You call your old marketing company for the third time this month. The rep who set up your Google profile and website doesn't call back. Your reviews, your phone number and your web address all sit in accounts you can't open.
Google has a route back, and you can start it tonight. Here are the logins and steps, account by account. For everything else that decides whether you show up on Maps, see our local SEO checklist for home service companies.
What do you actually own right now?
Find out whose name is on each account before you ask for anything. In your Google Business Profile, select More, then Business Profile settings, then People and access.[1] A profile can have several owners, each with full control, but only one primary owner.[1]
Managers can do nearly everything an owner can, except add or remove users or remove the profile.[1] If you can't open the profile, try every Google Account your company has used.
For the domain, look up your web address on ICANN Lookup, run by the group that oversees web addresses.[2] Note the registrar: the company your domain is registered with.
| Account | Where to look | What you want |
|---|---|---|
| Google Business Profile | Business Profile settings, then People and access | You as primary owner; the agency as manager or gone |
| Domain name | ICANN Lookup, then the registrar's site | The domain in a registrar account in your company's name |
| Website and hosting | Ask who pays the hosting bill | An administrator login and a full backup |
| Search Console | Settings, then Users and permissions | You as a verified owner |
| Analytics | Admin, then Access Management | You as Administrator at the account level |
Write down what you find in each row, with today's date. Every row that falls short goes into your request.
What should you ask your old agency for?
Ask for each account by name, in one email, so you have a dated record. Google's third-party policy is on your side here. It says a business must keep ownership or co-ownership of its profile at all times.[3]
It also sets a deadline. When you end its service, the agency has 7 business days from your notice to let you regain exclusive control and remove its own permissions.[3]
A handover email from a roofing company in Columbus, Ohio
- Subject: Ending our service: please transfer our accounts within 7 business days
- Google Business Profile: add owner@yourcompany.com as an owner, make that address the primary owner, then remove your access.
- Domain: move yourcompany.com into a registrar account in our company's name, or remove the transfer lock and send us the transfer code.
- Website and hosting: an administrator login for owner@yourcompany.com and a full backup of the site files and database.
- Search Console and Analytics: add owner@yourcompany.com as an owner in Search Console and as Administrator in Analytics.
- Close: Please reply to confirm each item as it's done.
Illustrative example
Send it from your company email and save every reply. Keep it short and polite, because you may quote it to Google later.
What if the agency doesn't answer?
Ask Google for ownership yourself. If customers visit your shop or office, go to business.google.com/add, find your profile, select Request Access and fill out the form.[4]
If you work at customers' homes and have no shop or office, Google calls that a service-area business. For those, it says to contact Google at support.google.com/business/gethelp and enter Transfer ownership of listing as the issue.[4]
The current owner gets an email and has 3 days to respond.[4] If they approve, you can manage the profile. If they deny it, you can still suggest edits and try to appeal.[4]
If nobody answers in 3 days, you may be able to claim the profile from your confirmation email, then verify the business. Google notes that this option isn't always available.[4]
Once you're an owner, you must wait 7 days before removing other owners or managers or changing the primary owner.[1] Set a reminder for day 8, make yourself primary owner, then remove the agency and anyone you don't recognize. Then run our Google Business Profile checklist to catch anything the agency changed.
How do you report the agency to Google?
Use Google's third-party complaint form.[5] The policy lists keeping a profile hostage in exchange for money as untrustworthy behavior.[3] It also says the business decides whether a partner gets co-owner, manager or no access at all.[3]
The form asks for the agency's company name, your relationship to the business and where you saw the violation.[5] It also says Google does not intervene in breach-of-contract issues between you and an agency.[5]
Google says it may not reply personally, but it will investigate and act if needed.[3] Its policy also warns that repeated unfounded complaints can get all further ones rejected without assessment.[3] So send one clear report, with the dates of your emails.
Should you start a new Google profile instead?
No. Google allows one Business Profile per business, and multiple profiles for the same business are against its policies.[6] A profile marked as a duplicate won't show on Google Search or Maps.[6]
A new profile would also start with zero reviews. Google's page on primary ownership says handing over the existing profile keeps your business info, like reviews.[7] Buyers notice a thin review count:
47% of consumers won't use a business with fewer than 20 reviews.
Source: BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey · (opens in a new tab)
So keep pushing for the old profile. If you made a second one while waiting, remove it once the old one is yours. Pick the right one: Google says removing a duplicate removes all its content and linked managers.[6] If the new one has reviews, suggest a merge on Google Maps instead; merged profiles combine reviews but may lose replies.[6]
How do you get the domain and Search Console back?
Domain first, then Search Console, because your website and company email run on the domain.
Log in at the registrar the lookup showed. If the domain sits in the agency's account, ask the agency to move it into one in your company's name. Or ask it to remove the transfer lock and send you the transfer code (the AuthInfo code).
Under ICANN's Transfer Policy, the registrar must give the domain's holder that code within five calendar days, unless it offers a self-serve tool.[8] When a domain's owner details change, the registrar must block moves to another registrar for 60 days. A registrar may let the holder opt out beforehand.[8] So if you plan to switch registrars, request the transfer before you change any owner details.[8]
Then verify Search Console yourself. A Domain property, your whole web address, can only be verified with a DNS record: a line in your domain's settings.[9] Our Search Console setup guide shows how.
In Settings, then Users and permissions, remove old users. Next, open Unused ownership tokens. Each is how an old owner verified: a file, tag or DNS line, or access to your Analytics or Tag Manager. Remove the token or that access, because while it stays, that person can re-verify and get back in.[10]
In Analytics, deleting other users takes the Administrator role at the account level.[11] If the agency won't add you, open an Analytics account of your own and replace the code on your site. The new account starts with no history.
Last, change every shared password. Google's tip is a separate Google Account for each person, so nobody has to share a password.[1]
What goes on your login list?
One page that you keep, not the agency. Make it before you hire the next company, and update it the day anyone leaves:
- Google Business Profile: the Google Account that is primary owner, and every name under People and access.
- Domain: the registrar, the account login, the renewal date and the card on file.
- Website: the hosting company, an administrator login and where the latest backup lives.
- Search Console: each verified owner and how they verified.
- Analytics: every Administrator on the account.
- Listings: the logins for Bing Places, Apple Business, Yelp and the BBB.
Keep it in a password manager your company owns, not in an agency portal. Before you sign with anyone new, read how to choose an AI search agency for what to put in the contract.
If this takes more evenings than you have, hand it to the next company, but stay the owner of every account. When we work on a profile, we ask for manager access and you stay the owner. How it works shows the first month, and our local SEO plans cover the work after that.
What can't you control?
Google doesn't always offer the claim option, and you can only try to appeal.[4] It won't contact you about your complaint unless it needs more details, and it doesn't share the outcome.[5]
Under ICANN's policy, the registrar provides the transfer code at the request of the domain's registered holder.[8] If that's the agency, you need its help, so keep the email thread. These pages were checked on October 27, 2026.