How to edit business information on Google: every field, step by step
To edit business information on Google, sign in to the Google account linked to your Business Profile, search for your business, select Edit profile, change the field, and select Save. In the Google Maps app it is Business, then Edit profile. Google reviews every edit before it goes live. Its help page says that usually takes up to 10 minutes and can take up to 30 days. The same route covers your phone number, website, categories, description, attributes and the rest of the profile.
Saving the edit is half the job. Google also changes profiles on its own, from public suggestions and other sources, so the details you just set can drift. This guide covers the steps, what each field allows, how to see whether an edit went through, and how to notice when your information changes without you.
How to edit business information on Google, step by step
Google’s help page on editing a Business Profile sets out the route (as of October 2026). You must be signed in to the Google account linked to the profile. Any other account only sees “Suggest an edit”, which goes through public moderation instead.
On Google Search:
- Search for your business name while signed in, and open your Business Profile.
- Select Edit profile.
- Change the fields you need.
- Select Save.
In the Google Maps app:
- Open the Google Maps app on your phone.
- At the bottom right, tap Business.
- Tap Edit profile.
- Make your changes and tap Save.
Some businesses have to verify the profile before they can change anything. Google’s page on edits says an unverified profile can still edit some info, namely the business name, category, address, hours, phone number and website. Verifying unlocks the rest.
What you can edit, field by field
Each field has its own rules. This table summarises what Google’s help page says for the fields people change most (as of October 2026):
| Field | What Google allows | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Business name | The name as it appears on your signage and branding | Changing it after verification may mean verifying again |
| Category | One primary category plus up to 9 more | Categories used as keywords break the guidelines |
| Address | The full address, or hidden if you do not meet customers there | A move after verification needs verification again |
| Service area | Cities, zip codes or other places you serve | Be as specific as you can |
| Hours | Main hours, special hours, and more hours per feature | Holidays need special hours, set separately |
| Phone number | A primary number plus up to 2 more, mobile or landline | Fax numbers are not allowed |
| Website | The full URL including http:// or https:// | Googlebot must not be blocked on the site |
| Description | Up to 750 characters, shown under “From the business” | No URLs, no HTML, no focus on promotions |
| Attributes | Factual ones such as outdoor seating | Subjective ones come from Google users |
| Opening date | Month and year | A future date shows only 90 days before |
Three of these fields have their own guides here, because they carry rules the table cannot hold:
- The name. A real rebrand is treated as a new business. See how to change a business name on Google.
- The address. A move needs verification again, and a second profile is the common mistake. See how to change a business address on Google.
- The hours. Holiday and special hours work differently from the weekly hours. See how to update business hours on Google.
Phone number
Your primary number is the one Google shows and the one it may use to confirm details with you, so keep it a line someone answers. You can add up to 2 more numbers. To hide the number entirely, Google’s page gives the route: open your profile, select More Business Profile settings, then Advanced settings, and under “Phone number” turn on Don’t show.
Website and links
Enter the full URL with its protocol. Google’s page adds two checks: make sure Googlebot is not blocked on the site, and use Search Console to look for penalties. Some categories can add extra links for online orders, reservations or appointments. In select regions you can also add one social media link per platform, for Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, TikTok, X and YouTube.
Categories
The first category you choose is the primary one, and every location of a business must share it. Google’s advice is to pick the most specific category that describes the main business, and to avoid categories that only describe a feature or that match a business located inside yours. Categories decide which searches the profile can appear in, so this field matters more for ranking than most. The guide to ranking higher on Google Maps explains why.
Description
The description shows in the “From the business” section. Google’s page suggests covering what you offer, what makes you different and how long you have been in business. It must stay under 750 characters, with no URLs or HTML, and should describe the business rather than a sale or a price.
How long an edit takes, and how to check its status
Google’s page on what happens to edits gives three statuses for anything you save (as of October 2026):
- Accepted: the new information shows on your profile.
- Pending: the edit is still under review. Google says this usually takes 10 minutes and sometimes up to 30 days.
- Not approved: Google could not confirm the change was accurate. You may be able to appeal.
An edit that stays pending for days is usually one Google wants more evidence for. The fastest help is consistency: the same name, address, phone and hours on your website, your signage and the directories that list you. Google cross-checks against public information, and a change nothing else supports is the one it doubts.
