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I saw a case recently in Google's community forum where a real estate agent had created a practitioner profile using their “work” email. (i.e. an email on their brokerage’s website domain) They left the brokerage to work elsewhere, so the email account used to create the profile was shut down, and they lost access to their practitioner profile.
In another case, a marketing agency created a GBP for a client. The agency was the Primary Owner on the profile. They added their client, the actual owner of the business, as a manager. When the agency went out of business, the business owner was stuck with manager-level access. They couldn’t remove the agency email or add other users.
In a third example, a small business had an employee create a Gmail address and use it to create a Business Profile. That employee didn’t share the login info with anyone, so when they eventually left the job, the business didn’t have access to the profile.
There are often workarounds for these problems, but a little bit of planning can avoid them in the first place. Combining the “typical” ideas plus what I learned from the above scenarios, here's my thinking:
* The business owner should be the primary owner
* Have at least one domain-based email on the account that you can use for verification / re-verification
* A profile should have at least two owners (so in case one of the owner accounts runs into trouble, you won’t lose the ability to manage profile users)
* Most other users only need manager access
* Avoid having too many users! Remove old agencies, former employees and any other users who should no longer have access.
* For practitioners: Your practitioner profile is yours and can move with you as you change employers. You should control it. So, practitioner profiles should have (at least) two owners: a domain-based “work” email AND a personal email that you control.
Does anyone have any additions to these “best practices”, or reasons you might do it differently?
In another case, a marketing agency created a GBP for a client. The agency was the Primary Owner on the profile. They added their client, the actual owner of the business, as a manager. When the agency went out of business, the business owner was stuck with manager-level access. They couldn’t remove the agency email or add other users.
In a third example, a small business had an employee create a Gmail address and use it to create a Business Profile. That employee didn’t share the login info with anyone, so when they eventually left the job, the business didn’t have access to the profile.
There are often workarounds for these problems, but a little bit of planning can avoid them in the first place. Combining the “typical” ideas plus what I learned from the above scenarios, here's my thinking:
* The business owner should be the primary owner
* Have at least one domain-based email on the account that you can use for verification / re-verification
* A profile should have at least two owners (so in case one of the owner accounts runs into trouble, you won’t lose the ability to manage profile users)
* Most other users only need manager access
* Avoid having too many users! Remove old agencies, former employees and any other users who should no longer have access.
* For practitioners: Your practitioner profile is yours and can move with you as you change employers. You should control it. So, practitioner profiles should have (at least) two owners: a domain-based “work” email AND a personal email that you control.
Does anyone have any additions to these “best practices”, or reasons you might do it differently?
