Yes, you can add an admin to a Google Business Profile. Google calls them owners and managers, and you can add either one from your profile settings without ever sharing your password. If you have a new website, or you are starting SEO work, adding the company helping you is usually one of the first jobs.
Who you give access to matters more than most people realise, so this guide covers the roles, the steps, which role to choose and how to stay in control.
You can. Google does not use the word admin. It uses three roles, set out in its own guide to adding owners and managers:
You may still see the old term site manager. It has been replaced by manager.
For most agencies doing posts, photos, review replies and updates, manager is enough. Give owner access only if they genuinely need to add or remove people, and keep the primary owner role with your business. That way the profile always stays in your name.
Whatever role you choose, give people the lowest level of access they need to do the work you have agreed.
They will get an email and must accept the invitation before they can see your profile. Google changes its menus from time to time, so if something looks different, follow the steps in Google’s own guide above.
Only owners can remove other owners and managers. Go to People and access, select the person and choose Remove person. If you are the primary owner you cannot remove yourself until you have transferred primary ownership to someone else.
This happens a lot. A former webmaster, agency or employee set the profile up and still holds primary ownership, so you cannot add anyone. The cleanest fix is to ask them to transfer primary ownership to you. If you cannot reach them, Google has an ownership request process, which you can find by searching its help pages for request ownership.
A reputable provider asks to be invited by email and never asks for your password. They tell you what they will change, and they are comfortable with you remaining the primary owner. If a company wants to set your profile up under its own account, or resists you keeping ownership, treat that as a warning sign.
Your Google Business Profile is a big part of how you show up when someone searches for a service near them. If your SEO company cannot access it, they are limited in what they can do. Once they are added properly, they can line the profile up with your website, correct old or wrong information, reply to reviews and check how people are finding you.
Accurate, consistent details also reduce the risk of problems. A mismatch between your profile and your website is one reason profiles get flagged, as our guide to a suspended Google Business Profile explains.
If you would rather have the whole job handled, that is what Prime Position, our Google Business Profile management service, is for.
Not if you stay the primary owner. Google says the primary owner cannot be removed until primary ownership is transferred. If you let someone else become primary owner, you lose that protection.
A manager can do the day to day work. Choose owner only if they need to add or remove users, and keep the primary owner role yourself.
No. Invite people by email from People and access. Sharing a password means you cannot see who is using it and cannot remove one person without changing it for everyone.
Google Business Profile is the new name for what used to be called Google My Business. Before that it was Google Places and Google+ Local, so if you hear a different term, it is the same thing under an older name. In November 2021 Google announced that Google My Business would be rebranded as Google Business Profile, to simplify how local businesses manage their presence and to encourage owners to update details directly in Google Search and Google Maps instead of a separate dashboard.
