How to Recover a Hijacked Google Business Profile

"Hijacked" is a different problem to "suspended"

A suspended profile has been taken down by Google because something about it tripped a policy check. A hijacked profile is still live — the listing works fine, customers can still find and message you — but someone who shouldn't have owner or manager control does, and you can't make changes to your own business's information.

It usually happens in one of a few ways: a marketing agency or web developer set up the profile years ago under their own Google account and the relationship has since ended without access being handed back; a former staff member who managed the listing left the business and the account went with them; or, less often, someone with no legitimate connection to the business successfully claims or verifies it.

Start by confirming what access you actually have

Before assuming the worst, check exactly what you can still do. Sometimes what looks like a full lockout is really a demoted role — you might still have manager-level access even if you're no longer listed as the primary owner, which is enough to make most day-to-day edits and reply to reviews. Check with everyone else in the business too; owner or manager access is sometimes sitting quietly on an account nobody thought to check.

If you genuinely have no access of any kind and can't reach whoever currently holds it, you're dealing with a real recovery case, not a permissions fix.

Use Google's official request-access process

Google Business Profile has a built-in flow for exactly this situation: searching for your business, finding the option to request access to a profile someone else manages, and having that request routed to the current owner. If the current owner doesn't respond within Google's set window, the request escalates and Google reviews it directly rather than requiring the other party's cooperation.

This is a genuinely useful mechanism precisely because it doesn't depend on the other side being reasonable — it's designed for the case where an old agency has gone quiet or a former employee won't respond. It does mean patience: Google reviews these manually, and there's no published fixed turnaround.

The mistake that makes everything worse: creating a second listing

The instinct to set up a brand-new profile while you sort out access to the old one is understandable, but it's the single most damaging move available. Google treats two profiles for the same business as duplicates, which routinely ends with one — sometimes both — suspended, and any reviews sitting on the original stay stranded on a listing you still don't control.

If you've already created a second listing, our guide on merging duplicate Google Business Profile listings covers how to consolidate them back into one once you've regained access to the original.

Gather proof of ownership before you contact Google

Manual reviews move faster with real documentation attached. Useful evidence includes your business registration or ABN details, a utility bill or lease at the business address, other verified listings or directories showing you as the operator, and any correspondence with the person or agency currently holding access — including records of the relationship ending, if that's the root cause.

Protect yourself once you've got it back

• Set the primary owner to a shared organisational Google account you control — a company Workspace login, not a single staff member's personal Gmail address.
• Add at least one other trusted person as an owner, not just a manager, so access never again depends on one person.
• Review the Users list on your profile every few months and remove anyone who's left the business or ended a contract, the same day the relationship ends.
• Keep a written record inside the business of who currently holds owner and manager access, so the next handover isn't a mystery either.