New Feature - Claim This Business (But My Listing Is Already Claimed?)

[CarrieHill]

Elizabeth Linder of Kick Point pointed out a link on a claimed Google Business Listing that said "Own This Business? Claim it now."

Krystal Taing - A GMB Gold Product Expert replied that this was a new feature that makes it easier for business owners to get access to a business listing that they may have lost their logins for - or the logins may have belonged to a former employee.

Are you seeing this? Have you used the process to regain access to your listing? We'd love to hear if the process was smooth or bumpy.

 

[Norbert Z.]

This function appears when you are not logged in to a Google account and when the owner is actually lost, you can take over such a company, I did so over a year ago, filled out the form, entered a message from the phone number and had access to GMB. I did this because I took over the company from a man who did not have access to GMB. Sorry for my english.

 

[JoyHawkins]

@Norbert Z. this change is slightly different. Now it shows up even if the listing is already claimed by someone else. It's caused a bit of confusion.

I just realized though that you can see if a listing is verified or not by using an Incognito tab. If the "Own this business" shows up while you're logged out, it means the listing is unverified.

 

[Cordell Crowley]

I just realized though that you can see if a listing is verified or not by using an Incognito tab. If the "Own this business" shows up while you're logged out, it means the listing is unverified.

So if you're logged in, you won't be able to tell if the listing is claimed or unclaimed and you'll need to use an Incognito tab? Seems like a needless update on Google's part but thank you for the workaround; identifying if a listing is claimed or unclaimed is always important info when working with a new client.

 

[JoyHawkins]

@Cordell Crowley yep, that's what I'm finding. All claimed listings have the "own this business" label when I'm logged in. Pretty annoying.

 

[Cordell Crowley]

you can see if a listing is verified or not by using an Incognito tab. If the "Own this business" shows up while you're logged out, it means the listing is unverified.

Update on this: it's now showing the "own this business" label even if I am in Incognito and not logged in to any Google account. I tested on some of my clients I 100% know are claimed in my dashboard and it's showing the "own this business" label regardless of whether we're logged in, incognito/non-incognito, Firefox, Chrome, etc. It seems to be showing it all the time now at least in some cases.

Don't know if you have found any other workarounds or if this is just something we'll have to deal with going forward. Very annoying on SAB listings especially as you don't know if it is claimed or unclaimed until after you've completed verification and been marked duplicate or not.

 

[Nikki Stine]

Well this is irritating. In my limited testing, I noticed if you click on the "Own this business?" link and it is already verified, it tells you that. So perhaps that's the way to figure it out.

 

[Dimitri]

Hi all! New here

I spoke to Google on this and the way to see if a listing is verified is to view it in Maps. If you see the "own this business" or "claim this business" in the maps view then it has not been claimed. As mentioned above, all listings seen in Search view will have the "own this business" link as a way for business owners to claim them more easily. I have attached two screenshots that show this...

 

[JoyHawkins]

@Dimitri - that sounds much easier than opening a new browser. Thanks so much for sharing!

 

[Kyle Bailey]

Elizabeth Linder of Kick Point pointed out a link on a claimed Google Business Listing that said "Own This Business? Claim it now."

Krystal Taing - A GMB Gold Product Expert replied that this was a new feature that makes it easier for business owners to get access to a business listing that they may have lost their logins for - or the logins may have belonged to a former employee.

Are you seeing this? Have you used the process to regain access to your listing? We'd love to hear if the process was smooth or bumpy.

I am seeing this on properties that are owned and verified, even if I'm looking at it in incognito. Thoughts? Could it be bc of Covid?

 

[JoyHawkins]

I can't replicate it in incognito but whenever I'm logged in I see them everywhere.

 

[Jac]

Many businesses/even big listings are turned unverified after google suspended reviews and other GMB features.