Incorrect information on your Google Business Profile can be fixed in three ways: editing it yourself through the profile dashboard, rejecting suggested edits from third parties, or reporting problems you cannot change directly.
If your edits keep reverting, third-party apps or competitor-suggested changes may be overwriting your updates. Fix the source of the problem first, then make the correction.
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Why Does Incorrect Information on Your Google Business Profile Matter?
Imagine a customer finds your business on Google Maps, sees the wrong phone number, and calls a disconnected line. They don’t try again. They move on to a competitor.
That’s what incorrect information costs you.
Research suggests that around 62% of consumers avoid businesses that have incorrect or incomplete information online, according to data compiled by Content by Cass (sourced from Safari Digital/Seoprofy).
Your Google Business Profile (GBP) is what appears when someone searches for your business or a service you offer.
It shows your address, phone number, opening hours, website, and photos. When any of that is wrong, customers either can’t reach you or lose trust in you before they even make contact.
The problem is that Google doesn’t only display what you put there. It also pulls information from other websites, allows members of the public to suggest edits, and sometimes changes your profile automatically.
Wrong information can appear even if you set things up correctly.
This article explains exactly how to remove incorrect information from your Google Business Profile, what to do when changes keep reverting, and how to stop it from happening again.
What Types of Information Can Appear Incorrectly?
Before you can fix the problem, it helps to know what kind of incorrect information you might be dealing with.
There are two categories:
- information you can edit directly
- information that requires reporting or sourcing from elsewhere
Common issues include the wrong phone number, an outdated address, incorrect opening hours, a business name that has been changed (often by keyword-stuffing competitors), a category that doesn’t match what you do, and a website URL pointing to an old domain.
Less obvious problems include outdated descriptions pulled from old directories, photos that belong to a similar business, and AI-generated summaries drawing on incorrect data from third-party sites.
Knowing what you’re dealing with helps you choose the right fix.
How Do I Edit My Google Business Profile to Fix Incorrect Information?
If you manage your own Google Business Profile, fixing wrong information you added yourself (or that was there when you claimed the profile) is usually straightforward.
How to Edit Your Business Information
Sign in to your Google account and search for your business name on Google.
You should see your Business Profile appear with an “Edit profile” option. Click it and you can update most of your core details directly from the search results.
Alternatively, go to business.google.com and access your profile from the dashboard. From there, select “Edit profile” or go to the relevant section (Info, Hours, Contact, and so on).
Things you can edit directly include:
- Business name
- Address or service area
- Phone number
- Website URL
- Opening hours (including special hours for bank holidays)
- Business description
- Business category
- Attributes (things like parking, accessibility, payment methods)
Make your changes and hit “Save”. Most updates appear within a few hours, though some take up to three days to show on Maps and Search.
What to Do If Your Edit Is Pending Review
Some changes trigger a review by Google before they go live.
Name, address, and category changes are the most common triggers. You will see the status “In review” next to your change. There is nothing further to do except wait.
If the change is still pending after a week, you can try submitting it again.
How to Handle Suggested Edits From Third Parties
This is where things get more frustrating.
Google allows anyone, including members of the public and competitors, to suggest changes to your Business Profile. Google sometimes accepts these suggestions automatically, without notifying you.
Research from Sterling Sky found that even minor unauthorised changes to a profile can cause measurable drops in branded search traffic.
You might find your opening hours have changed, your phone number has been replaced, or your business category has been altered. You did not make these changes, but they are now showing on your profile.
How to Find and Reject Suggested Edits
Log in to your Business Profile dashboard at business.google.com. Look for any changes highlighted in orange. These are suggested edits that are either pending or have already been accepted. You can review them and either approve or reject each one.
If a change has already been accepted and is now live, edit the profile yourself to restore the correct information.
Turning On Notifications
Google can notify you by email when changes are suggested or made to your profile.
To enable this, go to your profile settings and check that email notifications are switched on. Getting these alerts is one of the most effective ways to catch and correct unauthorised changes quickly.
Why Is Google Showing Wrong Information That I Didn’t Add?
Sometimes the incorrect information on your profile is not coming from a suggested edit.
Instead, Google is pulling it from somewhere else, such as an old Yell listing, a Facebook page with outdated details, or an industry directory you forgot about.
Editing your GBP alone will not fix this.
Google’s systems cross-reference your profile against dozens of external sources. If a third-party site shows a different phone number, Google may eventually revert your profile to match that source.
The Fix: Find and Update the Source
Search for your business name on Google.
Look at every result beyond your own website. Check whether Yell, Yelp, Thomson Local, Facebook, LinkedIn, or any other directory shows outdated details. When you find incorrect listings, log in and update them.
Give extra attention to data aggregators such as Data Axle and Foursquare.
These feed information to hundreds of smaller directories. Correcting your information at the aggregator level can fix many smaller directories at once.
This process is called citation management or NAP consistency. NAP stands for Name, Address, Phone Number.
Keeping this information consistent across the web reduces the chance of Google overwriting your correct details with incorrect ones pulled from elsewhere.
According to local SEO experts surveyed by Whitespark, the primary business category is the single biggest GBP ranking factor, but NAP consistency across citations is rated as a significant supporting signal for local search visibility.
Why Do My Google Business Profile Changes Keep Reverting?
