Google Business Profile manager access for dental practices

"Google Business Profile manager" means two things, and it helps to separate them. It is a role you can give someone on your practice's profile, and it is also the name of Google's dashboard for running several profiles at once. This guide covers both for a dental practice: how to get into your profile, how to add or remove an owner or manager, how to transfer ownership when a practice changes hands, and what to do when someone else controls the profile.

How do I access my Google Business Profile manager?

For a single practice, sign in to the Google account that owns or manages the profile, then go to your Business Profile on Google Search or in the Google Maps app. Google's help pages describe editing your profile from Search or Maps by selecting Edit profile.

If you run several sites, Google's Business Profile Manager at business.google.com lets you handle profiles in bulk and sort them into business groups. Google describes a business group as "like a shared folder for your profiles", and creating one needs two or more profiles.

If you search your practice name while signed in and see only the public listing with no editing options, the account you are using has no access. Try the other Google accounts the practice has used, then see the section below on profiles controlled by someone else.

Owner, manager and primary owner: what each can do

Google has three levels of access. A profile can have several owners and managers but only one primary owner. Managers were previously called site managers.

Google's words are that owners have "full control over the profile", while managers have "mostly the same access to the profile as owners", except that they cannot add or remove users or remove the profile. Only the primary owner can transfer primary ownership.

There is also a waiting period. When someone becomes an owner or manager, they have to wait seven days before they can delete or restore the profile, remove other users or transfer primary ownership. Plan around that week whenever access is changing hands.

How to add a manager to Google Business Profile

1. Go to your Business Profile while signed in as an owner.
2. Select More, then Business Profile settings, then People and access.
3. Select Add.
4. Enter the person's email address.
5. Under Access, choose Owner or Manager.
6. Select Invite.

Google says invited users can accept the invite and become users right away. You cannot add a Google Group as an owner or manager, so invite individual accounts.

For most practices, a sensible set-up is:

• Primary owner: the practice owner, or a Google account on a practice email address that the owners control.
• Second owner: another partner or director, so the practice never depends on one login.
• Managers: the practice manager, the person who replies to reviews, and any agency you use.

If your team currently shares one username and password, Google recommends moving to business groups as a safer way to work together.

How to remove someone from your profile

1. Go to your Business Profile.
2. Select More, then Business Profile settings, then People and access.
3. Select the person, then Remove person.

Only owners can remove other owners and managers. If you want to remove yourself, select your own name and then Stop managing. The primary owner cannot remove themselves until they have transferred primary ownership to someone else.

Do this on the day someone leaves, in the same way you would close their email account and their access to your practice management software. A former employee who can still reply to reviews or change your hours is a risk you do not need.

How to transfer primary ownership

The person receiving primary ownership must already be an owner or manager on the profile. Then the current primary owner:

1. Goes to the Business Profile and selects More, then Business Profile settings, then People and access.
2. Selects the person.
3. Selects Edit next to Access.
4. Selects Primary owner, then Save.

When a practice is bought or sold

The Google profile is easy to forget in a sale, and it carries the practice's reviews and map position. Agree in the handover plan who transfers it and when. Because new users wait seven days before they can remove other users or transfer primary ownership, add the buyer at least a week before completion. Adding them as a manager rather than an owner means they cannot remove anyone before the sale goes through. On completion the seller transfers primary ownership to the buyer, and the buyer then removes the seller's access.

When someone else controls your practice's profile

Common cases are a former practice manager's personal account, an old agency, an associate who set the profile up, or the account of a previous owner. Google's rules are on your side: only business owners or authorised representatives may manage a profile, and agencies and other third parties must "transfer Business Profile ownership to the business owner immediately upon request".

1. Ask first. If you know who controls it, ask them to add you as an owner and transfer primary ownership.
2. Request ownership through Google. Go to business.google.com/add, find your practice, select Request access and fill in the form. Google says the current owner is notified by email and has three days to respond. If there is no response after three days, you may have the option to claim the profile.
3. If your request is refused, Google says you can still suggest edits and try to appeal the decision.
4. If the problem is a lost password for an account the practice owns, Google points you to its account recovery troubleshooter, as set out on its page on duplicate profiles and ownership issues.

Do not create a second profile to get round the problem. Google says you can have only one profile for each business, and that multiple profiles for the same business are against its policies.

Google Business Profile management services and agencies

If you pay an agency to manage your profile, give them manager access from your own account rather than letting them create or own the profile. A manager can do everything the work needs, such as editing details, posting and replying to reviews, but cannot remove you or delete the profile.

Google's ownership guidelines also require third parties to work directly with the business owner on verification and to keep the owner informed about what they are doing on the profile. If an agency set up your profile in its own account in the past, ask for primary ownership to be transferred to the practice now, while the relationship is good.

For a wider look at what to keep in-house, see dental SEO: agency or in-house.

Is a Google Business Profile free, and do you need an app?

The profile is free. Google says you can add or claim your business at no charge. App stores carry third-party apps with names that sound like Google's, some of them paid. You do not need any of them. Google's help pages describe managing a single profile from Google Search or the Google Maps app.

How do I verify my business?

New and claimed profiles must be verified before they work fully. Google offers methods including phone or text, email, video and postcard, and says verification reviews take up to five working days. Do not edit the practice name, address or category while you wait, because Google says the code it sent will then stop working.

A ten-minute access audit for your practice

1. Open People and access and list everyone with access, and their role.
2. Check the primary owner is the practice, not an individual who could leave.
3. Make sure there are at least two owners the practice trusts.
4. Downgrade agencies and staff from owner to manager where they do not need more.
5. Remove anyone who has left the practice or whose contract has ended.
6. Write down which Google account is primary owner and where the recovery details sit.
7. Repeat whenever someone joins or leaves, and at least once a year.

Access is dull until the day it goes wrong, and then it costs you reviews, hours and map position at once. With control settled, the profile itself is the next job, covered in our guide to local SEO for dentists.