Giving us access takes about two minutes.

Google builds listings on its own from phone books, other websites and what customers submit. So a listing with your name on it may have existed for years without you touching it — and whatever it says right now is what people are being told about you.

1. Search your business on Google Maps and open the listing.
2. Look for Claim this business or Own this business? and click it.
3. Sign in with the Google account you want to own it long-term. Use one you will still have in five years — not a former employee's, and not an address at an internet provider you might leave.
4. Confirm the details Google shows you, correcting anything wrong.
5. Choose a verification method and complete it. See How Google checks you are real below.

Once you can edit the listing, come back and follow the four steps at the top.

This is normal and it is recoverable. It usually means a marketing company or a web designer claimed it while working for you and never handed it over.

1. Search your business on Google and click Claim this business. Google will tell you it is already claimed and offer Request access.
2. Fill in the form. Google shows you a partly hidden version of the current owner's email — often enough to recognize who it is.
3. Google emails them. They have seven days to respond.
4. If they approve it, you get access immediately. If they decline, you can appeal and Google looks at the evidence. If they ignore it, you can usually claim the listing yourself after the seven days.

Two things worth doing while the clock runs. First, if you recognize the company, email them directly as well — most hand it over without fuss once asked plainly, and that is far faster than the form. Second, tell us, because seven days of silence and then an appeal is the one part of this where it helps to have someone who has seen it before.

Create it on your own Google account, not ours. We are deliberately not willing to own your listing — the profile is one of the few assets in your business that a supplier should never be holding, and ours is not the name that should be on the deed.

1. Go to google.com/business and sign in with the business's Google account.
2. Enter the business name and pick the closest category. You can add more categories later, and you should.
3. When it asks whether you serve customers at your address: for most trades the answer is no, I deliver to them. Choose the service-area option and list the towns you cover. Your home address stays hidden.
4. Add the phone number and website. Use the site we built you.
5. Verify. See below.

Then follow the four steps at the top and we will fill in the rest — hours, services, description, photos, and the categories most people never set.

Verification is the part people get stuck on, so it is worth knowing before you start. Google decides which method you get; you do not choose from a menu.

• Video. Increasingly the usual one for trades. You record one continuous video — no stopping — showing three things: that you are where you say you are, that you have the tools of the trade, and that you manage the business. In practice: your van with the signage on it, your equipment, and then something with the business name on it, like a license, an invoice, or a utility bill.
• Postcard. Google mails a code to the address. Five to fourteen days. Do not change anything on the listing while you wait — it restarts the process.
• Phone or email. Quicker, but only offered to some businesses.

What to have ready before you start the video, because re-recording is the annoying part: the vehicle, one or two tools, and one document showing the business name. Do it in daylight. If it fails, you can try again — a failed attempt is not a mark against you.