Google Maps suggest an edit: how it works for your listing
To suggest an edit on Google Maps, sign in to your Google account, search for the place or select it on the map, then select Suggest an edit and pick what is wrong: the name, category, address, hours, phone number or website. Make the change on screen and select Submit. Google reviews every suggestion before it shows, so the place will not change straight away. You can follow the edit’s status in your own list of contributions.
That answers the visitor who spotted a wrong phone number. This guide also covers the other side of the same button, because it is the side that costs money: what happens when somebody suggests an edit to your business, how much say you get, and how to find out the day your listing changes.
How to suggest an edit on Google Maps, step by step
Google’s help page for editing place information sets out the route like this (as of October 2026):
- Sign in to your Google account in Google Maps. Suggestions are tied to an account.
- Search for the place, or select it on the map.
- Select Suggest an edit, then the detail you want to change. To change several at once, pick more of them under “Edit information”.
- Make your change. Either type the right value, or, when you know a detail is wrong but not what is right, choose Don’t know, but this is incorrect. Not every detail offers that option.
- Add a photo if you can. Google says a photo helps it verify the suggestion. Note that the photo is published under your name.
- Select Submit.
Services and features, such as wheelchair access, outdoor seating or payment options, work slightly differently. Google’s page says those can only be suggested from the mobile app: open the place, scroll the tab bar to About, tap Edit features, set each description to True, False or Unsure, then submit.
What you can change
| Detail | What a suggestion can do |
|---|---|
| Place name | Add, edit or report it |
| Category | Add, edit or report it |
| Address and map pin | Add, edit or report it, or place it inside a larger venue |
| Hours | Add, edit or report the opening times for each day |
| Phone number | Add, edit or report it |
| Website | Add, edit or report it |
| Open or closed | Mark the place closed, or reopened |
Two cases need a different route. If a new business has moved into the address, or the old one has renamed itself completely, Google asks you to mark the old place permanently closed and add the new one as a missing place. And if the place is not on the map at all, use Add a missing place instead.
What happens after you submit
Every suggestion goes through Google’s moderation before it appears. To see where yours stands in the Google Maps app, tap Contribute, then View your profile, then scroll to Edits. Only you can see that list. Each entry shows one of three statuses:
- Pending: Google is still confirming the edit.
- Accepted: the edit was added to Maps. It may take a little longer to show on the map itself.
- Not accepted: Google could not verify it.
You cannot cancel or recall an edit once it is submitted. Google’s advice is to wait until it is accepted or rejected, then submit a new one with the correct details.
Google also warns that edits trying to change a business significantly may be rejected, because they can be fraudulent. A suggestion that matches what the storefront, the official website and other people already say stands the best chance. Google’s own tips point the same way: use the name on the sign, the primary phone number, the official website rather than a social profile, and the most specific category that fits.
If you own the business: how suggested edits reach your listing
The button is open to anyone with a Google account, and the place they are editing might be yours. That is how a listing ends up with hours the owner never set, a disconnected phone number, or a category that sends it into the wrong searches.
Google’s help page on updates to a Business Profile explains the owner’s side (as of October 2026). Google gathers information from several sources, including user reports and licensed content, and may update a profile when those sources say it is out of date. For edits suggested by the public, the page says:
If a suggested edit requires your review, you may receive an email or an in-product notification. Once notified, you have 4 days to accept or reject the suggestion.
If you do not respond within those 4 days, Google may publish the update when other public information supports it, such as your own website. The same page adds that Google may apply suggested edits without prior review in some cases. So the notification is a courtesy you may get, and it is no guarantee.
There is a further route in. Google sometimes sends an automated call, text or WhatsApp message to the number on the profile to confirm details such as opening hours, and answers given that way are added to the profile after review. Whoever picks up the phone is, in effect, editing your listing.
How to see and reject a suggested edit
When Google has changed something on your profile, its help page says the profile editor shows it:
- Open your Business Profile while signed in with the owner or manager account.
- Look for the notification at the top of the page. Google says one appears when your profile has Google updates.
- Check each field’s text colour. Blue text marks information Google changed. Black or white means no update from Google.
- Accept the change if it is right, or edit the field back to the correct value and save. Google’s page notes you can always update the profile directly to keep it accurate.
Not every Google update can be managed this way. The help page says so in as many words, which is one more reason to check the live listing rather than only the editor.
Why owners miss edits until a customer tells them
The 4-day window only protects you if you see the notice in time and the edit was one Google chose to send for review. In practice owners miss edits for ordinary reasons:
- The notice went to an inbox nobody reads, such as the address that set up the profile years ago.
- The edit was applied without review, so there was never a notice to read.
- An agency looks after a dozen listings, and opening each profile editor every day is nobody’s job.
- The change is small. One day’s closing time or a swapped secondary category is easy to overlook even when you do look.
The cost lands on the customer first. A wrong phone number sends calls elsewhere. Wrong hours send people to a locked door, or keep them away while you are open. Our guide to updating business hours on Google covers that case in more depth.
Ways to keep watch on your own listing
There are three practical options, and they suit different owners.
| Approach | Cost | What it catches | What it misses |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rely on Google’s notifications | Free | Suggested edits Google sends for review | Edits applied without review, and notices that land in a forgotten inbox |
| Check the listing by hand | Your time | Anything you notice on the live listing | Days you do not check, and small changes |
| A daily monitoring service | A monthly fee | Changes to the fields it watches, compared each day | It reports a change after it is live; it cannot block one |
Rely on Google’s notifications
Make sure the email on the profile’s owner account is one that is read, and that every manager on the account knows what a suggested-edit notice looks like. This costs nothing and handles the edits Google decides to send you.
Check the listing by hand
Search your business on Google and Maps once a week, while signed out, and read the name, category, address, phone, website and hours against what they should be. Keep a short note of the correct values so you are comparing against a record rather than your memory.
Get told the day it changes
Listing Guard checks a Google listing every 24 hours and emails you the day any of six details change: business name, categories, address, phone number, website and opening hours. The email lists each changed field with what it said before and what it says now; for hours it names only the days that moved. A website or phone number that disappears is reported too, and so is a listing Google stops showing.
There is no Google sign-in to connect: you search for the business and pick its listing, so an agency can watch a client’s listing the same way it watches its own. Reordered categories or a reformatted phone number do not count as changes, and a value it could not confirm on a given day is never reported as one.
What it does not do matters here. It alerts you after a change appears on Google and cannot stop one being applied. It also cannot see who made the edit, whether that was Google, a member of the public or someone with access to your profile. To fix a change you edit your Business Profile as usual. Prices are on the pricing page.
When the manual way is enough
Monitoring is not for everyone. Google’s notifications plus an occasional look will do if:
- You have one location and read the profile’s email address every day.
- Your details rarely change and your listing rarely draws public suggestions.
- You already check your listing weekly for other reasons, such as reading new Google reviews.
A daily alert earns its place when you look after several listings, when a wrong phone number or opening time costs real bookings, or when you have already been caught once by an edit you never saw.
Quick answers
Does the business owner see who suggested an edit? Google’s owner help pages describe the change itself, shown in blue in the profile editor. They do not describe showing who suggested it.
How long does a suggested edit take? Google does not give a fixed time for a public suggestion. It stays pending until moderation confirms it or turns it down.
Can I stop people suggesting edits to my business? No. The button is open to anyone with a Google account. What you control is how quickly you notice a change and correct it.