Not all businesses are eligible for a Business Profile on Google. To be eligible for a Business Profile, any business must meet the criteria as listed below. Owners and authorized representatives for a Business Profile must also follow the guidelines as listed.
Eligible businesses
To qualify for a Business Profile, a business must make in-person contact with customers during its stated hours.
There are some exceptions:
- ATMs, video-rental kiosks, and express mail drop boxes are permitted. If you add these locations, you must include contact information for customers to get help.
- Seasonal businesses, like an ice-skating rink only open in winter months, are eligible. These businesses must display permanent signage at their location year-round.
- Delivery-only food services are permitted with some conditions. Learn about Virtual Food Brands.
Ineligible businesses
The following are examples of businesses that aren’t eligible for a Business Profile:
- Rental or for-sale properties such as vacation homes, model homes, or vacant apartments. Sales or leasing offices, however, are eligible for verification.
- An ongoing service, class, or meeting at a location that you don't own or have the authority to represent.
- Lead generation agents or companies.
- Brands, organizations, artists, and other online-only businesses.
- Businesses associated with products or services that require the customer to be a certain minimum age, like alcohol, cannabis, or weapons, aren’t permitted as service-area businesses without a storefront.
- Any business whose address is listed as a P.O. box or mailbox in a remote location.
Ownership
Only business owners or authorized representatives may verify and manage their business information on a Business Profile. If you wish to share management access to your Business Profile with others, you can add a manager.
In some instances ownership may be revoked due to one of the following reasons:
- You haven’t signed in to your account recently
- The business confirmed that you or your agency is no longer authorized to manage this page
- We’ve been unable to reach you by email after multiple attempts to confirm your affiliation with the business
- You or another profile owner deleted your profile
- You created your business profile through another Google product and that product profile has been suspended
If this happens, you can attempt to reverify or request ownership from the new business owner following the steps in the Resolve owner conflicts article.
Additional guidelines for authorized representatives
Any individual or company that manages business information for a Business Profile that they don’t own is considered an authorized representative. Examples: a third-party SEO/SEM company; a friend of the business owner; an online ordering, scheduling, or booking provider; and an affiliate network provider.
Authorized representatives must:
- Never claim a Business Profile without express consent from the business owner.
- Never make false, misleading, or unrealistic claims.
- Never use harassing, abusive, or untrustworthy tactics with potential or existing customers.
- Always work directly with the business owner to complete verification. Learn more about verification.
- Always ensure that the business owner understands what a Business Profile on Google is and where Business Profile data is used. Authorized representatives should share the following resources with the business’s owner:
- Always keep the business owner informed about which actions the authorized representative will take on the Business Profile.
- Always follow Guidelines for representing your business on Google. Note that the phone number and website for a Business Profile should always be the single, authoritative phone number and website for the business and be verifiable by the business owner. Website content must be owned and managed by the business owner.
- Always respond to management access requests promptly, and always transfer Business Profile ownership to the business owner immediately upon request. Authorized representatives must, whenever possible, encourage the business owner to create an account, own the Business Profile, and add authorized representatives as managers. Learn how to transfer ownership.
Failure to adhere to these policies may result in a suspension for the Business Profile and/or Google Account. Subsequent contributions will be blocked when the profile or account has been suspended for failure to adhere to these policies.
