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Google Business Profile (GBP) business groups put many location profiles into one shared container in Business Profile Manager. Owners and managers work across every profile from their own Google Accounts, with no shared password, while ownership stays with the account you choose. Each person added at group level can reach every current and future profile inside the group.
Franchise and network leaders running dozens of home services locations use groups to keep corporate control while regional staff and franchisees handle day-to-day edits. Owners adding a second or third location can use them to set up access correctly before the network grows, instead of untangling shared logins later. Groups only control who can edit which profiles, so most networks pair them with software for managing local listings and reviews across every location.
This guide covers what a group is, how to create one, how to transfer profiles in, how to assign roles, and how groups differ from Google Groups and Google Ads location groups. It also covers bulk verification, the limits Google documents, and fixes for the problems network leaders hit most often.
Streamline operations and ensure brand consistency for franchise success
TL;DR
- A business group is a shared profile folder: Owners and managers added to the group reach every current and future profile in it, and nobody shares a login.
- Transfer businesses moves existing profiles in: In Business Profile Manager, select the profiles, open Actions, choose Transfer businesses, and pick a group you own or manage.
- Google Groups and Ads location groups differ: Google Groups cannot hold Business Profile roles. Google Ads location groups only decide which locations can serve in location assets.
What a Google Business Profile Business Group Is
A business group is a container in Business Profile Manager that holds multiple Business Profiles so several people can manage them under their own Google Accounts. Google’s business groups help article calls it “like a shared folder for your profiles.”
Each group has its own owners and managers. Anyone added at group level can access all current and future profiles placed in it. The group is separate from any one person’s login: Google’s comparison table describes the individual option, labeled “Your Google Account,” as an account that only you can access.
Google recommends a business group for anyone new to Business Profile who manages multiple businesses. It also tells teams that currently share a username and password to move to a group. For a franchise system, this means a departing marketing coordinator leaves with their own login, and that login is no longer the only key to every location.
Business Groups vs Location Groups: The Name Change
Business group is Google’s current Help Center name for what developer documentation and many practitioners still call a location group. They are one feature under two names. Google’s Business Profile API accounts guide still describes a “location group account” that is “used to manage a group of individual locations.”
The API itself keeps the older label. The Account Management API reference lists LOCATION_GROUP as an account type, defined as “a group of Locations.” Before either name, Google’s Help Center says business groups were “previously known as business accounts.”
The terms you will see in documentation and guides map to the same container:
- Business group: the term in Google’s current Business Profile Help Center articles
- Location group: the term in Google’s developer docs, the application programming interface (API), and practitioner guides such as Whitespark’s
- Business account: the older name that Google’s Help Center gives as the predecessor
The product itself was renamed as well: Google Business Profile was formerly Google My Business, so older guides may refer to GMB location groups. Google Ads also uses “location groups,” but for a different feature. The comparison section further down covers it.
Business Groups Are Not Google Groups
Google Groups at groups.google.com is a discussion and mailing-list product for teams, classes, and organizations. A Google Business Profile business group controls who can manage which Business Profiles. Search results mix them up because both carry the word “group.”
The two products also do not connect. Google’s business group owners and managers help page states that Google Groups can’t be added as owners or managers of a business group. Google’s single-profile help page applies the same rule to individual profiles.
Every person who needs access has to be added with their own Google Account. A Google Group alias for the marketing team cannot stand in for the people on it, so add each coordinator by name.
Why Multi-Location Brands, Franchises and Agencies Use Groups
A group lets corporate apply changes and share access across many profiles at once instead of opening each location separately. Google’s native tools support three kinds of network-level work:
- Bulk edits: Each business group needs its own spreadsheet import, so hours, categories, descriptions, and location labels can update from one file.
- Insights: Google’s performance help article lets you check several profiles, click Actions, then Insights, choose a timeframe, and click Download Report to compare locations in one spreadsheet.
- Access: Adding a regional manager to the group once grants access to every profile in it, including locations added later.
One source file per group keeps business information consistent at every location. Category and description changes, including adding keywords to your GBP, go out through the same import.
