How to Delete Google My Business

Thinking about deleting your Google Business Profile might feel like the final step for a closed business, a rebrand, or a cleanup job, but it's a permanent move with significant consequences. This guide walks you through exactly how to delete your profile, explains the crucial difference between removing and closing, and offers smarter alternatives you should consider before hitting that final button.

Before You Delete: Are You Sure This is What You Want?

Taking down a Google Business Profile is not like deleting a social media post. Once it's gone, it's truly gone. The most common mistake business owners make is choosing deletion when another, less permanent option would have served them better. Let's look at the consequences and why a different path might be wiser.

What Actually Happens When You Delete a GMB Profile

When you fully remove or delete a profile, you're not just taking it off the map - you're erasing its history. Here's what you stand to lose, permanently:

• All Your Reviews: Every five-star rating and piece of customer feedback will be wiped out. If you ever decide to create a new profile for a similar business, you'll be starting from zero.
• Your Photos and Videos: All the visual content you or your customers have uploaded will be gone for good.
• Your Posts and Q&A History: The valuable information shared through Google Posts and the questions-and-answers section disappears.
• Your Local SEO Ranking: Any authority, traffic, and ranking signals your profile has accumulated over the years will be instantly lost. You cannot recover this.

Even after deletion, Google may continue to show information about your business if it pulls data from other online directories or sources. The difference is, you'll have zero control over what it displays.

Smarter Alternatives to Full Deletion

There are very few situations where permanently deleting is the best option. Most of the time, business owners need one of these solutions instead.

Scenario 1: Your Business Has Closed Permanently

The Wrong Move: Deleting the profile. This removes all proof that your business ever existed and confuses customers who might look for it later.

The Right Move: Mark the profile as "Permanently Closed."
This keeps your profile visible but places a clear red banner on it, informing customers that you are no longer in operation. It's the most professional and helpful way to close up shop online. Your old customers can still see your reviews and photos, but new customers won't be directed to your closed location. It's an online equivalent of putting a "Closed" sign on the door instead of demolishing the building.

Scenario 2: You've Moved to a New Location

The Wrong Move: Deleting the old profile and creating a new one. This means starting your local SEO and review collection all over again.

The Right Move: Update your address.
Simply log into your Google Business Profile Manager and edit your business address. This tells Google you've moved, not closed. All your valuable reviews, photos, and ranking authority will move with you to the new location. It may trigger a re-verification process, but it's a small step that preserves all your hard work.

Scenario 3: You've Sold the Business

The Wrong Move: Deleting the profile. The new owner will have to start from scratch, sacrificing the existing customer base, reviews, and local ranking you built.

The Right Move: Transfer ownership of the profile.
Your Google Business Profile is a digital asset. Treat it like one. You can easily add the new owner as a "Primary owner" and then remove yourself. This hands over full control while keeping the business's online presence intact - a move that is often seen as a valuable bonus in the sale of a business.

Scenario 4: You Have Duplicate Listings

The Wrong Move: Deleting all of them randomly. You might accidentally delete the one with the most reviews or the best ranking signals.

The Right Move: Identify and remove the incorrect listing.
If you have duplicate profiles, you should absolutely clean them up. Keep the profile that is most accurate, has the most engagement (reviews, photos), and has been verified. Then, proceed with the removal steps on the duplicate, less valuable profile. In some cases, you may be able to contact Google support to merge the listings, although this can be a difficult process.

How to Mark Your Business as "Permanently Closed"

If you've decided that closing - not deleting - is the right move, the process is straightforward. This will keep your profile alive but signal to Google and your customers that you're no longer operating.

Follow these steps:

1. Sign In: Go to your Google Business Profile Manager at business.google.com.
2. Select Your Business: If you manage multiple businesses, choose the one you want to close from the list.
3. Edit Profile: In the main dashboard area, click the "Edit Profile" button. You'll find it near the top alongside options like "Add photo" and "Read reviews."
4. Find the Hours Section: Navigate to the "Hours" tab. It's usually listed right after the "Contact" information.
5. Mark as Closed: Next to your operating hours, you should see an option to mark the business as "Temporarily closed" or "Permanently closed." Select "Permanently closed."
6. Save Changes: Click "Save." Google may take a short time to review the change, but your profile will soon display the "Permanently Closed" message to the public.

This method maintains your online history while providing a clear and final status update to anyone who searches for your business.

How to Fully Remove a Single Business Profile You Manage

If you've weighed the options and are certain that full removal is necessary - for example, to get rid of a troublesome duplicate listing - here are the step-by-step instructions. Remember, this action is permanent and your content will be lost.

1. Access Profile Manager: Sign into your Google Business Profile dashboard.
2. Select the Business: Click on the business you wish to remove.
3. Go to Settings: Find the three vertical dots menu icon on the right side of the main management options box. Click it and select "Business Profile settings" from the dropdown menu.
4. Find the Removal Option: In the settings menu, click on "Remove Business Profile."
5. Stop Managing the Profile: Here, you'll be shown options. To start the deletion process click "Stop managing this profile." It sounds less permanent than it is. Google will ask you if you just want to remove yourself, or if you want to also mark the business as closed and remove profile content and managers.
6. Choose to Remove Content and Managers: Select the option labeled something like "Mark as Closed and remove." This confirms that you want to start the deletion process for the profile and its content.
7. Confirm Permanence: Google will present you with a series of very direct warnings, explaining that the action is permanent and what will be lost. You must agree to these terms before you can proceed. Read them carefully one last time.
8. Finalize Removal: After confirming, the profile and access to it will be removed.

How to Delete Multiple Google Business Profiles at Once

For marketing agencies or entrepreneurs managing a portfolio of closed businesses, removing profiles in bulk can save significant time. The same permanent consequences apply.

1. Sign In: Navigate to the main Google Business Profile Manager page where all of your locations are listed.
2. Select Profiles: Check the box next to each business profile you want to remove. Once you select the first one, a new menu bar will appear at the top of the list.
3. Open the "Actions" Menu: At the top of the listings, click the "Actions" dropdown menu.
4. Select "Remove Businesses": In the dropdown, choose the "Remove businesses" option.
5. Confirm Deletion: Google will show a popup window reminding you what this action entails. It will delete all the associated business data and you will lose access. If you're certain, click the "Remove" button to finalize the process.

What To Do If a Profile Reappears

In some cases, even after removal, a basic version of your business listing might reappear on Google Maps. This happens because Google's algorithm aggregates public information from various online directories, government records, and other data sources. If it finds consistent mentions of your business name, address, and an old phone number, it may automatically generate an "unclaimed" listing.

If this happens, an unwanted page exists without you having any control over it. You can't directly delete it, but you can use the "Suggest an edit" feature on the listing and report that the place is "permanently closed" or "doesn't exist here." If a few high-authority users suggest the same edit, the listing might be removed.

Final Thoughts

Deleting your Google Business Profile is a serious, irreversible step reserved for very specific situations, like getting rid of a duplicate or incorrect listing. For the vast majority of cases, such as a business closing, moving, or changing ownership, far better and less destructive options exist.

While you're streamlining your business's online presence, it's also a great time to simplify how you manage the platforms you'll continue to use. Juggling multiple social media accounts can lead to the kind of burnout that makes you want to delete everything, which is why we built Postbase. We designed it to consolidate all your social scheduling, DMs, comments, and analytics into one clean, modern dashboard, letting you organize your content strategy without the chaos of switching between a dozen apps.