hours or fix the phone number. The good news is that a business owner can almost always recover it.

The quickest route is the friendly one. If you can reach the person, ask them to open the profile, go to the people and access settings, add your Google account as an owner and then transfer primary ownership to you. It takes them two minutes. If they are unreachable or unwilling, search for your business on Google while logged into your own account, choose the option to claim or request access, and fill in the form. Google notifies the current owner. If they do not respond within the period Google allows, you will often be offered a way to verify ownership directly, usually by video at the premises.

Once it is back, protect it. Keep primary ownership on a Google account that belongs to the business and that you control, not on a staff member's personal email. Give agencies and employees manager access only, which lets them post and reply but not delete the profile or remove you. Write down which account owns it and keep that login safe. The same principle applies to every account an agency touches: they should be added as users to accounts you own, never handed your password or allowed to create the account in their own name.