How long does it take for Google to show corrected business information?

Edits to your own Google Business Profile usually appear within days, sometimes hours, though some go through review first. Corrections on other sites take whatever those sites take, and machine systems re-crawl on their own schedules. Fix everything in one sweep, then give it a couple of weeks before judging.

Someone else has claimed my Google Business Profile. How do I get it back?

Google has an ownership-request process: from the profile, request access, and the current holder has a set window to respond before you can escalate to verification. It's commonly an ex-employee, old agency or previous owner rather than anything sinister — but start the process today, because that account controls your public face.

My old website still shows up in Google. How do I get rid of it?

If you control the old site, redirect it to the new one — that's the clean fix and passes along any accumulated trust. If it's an old builder subdomain or a site someone else controls, get it taken down or updated; once it's gone, it ages out of results. What hurts is both sites live, disagreeing.

Do I need a paid service to manage my business listings?

For one location, almost never. The listings that matter to a local NZ business are countable on two hands, and the master-record method handles them in an afternoon plus an annual check. Paid listing-sync tools earn their keep for multi-location businesses, not for the local plumber.

Which details have to match exactly across the web?

The core four: business name (exact spelling and punctuation), phone number, address or service area, and website URL. Hours earn an honourable mention because wrong hours anger real customers. 'Smith & Co Plumbing' versus 'Smith and Co' versus 'Smith Plumbing Ltd' reads as three shaky records, not one solid business.

Your business shows up wrong online. Here's how to fix it

The short answer: pick your one true version of name, phone, address and website — the master record — then fix everything to match, in order: your website, Google Business Profile, Facebook and socials, the directories that matter in your trade, and anything Google itself displays. An afternoon of unglamorous work, then a 20-minute check yearly.

Why mismatches cost more than they look

Wrong info fails you twice, and both failures are silent.

Humans: the customer rings the old number and gets a disconnected tone, or drives to the address you left in 2023. They don’t email to let you know — they call the next business on the list. You never see the loss; it just looks like a quiet week.

Machines: search engines and AI assistants cross-reference every public mention of your business and reward one coherent story. When your Facebook says one number, an old directory says another and your website a third, the systems composing answers — the ones 45% of consumers now consult — have three shaky records where one solid one should be. Consistency isn’t cosmetic; it’s how machines decide you’re real.

Step 0: write the master record

Before touching anything, decide the one true version and write it down:

Name: exact spelling, exact punctuation. Pick one and never improvise again.
Phone: the number you answer, formatted one way.
Address or service area: street address if customers visit; town/region list if you go to them.
Website: the full address, one version — with or without www, but the same everywhere.
Hours, including your public-holiday stance.

This master record is now law. Every fix below is “make it match the record.”

The fix, in dependency order

1. Your website (the source of truth)

Machines treat your own site as the anchor the other sources corroborate — so it goes first. Check the contact section, the footer, and any text that mentions old suburbs or hours. (On LaunchPad, this is exactly what the five yearly updates are for — email us the change.)

2. Google Business Profile

The most-seen listing in the country. Update every field to the record, then look at what Google displays — Maps pin position, the suggested edits the public can make — and correct anything drifted. A properly set-up profile resists drift better.

3. Facebook, Instagram and the socials

The About sections outlive memories — plenty of pages still carry the founder’s personal mobile from 2018. Fix name, number, address, hours, link to the website. Even dormant pages need the record right, because machines read dormant pages too.

4. The directories that matter in your trade

Not the 200-site “citation blast” packages — the handful a Kiwi customer might actually meet: Yellow NZ, Neighbourly, industry sites like Builderscrack or NoCowboys for trades, your association’s member directory, the local business association. Search your business name plus your old number to surface the stale ones; update or kill each.

5. Whatever Google still shows wrong

Old numbers can survive in Google’s own panels, sourced from sites you’ve now fixed or from crowd suggestions. Use “Suggest an edit” on the wrong data, and give the ecosystem a couple of weeks to re-crawl before judging the sweep.

The annual 20 minutes

Once clean, staying clean is trivial: yearly (or after any change of number, premises or hours), search your business name and skim the first two pages — every place you appear, check against the record. Twenty minutes, coffee in hand.

Moving premises or changing numbers? Run this list the same week, in the same order — and keep the old number forwarding for a transition period if you can. The businesses that hurt worst are the ones that moved and let the internet find out gradually.

Mismatched info is also mistake #9 territory on our common website mistakes list — worth the full read if the sweep turns up a domain registered to someone who isn’t you.