Someone Else Has Claimed Your Listing

How this happens

Rarely maliciously, which is worth knowing before assuming the worst.

An employee set it up years ago using their own account. A marketing agency claimed it as part of a campaign. The previous owner of the business never handed it over. Somebody helpful verified it and forgot to add anybody else.

The listing then continues working, which is why nobody notices. It only becomes a problem when something needs changing.

Occasionally it is deliberate, and the process is the same either way.

Why it matters

Because whoever controls the listing controls a substantial part of how your business appears.

They can change your hours, your phone number, your website link, your description and your photographs. They can respond to reviews in your name.

They can also do nothing, which is the more common problem: hours that are wrong, an old phone number, and photographs from a decade ago, with nobody able to fix any of it.

Establishing the position first

1. Search for your business and see what the listing currently shows.
2. Try to claim it and see what the platform tells you.
3. Note the masked email address it shows for the current owner, which is usually enough to identify them.
4. Work out who that is, from the visible characters and the domain.
5. Check whether you have an old account that might already hold it.

The fifth is worth doing before anything else. A surprising number of businesses discover the listing is held by an address they own and had forgotten, such as the one used to set up the original website.

The third usually resolves the mystery. A partially hidden address at a former employee's name, or an agency's domain, is generally identifiable.

The easy route

If you can identify them and they are reachable, ask.

Most of the time this is somebody who has no interest in holding it and simply never thought about it. An agency you parted with on reasonable terms will usually transfer access without argument.

What to ask for: transfer of primary ownership, not just being added as a manager. A manager can edit; only an owner can remove other people.

Do it in writing, keep the reply, and confirm afterwards that you actually hold ownership rather than assuming the change was made.

The formal request

Where they are unreachable or unwilling.

The platform provides a process for requesting access. You submit a request, it notifies the current owner, and they have a period to respond.

If they do not respond within that window, you can usually then claim the listing.

If they respond and refuse, the request is denied, and your next step is an appeal that requires evidence you are the legitimate business.

The waiting period is the frustrating part. It is measured in days rather than hours, and there is no way to accelerate it.

What evidence helps

Assemble it before you need it rather than during an appeal.

Business registration documents in the name on the listing. A utility bill or lease at the address. Photographs of signage showing the name at that location. Invoices or correspondence on letterhead.

Anything demonstrating that the business at that address is operated by you, and that whoever holds the listing is not the business.

Where the listing is held by a former agency, correspondence showing the relationship ended is directly relevant.

A worked example

A restaurant under new ownership, six months after buying the business.

The listing showed the old opening hours, a phone number that had been disconnected, and photographs of a menu that no longer existed. Reviews were accumulating with nobody responding.

The previous owner had claimed it and had since moved provinces. He was contactable through the lawyer who handled the sale, and was entirely willing, but had no memory of which account he had used.

Recovering it through him proved slower than the formal route. The ownership request was submitted, went unanswered for the response window, and access transferred automatically.

Total time: about three weeks, most of it waiting. The fix, once they had access, was an afternoon.

The instructive part is that the purchase agreement had listed the premises, the equipment and the name, and had said nothing about the listing.

If they are an agency you still work with

A common and awkward version, worth handling before it becomes a dispute.

An agency holding your listing is not necessarily doing anything wrong. It is frequently how they were set up to work, and it may never have been discussed.

The reasonable ask is that ownership sits with the business and they are added as a manager. That lets them do everything they need to do, and removes the risk that a future disagreement leaves you locked out.

Most agencies agree without difficulty, because the alternative is being chased for access by a former client years later.

Where one refuses, that is worth knowing now rather than at the point you want to leave, and it is a reasonable thing to weigh when deciding whether to continue.

While you wait

The listing is wrong and visible, so it is worth limiting the damage.

Correct what you can through the suggested-edit route, which anybody can use and which sometimes gets applied.

Make sure your website is unambiguous about hours and contact details, since that is where somebody will go next.

And answer the phone number on the listing if it still reaches you, even if it is not the one you want to use. A missed call during the wait is a customer lost for a reason that will be fixed in a fortnight.

Preventing the repeat

Once you have it, the arrangement that keeps it.

Ownership held by an account belonging to the business, not to an individual. A second person added as an owner, so one departure is not a loss of control.

An agency or contractor added as a manager rather than an owner, which lets them work without being able to remove you.

And the listing included in your record of accounts, alongside the domain and hosting, which is covered in who holds the keys to your site.

Frequently asked questions

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.