The spreadsheet route has gaps. Whitespark’s bulk-management guide lists Google Posts, reviews, Q&A, messages, products, and services among the things it cannot edit, so review responses and posts still happen profile by profile in Google’s native tools.
How to Create a Business Group in Business Profile Manager: Step by Step
The short path is to sign in to Business Profile Manager, select Create group, name the group, select Create, and then use Actions and Transfer businesses to move profiles in. The labels below follow the wording in Google’s Help Center articles.
Before you start, sign in with the Google Account that should own the group. For a franchise, that is usually a brand-domain address that corporate controls rather than a personal Gmail account, because the group outlives any one employee. Decide on the group structure first as well: one brand group, regional groups, or both, as covered in the franchise example further down.
The Create group option appears once the account manages two or more profiles. If you are setting up a new network, create or claim the first profiles, then build the group around them.
Step 1: Open Business Profile Manager
Sign in to Business Profile Manager at business.google.com on a computer. Google’s group-management steps start by selecting the business group at the top left, and its group-deletion steps use the “Ungrouped” dropdown menu to choose a group.
Step 2: Create the Group and Name It
If you have two or more profiles, select Create group at the top right, enter a business group name, and select Create. Pick a name that staff and franchisees will recognize, such as the brand or the region.
Step 3: Add or Transfer Profiles Into the Group
Use Transfer businesses to move profiles you already manage into the new group:
- Select one or more profiles in Business Profile Manager.
- Select Actions, then Transfer businesses.
- Choose the business group that will receive the profiles.
- Select Transfer.
You can only transfer profiles into a group you own or manage. To add many new locations at once, use the group’s spreadsheet import, since each business group needs its own spreadsheet.
Agencies holding client profiles in a personal account follow a separate route documented in Google’s article on moving profiles to an organization account. In the personal account, move the profiles into one group and add the organization as an owner of that group using its 10-digit organization ID. Then accept the invitation in the organization account.
Step 4: Add Owners and Managers at Group Level
Only a group owner can add or remove owners and managers. Select the business group at the top left, then select Group settings, then Manage users. Everyone you add can reach every profile in the group, including profiles added later. Before adding a manager, confirm they should be able to edit every location in the group.
Who Sees What: Owners, Managers and Group Access
Group-level users can reach every profile in the group, so the role you assign controls what they can change across the whole network. Business groups and individual profiles each have their own owners and managers:
| Role | What it can do | What it cannot do |
|---|---|---|
| Group primary owner | Everything a group owner can do, plus hold the one primary seat | Leave the group before transferring primary ownership to another user |
| Group owner | Add and remove owners and managers, delete the group, transfer the group, manage all profiles | No limits documented beyond the primary-owner rules |
| Group manager | Add, edit and delete every profile in the group | Add or remove group users, delete the group |
| Single-profile owner | Full control of one profile, including its users and deleting it | No limits documented for owners beyond primary-owner rules |
| Single-profile manager | Edit info, respond to reviews, publish posts, download insights | Add or remove users, remove the profile |
Group managers can delete profiles, so give that role only to people trusted with every location in the group. Google lets you invite owners and managers to specific profiles even if they aren’t owners or managers of the group. A franchisee can manage their own location this way without seeing the rest of the network.
New profile owners and managers wait 7 days before they can delete or undelete a profile, remove other owners or managers, or transfer primary ownership.
One Group or Several: When to Use a Personal Account vs a Group
Google’s table reserves “Your Google Account” for cases where you are the only person who needs access. Once a second person needs access, use a group.
Google advises limiting business groups to one per business or brand and creating more groups when brands or divisions need different sets of users. The trade-offs look like this:
- One group: Everyone checks all profiles in one dashboard and works from one spreadsheet, but owners and managers can edit profiles they should not manage.
- Several groups: Owners and managers can only view and edit the profiles in their group, but each group needs its own spreadsheet import and no single group shows every profile.
Franchise Example: One Brand Group Plus Regional Access
Take a hypothetical residential cleaning franchisor with 40 locations in three regions. Corporate keeps all 40 profiles in one brand group with a brand-domain email as primary owner, the setup Whitespark’s bulk-management guide recommends. Each franchisee is added as a manager on their single profile only.
