How to add a manager to a Google Business Profile

To add a manager to a Google Business Profile, open your Business Profile while signed in as an owner, select More, then Business Profile settings, then People and access. Select Add, enter the person’s email address, choose Manager under Access, and select Invite. The person accepts the invitation from their own Google account and can then edit the profile, reply to reviews and publish posts. Only an owner can do this. A manager cannot add or remove other people.

That is the whole procedure, and it takes a minute. The part that deserves more thought is what comes after: every person you add can change the name, hours, phone number and the rest of the listing customers read. This guide covers the steps, the difference between the two roles, the limits on a new user, how to take access away, and how to keep track of what the people with access actually change.

How to add a manager to a Google Business Profile, step by step

Google’s help page on owners and managers sets out the route (as of October 2026). You must be signed in to a Google account that is an owner of the profile.

1. Go to your Business Profile on Google Search, signed in.
2. Select More, then Business Profile settings, then People and access.
3. At the top left, select Add.
4. Enter the email address of the person you want to add.
5. Under Access, select Manager (or Owner, if that is the role they need).
6. Select Invite.

Google’s page says invited users can accept and become users without any further step from you, and that you get an email when they accept. Until then the invitation sits under Pending on the same People and access page, where you can cancel it with Cancel invitation.

Each person needs their own Google account. Google’s tip on the same page is that separate accounts are what let a team manage the profile without sharing a password. If you are still handing out the login to one shared account, adding people properly is the fix, because it also lets you remove one person later without changing the password for everyone.

Owner or manager: which role to give

The two roles are closer than most people expect. Google’s help page puts it like this:

Managers, formerly known as “site managers,” have mostly the same access to the profile as owners. The only exception is they can’t add or remove users or remove the profile.

In practice:

A profile can have several owners but only one primary owner. The primary owner cannot remove themselves until they have transferred primary ownership to someone else, and Google requires at least one other owner or manager on the profile to transfer it to.

Give the least access the job needs. A manager role covers almost everything a marketer, receptionist or local SEO freelancer does day to day. Owner access is for the person who should be able to hire and fire users, and for nobody who might leave on bad terms.

For agencies: ask for manager access

If you run Google Business Profiles for clients, manager access is the usual request. The client stays the owner, keeps control of who has access, and can remove you without needing your cooperation. That is the arrangement most clients are comfortable with, and it keeps you out of the awkward position of holding a profile that belongs to somebody else’s business.

To get it, send the client the six steps above with your email address filled in. If the client cannot find the Business Profile at all, or someone outside the business owns it, they need Google’s ownership request process first (covered below).

Limits on a new owner or manager for the first 7 days

New users do not get everything at once. Google’s help page says that when you become a profile owner or manager, you wait 7 days before you can:

• delete or undelete a profile,
• remove other owners or managers,
• transfer primary ownership.

Trying any of those during the first week returns an error. Editing the business info, replying to reviews and posting are not on that list. Google adds that if the new user deletes their account within the first 7 days, they are removed from the profile and have to be added again.

This matters if you are taking over a profile from someone who is leaving. Add the new owner at least a week before the old one goes, so that the new owner can actually remove the old access when the time comes.

How to change a role or remove a manager

Roles change as staff and agencies come and go. Both tasks live on the same People and access page, and only an owner can do them.

To change someone’s role:

1. Go to your Business Profile and select More, then Business Profile settings, then People and access.
2. Select the user.
3. Next to Access, select Edit.
4. Choose the new role and select Save.

To remove someone:

1. Open People and access the same way.
2. Select the user, then Remove person.

Google’s page notes that a removed user gets an email, can no longer change business info, and that their replies to reviews, posts and other actions stay on the profile. If you cannot select the user, you probably have manager access rather than owner access.

To remove yourself, select yourself on the same page, then Stop managing, then Confirm. A primary owner has to transfer primary ownership first.

When you cannot add anyone: requesting ownership

Sometimes the person who should be adding managers is not an owner at all. The profile was claimed by a former employee, an old agency or someone nobody remembers. Google’s page on requesting ownership covers this case (as of October 2026):

1. Go to business.google.com/add.
2. Enter the name and address of the business and choose it from the list.
3. When you see “Someone else may manage this Business Profile”, select Request Access.
4. Fill out the form and select Submit.

The current owner is notified by email and has 3 days to respond. If the request is denied, you can still suggest an edit to the profile or appeal. If there is no response after 3 days, you may get the option to claim the profile through the link in your confirmation email, though Google says that option is not always available. For a service-area business with no shop or office, Google asks you to contact its support instead.

Keeping track of what managers change

Every person on People and access can change the details customers act on: the business name, categories, address, phone number, website and hours. Most of those edits are deliberate and correct. Some are not:

• a staff member sets holiday hours and nobody switches them back;
• a former agency swaps the website for a tracking link;
• someone adds keywords to the business name, which Google’s guidelines do not allow;
• a manager changes the primary category to chase a search term.

Knowing who is on People and access does not tell you what any of them changed. And managers are only one of the sources of change. Google also applies edits suggested by the public and updates from its own sources, as Google Maps suggest an edit explains. The listing can drift from what you set without anyone on your team touching it.

So the useful question is “does the listing still say what it should?” rather than “who has access?”. Your options:

Listing Guard is the third row. You search for the business by name and city and pick its Google listing. It needs no Google sign-in, so it does not take up a seat on People and access and does not need to be added as a manager. The first check records the business name, categories, address, phone number, website and opening hours. Every 24 hours it checks again, and if anything changed you get one email listing each field with what it said before and what it says now. For hours, it names just the days that moved. A website or phone number that disappears is reported too, and so is a listing Google stops showing.

Know its limits. It cannot see who made an edit, whether a manager, the public or Google itself, so the email says what changed and leaves the judgement to you. It alerts after the change appears on Google and cannot stop one being applied. To fix a change, you edit the profile as usual: how to edit business information on Google walks through every field. A new account gets 100 credits once, enough to watch 5 listings for their first month, with no card required.

When the manual way is enough

You do not need a daily check on every profile:

• One location, with only you as owner and nobody else on People and access.
• A small team you trust, and a habit of reading the live listing every week.
• A business customers rarely find through Google Maps, where a wrong detail costs little.

It earns its place when several people can edit, when an agency answers for client listings it does not look at every day, or when a wrong phone number or closed day costs calls the day it appears. For the wider routine around a profile, local SEO for small businesses sets out an hour-a-week plan.

Quick checklist for adding a manager

• Sign in as an owner, then go to More, Business Profile settings, People and access.
• Select Add, enter the email, choose Manager, select Invite.
• Give each person their own Google account; stop sharing one login.
• Choose Manager unless the person needs to add or remove users.
• Add a replacement owner at least 7 days before the old one leaves.
• Cancel pending invitations you no longer need.
• Remove people when they leave; their past replies and posts stay on the profile.
• Re-read the live listing on a schedule, or have it checked daily, because anyone with access can change it.

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