Guide · Google Maps

Someone else controls your Google listing? How to get it back.

It happens to a lot of businesses in Pakistan. The listing was made years ago by an employee who has left, a relative, a marketing person or an agency, on an email nobody can open now. Customers see old hours, an old number or a delivery app's menu, and you cannot change a word. Google has a process for exactly this.

First: is it unclaimed, or owned by someone else?

Search for your business on Google Maps while signed in. If the listing offers "Own this business?", nobody has verified it yet: claim it and verify it yourself. The Google Maps checklist starts there. If Google tells you someone else already manages it, you need an ownership request.

Request ownership: Google's process, step by step

1. Use an email you will keep for ever. A Gmail in the owner's name, with a phone number you control for recovery. Not the manager's, not a nephew's.
2. Start the claim from that account. Google says the listing is already owned and offers to request access.
3. Fill in the request: your name, your role, and that you own the business.
4. Wait three days. Google emails the current owner, who has three days to answer.
5. If they approve, you get an email and can manage the listing.
6. If they refuse, you can still suggest edits to the listing and appeal the decision.
7. If nobody answers in three days, open Google's confirmation email and select "View request". You may be able to verify the business yourself from there. Google says this option is not always offered.

Verifying: have this ready

Google decides how you verify. For many businesses in Pakistan it asks for a short video: one continuous recording that shows your signboard and street, the inside of the premises, and something only the owner or staff could show. Follow the list on screen exactly. The review usually takes a few working days.

What not to do

• Do not make a second listing for the same business. Google removes duplicates, and your reviews stay on the old one.
• Do not add words like "best" or a city name to the business name to rank higher. It is against Google's rules and can get the listing suspended.
• Do not pay anyone who "guarantees" to get it back. Google decides every request itself.

Once it is yours, keep it yours

• Add a second owner from your family, so one lost phone or password cannot lock you out again.
• Give staff and agencies manager access, never ownership. A manager can be removed in one tap.
• Keep the account's recovery phone number up to date.

A real case

Jik Jik Chinese on Main PWD Road, Islamabad, could not edit a listing thousands of people were looking at. The request was made from the restaurant's own Gmail, and Google gave the restaurant ownership three days later; the listing was then rebuilt around their real 104-dish menu. Read how it went.

If you would rather have it done for you, the Google listing service is from Rs 3,000, one time.

Last checked: 21 September 2026 · All guides