Regional managers need a narrower view. Google’s agency business groups article confirms that an existing location can be added to multiple business groups, so corporate can also add each location to an East, Central, or West group that has its own regional managers.
For the broader search plan behind this structure, see local SEO for franchises.
Agency Example: One Group per Client
Google’s agency business groups article describes a business group as a select group of profiles collectively managed by an organization or user group, which makes one group per client a clean way to keep client access separate. Keeping the client as primary owner while the agency holds manager access means the client keeps control if the relationship ends.
Agencies that offer Google Business Profile management to their clients should know that Google’s bulk verification article says agencies with more than one business in one account can’t bulk verify.
Bulk Verification and Limits
Bulk verification applies when your spreadsheet holds 10 or more profiles from the same business. Duplicate, suspended, or disabled profiles don’t count toward that minimum, and the spreadsheet must include every profile you manage.
- Google’s bulk verification help article gives the request path as Verifications, then Chain, then Start, followed by filling out the form and selecting Submit.
- Uploading a spreadsheet does not send a verification request on its own.
When the main owner is verified, all eligible profiles in the group are verified too, provided they aren’t owned by someone else. Google confirms approval by email and gives no review timeline.
The bulk article lists service-area businesses as ineligible. Google’s article on bulk verification delays adds that service-area businesses may bulk verify only if their locations are also customer-facing during regular hours, and that email addresses without the business’s official domain need extra verification steps.
Networks with fewer than 10 locations verify each profile individually. For the full set of methods, see this guide to verifying a Google Business Profile.
Google’s Help Center articles don’t publish a maximum number of profiles per group, owners or managers per group, or groups per account. Google’s Business Profile API best practices page recommends keeping location groups to several thousand locations at most for performance.
GBP Groups vs Google Ads Location Groups
A Google Ads location group decides which linked locations can appear in a campaign’s location assets. A Business Profile business group decides who can manage profiles. The four features that carry “group” or access in their names control different things:
| Feature | Where it lives | What it controls |
|---|---|---|
| GBP business group | Business Profile Manager | Who manages a set of profiles, by owner and manager role |
| GBP user access | Each profile’s owner and manager settings | Who manages one profile |
| Google Ads location group | Google Ads Location Manager | Which locations a campaign or ad group can show in location assets |
| Google Groups | groups.google.com | Email and discussion membership, with no Business Profile role |
Google Ads Help on location groups describes them as reusable collections of locations that you apply at the account, campaign or ad group level. You can filter by an exact business name or by up to 3 Business Profile labels, matched with OR logic. Labels are set in Business Profile, with up to 10 per location and 50 characters each.
Google’s guide to creating location groups in Location Manager explains that instead of using all linked locations in every campaign, you can group locations and apply them to specific campaigns or ad groups.
On the Business Profile side, Google’s advertising link help page says an advertising account can be linked to all locations or to a single business group. A linked advertising account cannot edit business information.
Troubleshooting Common Group Problems
Most group problems come down to roles, ownership, or profile status, so check those first:
- Transfer fails: You can only transfer into a group you own or manage.
- Another account owns the profile: Use Request Access. Google’s request ownership article gives the current owner 3 days to respond, after which a claim option may appear, though not always.
- New user gets errors: Google’s profile owners and managers article sets a 7-day wait for new owners and managers before they can delete a profile, remove other users, or transfer primary ownership.
- Suspended location: Google’s suspended profiles article says appeals can only be submitted once and warns against creating a new profile for the same business.
- Suspended Google Account: When a Google Account is restricted, the profiles it manages are suspended. When a manager’s Google Account is suspended, Google suspends that person as a manager and says the locations themselves aren’t affected.
- Duplicate profiles: Google’s guidelines allow one profile per location and warn that duplicates can cause problems with how information displays on Maps and Search. Review options for merging Google Business Profile listings before deleting anything.
- Group won’t delete: Only an owner can delete a group; every business in it must be removed or transferred first, and the deletion can’t be undone. The same care applies to deleting Google Business Profiles.