Why your business information can change after you edit it
Saving the right value does not lock it. Google’s help page on updates to a Business Profile says it gathers information from different sources, like user reports and licensed content, and may update your profile when those sources say it is out of date. There are three routes in.
Suggestions from the public
Anyone with a Google account can suggest an edit to your listing. The page says that when a suggestion needs your review you may get an email or an in-product notification, and then:
Once notified, you have 4 days to accept or reject the suggestion.
If you do not respond, Google may publish the update when other public information supports it. The page also says Google may apply suggested edits without prior review where that is needed to meet its guidelines. The guide to Google Maps suggest an edit covers this route in detail.
Google’s own updates
In the profile editor, blue text marks information Google changed, and black or white text means no update from Google. A notification at the top of the page tells you updates exist. Google’s page also says you cannot manage all Google updates through your Business Profile, so the editor is not a complete record.
Collected info
In select regions and categories, Google may send an automated call, text or WhatsApp message to the verified phone number to confirm details, and may use the answers to update the profile. Under Edit profile, then Collected info, you can see what was collected, its source and the date, and delete it.
If you manage many locations by spreadsheet upload, Google’s page adds one more rule: a field you leave blank in the upload may receive an automatic update. Fill every field you care about.
How to check your business information is still right
A routine that catches drift, whichever route it came by:
- Search the business signed out, or in a private window, on both Google Search and Google Maps. Read every field as a customer would.
- Compare against your own record of the correct name, categories, address, phone, website and hours. Keep that record somewhere outside Google.
- Open Edit profile and look for blue text, pending edits and the updates notification.
- Check Collected info if it appears for your profile.
- Repeat on a schedule. Weekly for a busy listing, monthly at least, and as part of a wider local SEO audit.
The weak point is the schedule. A wrong phone number or a day marked closed costs calls on the day it appears, and a weekly check finds it up to six days later.
How to get told the day your information changes
The options, side by side:
| Option | Cost | What it catches | What it misses |
|---|---|---|---|
| Check the listing yourself | Free, a few minutes per listing | Anything visible when you look | Changes between checks, and weeks you skip |
| Google’s notifications | Free | Updates Google chooses to notify you about | Changes applied without a notice reaching you |
| A daily listing check | Listing Guard: 20 credits a month per listing | Name, categories, address, phone, website and hours, compared every day | Who made the edit; it alerts after the change is live |
Listing Guard is the third row. You search for the business by name and city and pick its Google listing, with no Google sign-in needed. 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.
What that means in practice:
- Removals are reported as well as edits. A website or phone number that disappears is a change, and so is a listing Google stops showing.
- Formatting is ignored. Reordered categories or a reformatted phone number do not trigger an alert, and a value it could not confirm on a given day is never reported as a change.
- A day it could not read the listing is shown as exactly that and retried within hours. A quiet dashboard means the listing was read and nothing moved.
Know its limits. It alerts after a change appears on Google and cannot stop one being applied. It cannot see who made the edit, so the email says what changed and leaves the judgement to you. To fix a change, you edit the profile in Google Business Profile as above. 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
A daily check is not always worth having:
- One location, one owner, and a habit of looking at the listing every week anyway.
- A business customers reach through its website or bookings, where the Google profile is rarely the first thing they read.
- A listing that has not changed in a long time and gets few public suggestions.
It earns its place where a wrong detail costs customers that day: a phone number people call from the map, hours people plan a visit around, or an agency answering for client listings that nobody re-reads weekly. If the profile has dropped out of Maps altogether, why is my business not showing on Google Maps walks through the causes.
Quick checklist for editing business information on Google
- Sign in with the account linked to the profile, then use Edit profile on Search or Maps.
- Verify the profile first if Google will not let you change a field.
- Match the name to your signage and pick the most specific primary category.
- Use a primary phone line someone answers, and a full website URL.
- Keep the description under 750 characters, with no links.
- Check the edit’s status after saving; pending can last up to 30 days.
- Make your website and directories say the same thing, so Google has support for the change.
- Re-read the live listing on a schedule, or have it checked daily, because Google can change it after you do.