To change your business address on Google, you edit the Business Profile you already have: Edit profile, Location, Business location, enter the new address and Save. After a move Google asks you to verify the business again, the edit can sit in review from about 10 minutes up to 30 days and, if the name stays the same, your reviews move with the profile to the new address (Google Business Profile Help, Edit your Business Profile and Move your reviews across Business Profiles, checked on 10 November 2026).
It looks like a two-minute job.
Then you open Google's own help community and find Italian threads titled (in translation) "I've been trying to change my business address for over a year" or "Three months trying to change my address".
Exaggeration?
No. On 10 November 2026 we read the first page of Google for 8 Italian searches about changing a business address: of the 14 community threads that came up, 10 describe an address change that didn't go through. The UK picture looks similar: for "change address google business profile" the first page is mostly forum threads, Facebook groups and YouTube tutorials.
The mistakes we see most often:
- opening a second profile for the new premises, which Google treats as a duplicate;
- changing the address while the verification postcard is in the post, which voids the code;
- updating Google but leaving the old address on the website, which Google can use to put the old address back.
This guide puts the steps in order, with the official timings and links to the Google Help pages we opened today. Everything else about the profile is in our guide to Google Business Profile optimisation.
What's below:
- the steps on desktop and mobile;
- what happens after you save, with Google's own timings;
- reviews, and the categories where they don't move on their own;
- the right order: signage, website, profile;
- why Google rejects the new address;
- what to update outside Google, AI answers included.
Let's start.
How to change the address on your Google Business Profile (Search or the Maps app)
You change the address on the existing profile, signed in with the Google account that manages it. Google's help page Manage your business address gives two routes.
On a computer, in Google Search:
- search for your business name while signed in to the account that manages it;
- select Edit profile, then Location;
- next to "Business location", select the pencil;
- enter the full new address, including the postcode;
- if the pin doesn't sit on your entrance, move the map until it does;
- select Save.
On a phone, in the Google Maps app: tap Business at the bottom right, then Edit profile, Location and the pencil next to "Business location". The rest is the same.
What if there's no Edit profile button?
You're signed in with an account that doesn't manage the profile. Get access back first, as we explain in claiming a Google Business Profile.
A note on the pin: it's where Maps sends customers. If the building has two entrances, put it on the one with your sign.
What happens after you save (re-verification and up to 30 days)
After a move, the profile has to be verified again. Google's wording leaves no room: "If you move your business to a new address after it's verified, you must verify your business again" (Edit your Business Profile).
Then there are the timings. This is where the answers you find online don't match.
| What | Time given by Google | Help page |
|---|---|---|
| Review of a profile edit | usually about 10 minutes, up to 30 days | Manage your business address |
| Review of a verification | up to 5 business days | Verify your business on Google |
| Postcard arrival | most codes within 14 days | Verify your business on Google |
| Verification code expiry | 30 days | Verify your business on Google |
| Replying to an update suggested by Google | 4 days | About Google updates |
Official timings from Google Business Profile Help, checked on 10 November 2026.
While it's being reviewed, the edit shows as pending. If Google can't confirm it's accurate, it may not approve it (What happens to your Business Profile edits).
The detail that costs weeks: with postcard verification, Google asks you not to edit your business name, address or category until you've entered the code, or the code stops working. So: new address first, then the verification request, then no more edits. The methods (video, phone, email, postcard) and what to do when the code doesn't arrive are in verifying your Google Business Profile.
Do reviews stay after you move? (yes, if the name doesn't change)
Yes: if you move and keep the same business name, Google moves the reviews for you. The sentence is in the help centre: "If you move to a new address and keep the same business name, Google will transfer your reviews automatically" (Move your reviews across Business Profiles).
Three exceptions, on that page and the one about duplicates:
- for hotels, golf courses and scenic attractions, reviews might not move automatically, because they describe the place more than the business;
- if the business changes significantly, Google may remove reviews that no longer apply;
- if you open a new profile for the new premises, the reviews stay on the old one. Google's duplicates page is explicit: if your business moves, don't create a new profile for the new location; update the existing one with the new address (Fix duplicate profiles and ownership issues).
What if you change the address and the name at the same time?
Our rule: two separate edits. Address first, with its verification, then the name. Google ties the automatic review transfer to the name staying the same, and one change at a time is easier to confirm.
If a second profile already exists, the fix is in duplicate Google Business listings. If the business is closing rather than moving, that's a different job: removing a business from Google Maps.
The right order: signage, website, profile (before or after the move?)
Update the profile on the day you open at the new address, not before. Google's guidelines expect a business to have permanent, fixed signage with its name at the address (Guidelines for representing your business on Google). With no sign up yet, a video verification has nothing to show.
The order we use:
- sign up and premises open at the new address;
- website updated the same day: contact page, footer, map and structured data;
- address changed on the profile and verification started;
- no other edits until verification is complete;
- directories and other platforms straight after.
Why is the website second?
Because Google also updates profiles on its own, from public sources. When it suggests a change you have 4 days to reject it; after that, Google may publish the update automatically if it's supported by other publicly available information, such as your business website (About Google updates on your Business Profile). A website still showing the old address is the source that drags the profile back. How to read and reject those suggestions is in Google Business Profile suggested edits.
Two kinds of premises that don't qualify, from the same guidelines: a virtual office, meaning a mailing address where the business doesn't operate, and a co-working space without signage where you don't receive customers during opening hours.
