Google Flags a Suggested Change? You Have 4 Days to Answer
Other people can suggest changes to your Google listing. When Google tells you about one, you have four days to accept or reject it.
Search Google for a business in East Hampton and a box can come up with its address, phone number and hours. Google calls that box a Business Profile. You can change yours, but you aren’t the only one. People who use Google can suggest changes to it. For certain suggestions, Google tells you first, by email or with a notice on your profile. From then, you have four days to accept or reject the change.
Let the four days pass, and Google “may automatically publish the update if it is supported by other publicly available information, such as your business website.” If your website still shows an old address or phone number and the suggestion matches it, your website could be that support. Answer the notice, and keep your website up to date.
Where the listing comes from
Google builds a listing from several kinds of sources:
- Public information on the web, such as a business’s own website
- Data licensed from other companies
- People who add facts like addresses and phone numbers, plus photos and reviews, owners who claim their listings among them
- Google’s own dealings with the business
When those sources report that something on your listing is wrong or out of date, Google may update it. You can review and manage those updates from your profile, but Google says not all of them. It may also make some changes without checking with you first, when they’re needed to meet its rules.
A listing that’s wrong might not turn up when people nearby search. “If your business info isn’t accurate, your Business Profile might not show up for relevant searches in your area,” Google says.
Keeping the three in line
Your Google listing, your website and your sign should show the same name, place and phone. When they don’t, settle which version is true and change the others. Google’s rules for the listing:
- Name: the real-world name you use on your storefront, website and stationery, and the one customers know.
- Address: precise and accurate. No P.O. box, no mailbox at a remote location, and no virtual office, a rented mailing address where the business doesn’t actually operate. If you show the address, keep a permanent sign with your business name there.
- Phone: one that connects to your own location and that the business directly controls.
No storefront? If you go to your customers, Google calls you a service-area business and says to hide your address. Its example is a plumber working from home. A business that also serves customers at its own address, like Google’s example of an auto repair shop with roadside service, can show the address and set a service area.
To fix the listing, sign in to the Google Account linked to it, search Google for “my business” and select Edit profile. Some businesses might first have to verify, that is, prove to Google that the business is theirs.
- Address: choose Location, select Edit next to “Business location,” make the change and select Save. A service-area business turns off Show business address to customers in the same place.
- Phone: choose Contact, select Edit next to “Phone number,” enter it and select Save.
Google reviews changes before they go live. A change usually shows up in about 10 minutes, Google says, though in some cases it can take up to 30 days. Move after the business is verified and you must verify again. A name change might mean verifying again. Then make the website say the same thing.
When Google has changed your listing, a notice sits at the top of your profile. In the editing screen, anything Google changed shows in blue.
The Standard: Answer a Google suggested-change notice within four days, and keep your website showing the same address and phone as your listing.
Source: Google Business Profile Help: “Understand Google updates on your Business Profile,” “Understand how Google sources & uses info in Business Profiles & local search results,” “Guidelines for representing your business on Google,” “Manage your business address,” “1. Add your phone number,” “Edit your Business Profile,” “Find your business on Google” and “Tips to improve your local ranking on Google,” read Oct. 12, 2026.
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