How we verify the businesses we work with

Version 1.0 · Effective September 30, 2026

Before we work on a Google Business Profile, we confirm two things: that the business is real, and that the person asking us for help is authorized to act for it. This page explains how we do that. It is a description of our process, not a promise of any particular result from Google.

Who this applies to

This policy applies to every client we do Google Business Profile work for — Google Business Profile management and Local SEO, as well as our verification, reinstatement, and ownership-recovery services.

Your authority over the listing

If you can already access the listing, you grant us access yourself. You sign in with your own Google account — either in our onboarding system or on our Grant Access page — choose the profile, and approve the request. Google only lets a listing owner do this, so a successful grant confirms that the Google account you signed in with is an owner of that listing.

Depending on which service you need and how you grant access, we receive either Owner or Manager access. Our onboarding system requests Owner access so we can correct profile data and clean up unwanted users during a reinstatement; our on-site Grant Access page requests Manager access. Either way, you remain the primary owner of the listing and can remove us at any time from your Google Business Profile settings.

If you cannot access the listing — an ownership-recovery case, an unclaimed listing, or a listing someone else currently holds — we ask you for proof that you own the business before we begin any work, and we do not attempt to take a listing away from whoever holds it on your behalf until we have confirmed you own the business.

Keeping your business as the primary owner

For our Google Business Profile verification and reinstatement work, Google requires that your business is the primary owner of your profile, using an email address on your business's own domain (for example [email protected], not a free address like Gmail). In most cases we are added only as an owner or a manager, and you stay the primary owner throughout.

Sometimes we need to hold primary ownership temporarily — for example when we create a new profile for you, or when we resolve a restricted-user situation. When that happens, we add your business-domain account as a user on the profile and then transfer primary ownership to you. Google requires a newly added user to be connected to the profile for at least seven days before they can be made the primary owner, so the transfer completes once that minimum has passed. Either way, the end result is the same: your business is the primary owner, on your own business-domain email, and you can remove us at any time.

As part of our internal verification process we confirm this is set up correctly. If your primary owner uses a personal or free email address, we help you move primary ownership to a business-domain account before we begin verification work.

Your written confirmation

When you grant us access, you confirm that you own the business or are authorized in writing to act for it, and that you have the right to give us access to the profiles you selected. We record the date and time of that confirmation and the version of this policy it was made under. This is a confirmation of your authority over the business — it is not a check of your personal or government identity, which we do not perform.

Business documents we may ask for

To confirm the business is real and that the listing information is accurate, we may ask you for one or more of the following. The exact set depends on your business type — a storefront, a service-area business, or both:

A screenshot of your suspension email (for reinstatement)
Business registration or incorporation documents
An EIN or other tax document
A DBA / fictitious-name filing
A business card
A certificate of insurance
A void cheque or bank statement
Utility bills
A lease or rental agreement
A close-up photo of your signage
Street View imagery showing your signage
Photos of branded vehicles and tools
Branded merchandise
A short video of your location

How we check the documents

A member of our staff reviews every case. For reinstatement cases, our case management system also runs an automated review that:

Compares your business name, address, and phone number across your documents, your Google listing, and your website
Flags virtual-office or mailbox addresses
Flags duplicate listings
Flags missing signage in Street View

Before we file a reinstatement appeal, our staff review the case against a 37-point readiness checklist. These automated checks run on reinstatement cases only — they are not part of every service.

Who we turn away

We do not take on, and will end work on, cases including:

Businesses that misrepresent what they are or where they operate.
Unstaffed virtual-office or PO-box setups that do not meet Google's eligibility rules.
Businesses that are not eligible for a Google Business Profile under Google's guidelines.
Requests to take over or claim a listing when we cannot confirm that the person asking owns the business.

Records we keep

We keep the documents you provide and a record of each access grant — the date and time, the profile involved, the email address of the Google account used to grant access, the response from Google, the policy version you confirmed, and basic technical details such as the IP address and browser used.

You can remove our access to your profile at any time in your Google settings. We keep these documents and records unless you ask us to remove all records of you.

Independence from Google

We work within Google's Business Profile platform as an independent provider. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or certified by Google, and we cannot guarantee any particular outcome — Google decides verifications, reinstatements, and ownership transfers.

Questions

If you have any questions about how we verify the businesses we work with, contact us at our contact page. We may update this policy from time to time; the current version is always posted here.