If you have updated your profile but it keeps reverting to old information within days or weeks, a third-party app may have access to your listing and be overwriting your changes automatically.
This happens when a previous owner, a marketing agency, or a tool you once connected to your Google account still has permission to manage your listing.
How to Remove Third-Party App Access
Go to your Google Account settings at myaccount.google.com.
Select “Security” and then “Third-party apps with account access”.
Look for any apps that list “Manage your Google Business profile” as a permission. Remove access for any app you no longer use or recognise.
You can also check and remove other people who have manager access to your profile.
In your Business Profile dashboard, go to “Business Profile settings” and then “People and access”. Any manager except the profile owner can be removed.
How to Report Information You Cannot Change Yourself
Some information on your Business Profile cannot be edited directly by you.
This includes:
- Information added from external data sources that Google treats as authoritative
- Details in the Knowledge Panel pulled from Wikipedia or other sources
- Reviews and photos added by customers
For this type of problem, use Google’s “Suggest an edit” feature on the profile itself (visible on Maps and Search) to flag the incorrect information.
You can also use the Business Redressal Complaint Form on Google’s support site to report fraudulent or incorrect details about your business.
For photos that are wrong or inappropriate, go to your profile dashboard, select “Photos”, find the image, and use the flag or report option to ask Google to remove it.
Incorrect AI-Generated Descriptions: A Newer Problem
Since Google introduced AI-generated summaries for Business Profiles in late 2025, some business owners have found that what Google says about them in search results does not match reality.
Google’s AI draws on your profile data, your website, and third-party sources simultaneously, which means a single inaccuracy elsewhere online can skew the summary it shows.
These summaries are generated based on your profile data, your website, and your reviews.
If the summary is wrong, the best approach is to edit the “Business description” field on your profile to make it accurate and detailed. You can also use the “Feedback” option shown beneath the AI-generated content in search results to flag inaccuracies directly to Google.
Getting customers to leave detailed, accurate reviews helps too.
Google’s AI draws on review content when building these summaries. A customer who mentions your specific services by name gives the AI better data to work with.
A Checklist for Keeping Your Profile Accurate
To keep your Google Business Profile accurate, run through these six checks every quarter:
- Log in to your Business Profile and check all core details are still correct
- Check your email notifications are turned on for profile changes
- Search your business name on Google and check what external sites are displaying
- Review third-party app access and remove anything you no longer use
- Check your website contact page matches your GBP details exactly
- Look at your profile on Maps from a logged-out browser to see what customers see
Most problems can be caught and fixed in under 30 minutes if you check regularly. Leaving incorrect information unaddressed for months is when it starts to damage your local search rankings.
When to Get Professional Help
If you have tried all of the above and incorrect information keeps reappearing, or your profile has been suspended as a result of incorrect details, it may be time to get expert help.
Profile suspensions, persistent reverting of correct information, and competitor sabotage are all situations where someone with experience of Google’s systems can save you considerable time and stress.
At Respect Experts, we help UK small businesses sort out exactly these kinds of problems. For a one-off fix or a full profile clean-up, get in touch for a free consultation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, anyone can suggest changes to your Google Business Profile, and Google sometimes accepts those suggestions automatically without notifying you. To protect your profile, turn on email notifications so you are alerted when changes occur, and check your profile regularly for any orange-highlighted edits.
Old information usually reappears because a third-party app connected to your Google account is overwriting your changes, or Google is pulling data from an external site such as an outdated directory listing. Check your third-party app access and audit your online citations to find the source.
Most changes appear within a few hours. Changes to your business name, address, or category can take up to three business days and may go through a review period first.
A competitor can suggest edits to your profile, and Google may accept those suggestions. Checking your profile regularly and setting up email notifications is the most effective way to catch any unauthorised changes quickly.
Use the “Suggest an edit” option visible on your profile in Google Maps or Search. For more serious issues involving fraud or misrepresentation, use Google’s Business Redressal Complaint Form, available through Google Business Profile Help.
NAP stands for Name, Address, and Phone Number. When these details are inconsistent across different websites, Google may default to information from a third-party source rather than your own profile. Keeping your details the same everywhere reduces the risk of wrong information appearing.
You cannot delete photos added by other people directly, but you can report them for removal. Photos that violate Google’s content policies, such as spam, irrelevant images, or inappropriate content, can be flagged using the flag icon on the photo itself.
Address changes sometimes trigger a re-verification process, especially if the change is significant. Google wants to confirm your business is actually at the new location. Follow the on-screen prompts to re-verify your profile with the updated address.
Yes. Inconsistent NAP information across your GBP and external sites is a recognised factor in local search rankings. According to Whitespark’s Local Search Ranking Factors survey, GBP signals are the most important factor for appearing in the local map pack. Google gives more prominence to businesses whose information is consistent and verified, so fixing incorrect details can improve your visibility in local search results.
You cannot prevent Google from accepting public suggestions entirely, but you can reduce the risk. Keep your profile fully completed (incomplete profiles are more vulnerable to being overwritten by external data), turn on notifications, check your profile regularly, and remove unnecessary third-party app access.
Log in to your Business Profile dashboard at business.google.com and look for any information highlighted in orange. This indicates a suggested edit that has been accepted or is pending. You can also check your email notifications if they are switched on, as Google sends alerts when changes are made or suggested on your profile.