Google Business Profile Business Groups Control Access Across the Network
Network leaders use Google Business Profile business groups to set who can touch which profiles. The work that follows a listing still happens outside the group: keeping each location’s details accurate, getting each location named when customers ask AI tools for a recommendation, answering calls from people who find a location, replying to each new review, and showing which location booked the job. Corporate still owns that execution gap after the group structure is in place.
Vendasta, the customer acquisition and engagement platform, lets franchisors deploy the Vendasta AI Workforce centrally across every location. The AI Receptionist answers calls, texts, and web chats 24/7 and books appointments, so franchisees stop losing leads to missed calls. The AI Reputation Specialist responds to Google and Facebook reviews under rules corporate sets.
Vendasta SEO AI keeps listings accurate across Google, Facebook, Apple, Bing, and more, tracks local rankings on a map grid, and brings Google Business Profile insights into one report. Its AI Search Specialist fills in profile details from the business’s website, reviews incoming Google suggestions so listings stay accurate, and checks whether ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity recommend the business over nearby competitors. Vendasta Listing Sync Pro keeps location data synchronized across 50+ listing sites.
The results show up at network scale. Neighborly cut uncontacted leads from roughly 30% to nearly zero and grew leads converted to revenue by 372% year over year. Fred Astaire Dance Studios reached 37% search-traffic growth and an average of 50 reviews per store with Vendasta.
To see how the Vendasta AI Workforce can cover the work your groups leave open, book a Vendasta demo.
Google Business Profile Business Groups FAQs
1. What is the difference between a business group and a location group?
There is no functional difference. Business group is the name Google’s current Business Profile Help Center uses, while developer documentation, the API, and many practitioner guides still say location group. Both describe the same shared container that holds multiple profiles and gives owners and managers access to all of them without sharing a password.
2. Can one Google Business Profile cover multiple locations?
No. Each location gets its own profile, and Google’s guidelines say not to create more than one profile for each location. A business group is what holds many profiles together. Service-area businesses work differently: Google’s guidelines say they should have one profile for the central office or location, with a designated service area.
3. What can a group owner do that a group manager cannot?
Group owners add and remove owners and managers, delete the group, and transfer the group to another owner. Group managers can add, edit, and delete every profile in the group but cannot change who has access. A group has one primary owner, who must transfer that role to another user before leaving.
4. How is a GBP business group different from a Google Ads location group?
A business group controls who manages a set of Business Profiles in Business Profile Manager. A Google Ads location group, built in Location Manager, controls which linked locations a campaign or ad group can show in location assets. Ads location groups filter by up to 3 Business Profile labels or by exact business name.
5. Does a location need a physical address to be in a group or bulk verified?
Google’s business group articles don’t list an address requirement for adding a profile to a group, but bulk verification is stricter. Google’s bulk verification article excludes service-area businesses, and its bulk verification delays article allows them only if their locations are also customer-facing during regular hours. Bulk verification also requires 10 or more profiles from the same business.
6. Should a franchise use one business group or several?
Google recommends one group per business or brand, with more groups when brands or divisions need different users. A common pattern keeps every location in one brand group for bulk verification, adds locations to regional groups for scoped manager access, and gives each franchisee manager access to their single profile only.
7. Is a business group related to Google Groups?
No. Google Groups is an email and discussion product at groups.google.com, and Business Profile does not accept a Google Group as an owner or manager of a business group or an individual profile. Each person who needs access must be added with their own Google Account.
8. How do I transfer existing profiles into a business group?
Sign in to Business Profile Manager, select the profiles you want to move, open Actions, choose Transfer businesses, pick the receiving group, and select Transfer. You can only move profiles into a group that you own or manage.
9. Who gets access when someone is added to a business group?
Anyone added as an owner or manager of a group can access every profile currently in the group and every profile added later. To limit someone to one location, invite them as an owner or manager of that single profile instead, which Google allows even if they aren’t part of the group.
10. How many locations do I need for bulk verification?
You need 10 or more profiles from the same business in your spreadsheet, and duplicate, suspended, or disabled profiles don’t count. Start the request from Verifications, then Chain, then Start in Business Profile Manager. Once the main owner is verified, eligible profiles in the group are verified too, provided they aren’t owned by someone else.