Moving premises and don't want to start from scratch on Maps?
You've just seen where it jams: verification that fails, a website that pulls the old address back, a second profile that turns into a duplicate. We plan the move with you, line up the website and directories, and follow verification through to publication.
Book a strategy callWhy Google rejects a new address (what 14 Italian threads show)
A new address gets rejected when Google can't confirm it: verification not finished, no visible sign, public sources saying something else. To see where people get stuck, we read the first page of Google for 8 Italian searches (DataForSEO, Google.it on mobile, 10 November 2026).
| What we counted (8 Italian results pages) | Result |
|---|---|
| Organic results read | 70 |
| Results on Google domains (Help, Community, Developers, business.google.com) | 34 of 70 |
| of which Community threads | 16 (14 different) |
| Threads about an address change that didn't go through | 10 of 14 |
| Reddit threads | 6 |
| Searches showing an AI Overview | 8 of 8 |
| Searches showing a video carousel | 2 of 8 |
Italian data. In the UK, "change business address on google" gets about 110 searches a month (Google Ads via DataForSEO, 12-month average to September 2026).
What the 10 threads describe, from their titles and snippets:
- edit rejected with no clear reason (March and October 2024);
- address not updating: "5 days", "3 months", "over a year";
- video verification requested for a newly rented studio, with doubts about what to film (February 2026);
- address reverting every month (June 2026);
- access lost to the profile, and the temptation to delete it (August 2025).
The answer that keeps coming back is the same: finish verification first, then edit. In a November 2023 thread the reply chosen as best says, in Italian, that you need to complete verification and only then you'll be able to make changes (the thread on Google Maps Help). If verification keeps failing or the profile is suspended during the move, the steps are in Google Business Profile suspended.
Moving to another area or town (what changes for rankings)
Reviews follow the profile; rankings don't. The local pack also depends on the distance between the searcher and your premises. Moving changes the point Google measures that distance from. How relevance, distance and prominence weigh up is in our guide to local SEO.
The most quoted case is North American. Joy Hawkins of Sterling Sky describes a service-area business that moved about half a mile and saw local pack rankings rise the next day, without updating its citations for 3 months (Does Moving Your Business Impact Rankings?, November 2023). It's one case. It shows that a move has an immediate effect, up or down; it doesn't show that moving is a ranking tactic.
Three situations:
- same neighbourhood: change the address, verify, and you usually pick up where you were;
- another town: searches near the old premises stop showing you. If you still want those customers, work on the website and on the profile for the new town, not on a second, fake profile in the old one;
- service-area business: hide the address and show the area you serve, which shouldn't include places more than two hours' drive from your base (guidelines). How to set it up is in Google Business Profile service areas.
What to update outside Google (website, schema, Apple, Bing, directories)
After the profile, line up every place that shows your name, address and phone number, because those are the sources Google uses to confirm the data.
- Website: contact page, footer, embedded map and LocalBusiness schema.
- Apple Maps: through Apple Business Connect.
- Bing: through Bing Places.
- Directories: Yell, Thomson Local, trade bodies and sector portals. How to find and fix them is in local citations.
If your phone number stays the same, it's the thread that ties old and new citations together. Don't change it at the same time as the address.
New address and AI answers (why an AI may still quote the old premises)
AI answers about local businesses combine the Google profile with other sources online: while the web still describes the old address, an answer can repeat it. How ChatGPT and Google pick the businesses in a town is in our test on local AI visibility.
An example from today, on the search this article starts from. Google's Italian AI Overview for "cambiare indirizzo google my business" says the new address appears "from a few hours up to a maximum of 3 days", and for that sentence it cites an agency page, not the Google Help page, which says 10 minutes and up to 30 days.
What has that got to do with your premises?
An AI answer picks up the clearest source, not necessarily the official one. If the clearest sentence on the web still gives your old address, that's the one that can end up in an answer. Nobody can promise when an AI answer will update; you can reduce the number of sources saying the wrong thing.
FAQs about changing your Google Business Profile address
No, if you update the existing profile and keep the same name: Google moves the reviews automatically. You lose them if you open a new profile for the new premises, and for hotels, golf courses and scenic attractions they might not move automatically.
Yes. Google's help centre says that if you move your business to a new address after it's verified, you must verify it again. Verification reviews can take up to 5 business days.
It depends: an edit is usually reviewed in about 10 minutes, but Google says it can take up to 30 days. Add the time for the new verification on top.
No, if it's the same business moving. Google asks you to update the existing profile: a second profile is a duplicate and the reviews would stay on the old one. A new profile only makes sense if the old premises stay open.
It depends: the usual causes are unfinished verification, no visible sign at the address, a website still showing the old address, or premises that don't qualify, such as a virtual office.
No. Google asks you not to edit your business name, address or category until you've entered the postcard code, or the code stops working.
In short (and why the profile is the last thing to change)
Edit the profile you have; don't open another one.
After a move you verify again: up to 5 business days of review.
Reviews follow the profile if the name stays the same.
An edit can stay in review for up to 30 days.
No other edits while verification is running.
The idea to take away: moving on Google is prepared before the actual move. Signage and website are the evidence Google looks for to confirm a new address, so they need to be ready before you touch the profile. People who start with the profile often end up in one of the 10 threads we read. If you'd like to plan it with us, start with our SEO services.
