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The Easiest (Advanced) Way To Claim A Service Area Business Listing On Google
There are times when a service area business listing (a listing without an address showing) is already claimed in a Google account you don’t have access to. When that happens, Google wants you to create a new listing, verify it, and then merge it with the existing one that’s live. This process can take weeks before you gain control of the live listing, and it often leads to issues with duplicate listings if Google doesn’t merge them properly. This workaround makes claiming the service area business (SAB) listing possible without creating a duplicate, and it’s also a much faster process. As an added bonus, this hack makes it impossible for someone to hold your listing hostage. Here are the steps to take:
1.Find the Google Places ID for the listing you want to claim. Place IDs are not the same thing as CIDs. The easiest way to get the place ID for a listing is to pull it up in Google Maps and use the Pleper Chrome extension.
Go to https://business.google.com/arc/p/Google-PlaceID-Here, which will take you to the same place as if you were trying to claim a regular (non-SAB) listing.
2.Once you fill out the form, you’ll get an email confirming your ownership request. Do not delete this email because you’ll need it to file an appeal in case the existing owner of the listing denies your request to transfer ownership.
3.The current owner has 3 days to respond to the request. If they don’t respond in that time, you may be able to verify to gain access.
4.If they grant you access within 3 days, your account becomes the primary owner, and they are demoted to a manager. This means you can go in and remove them if needed.
5.If they deny you access or don’t respond in 3 days, pull up the email you received like the picture above, and click “view request”.
6.If they denied you access, you should see a button to appeal. If they didn’t respond, you should see a button that says “verify”. Both of these buttons do the same thing – they allow you to verify the listing.
7.Once you verify the listing, it immediately boots the other user out completely and you are now the primary owner.
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Very nice find! Thanks for sharing this.
Now if there was some form of functionality in the GBP agency panel, that would be helpful.
Let’s hope that Google doesn’t decide to prevent this workaround any time soon.
Very nice find! Thanks for sharing this.
Now if there was some form of functionality in the GBP agency panel, that would be helpful.
Let’s hope that Google doesn’t decide to prevent this workaround any time soon.
If Google could make it more straightforward to claim SABs that would be awesome! I won’t hold my breath though.
Thank you!!!
Hello,
I just keep getting 404 error when using link+CID: https://business.google.com/arc/p/Google-PlaceID-Here
Has anyone else tried the link above …???
Hi there, it is not the CID is it the Place ID, two different strings. The easiest way to get the place ID for a listing is to pull it up in Google Maps and use the Pleper Chrome extension https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/pleper-local-seo-tools/cpdkchkkmcpnfgbpjjgfhcbcaceeandd?hl=en
Hold it – My Bad !!
As Joy above says: Place IDs are not the same thing as CIDs. I used CID :((
All good – Great Tip !!
Thank you!!!
Hello,
I just keep getting 404 error when using link+CID: https://business.google.com/arc/p/Google-PlaceID-Here
Has anyone else tried the link above …???
Hi there, it is not the CID is it the Place ID, two different strings. The easiest way to get the place ID for a listing is to pull it up in Google Maps and use the Pleper Chrome extension https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/pleper-local-seo-tools/cpdkchkkmcpnfgbpjjgfhcbcaceeandd?hl=en
Hold it – My Bad !!
As Joy above says: Place IDs are not the same thing as CIDs. I used CID :((
All good – Great Tip !!
Seems like they already ‘closed’ this loophole? Clicking “Verify” just prompts me to create a listing, as if I’d started from scratch on a new listing
I just tried this method yesterday and it worked. Are you sure you are using the right Place ID?
Seems like they already ‘closed’ this loophole? Clicking “Verify” just prompts me to create a listing, as if I’d started from scratch on a new listing
I just tried this method yesterday and it worked. Are you sure you are using the right Place ID?
Indian and Pakistani guys have used this method for a few years. I wrote to Google support several times about this problem, but there was no answer.
Sounds on brand for Google.
Indian and Pakistani guys have used this method for a few years. I wrote to Google support several times about this problem, but there was no answer.
Sounds on brand for Google.
Seems like this may be fixed on Google’s end now. Getting a “sorry, we are having some issues at the moment. Please try again later.” error when trying to do it for an SAB client I have. Has been happening since Friday 8/30
I just tried this method yesterday and it worked. Are you sure you are using the right Place ID? Also try it in a different browser if it still does not work.
Seems like this may be fixed on Google’s end now. Getting a “sorry, we are having some issues at the moment. Please try again later.” error when trying to do it for an SAB client I have. Has been happening since Friday 8/30
I just tried this method yesterday and it worked. Are you sure you are using the right Place ID? Also try it in a different browser if it still does not work.
If Google could make it more straightforward to claim SABs that would be awesome! I won’t hold my breath though.