Claim your listing

Find your business

Start at the claim page. Type the business name the way Google shows it, then add a city and state or a ZIP code if the name is common. The search shows up to 20 matches with their city and state; listings that are already claimed are marked, so you can tell yours apart from a same-name business elsewhere.

You can also start from your public listing page. Unclaimed listings show a Claim it free link near the top.

If the business is not there, do not claim a different one. Sign in and use Add New Business from the dashboard home instead, and the listing is created as yours from the start.

Create a business account

On the claim page you will see two options: Sign up and Sign in. If you are new, choose sign up. The sign-up page has a business owner option preselected when you arrive from a claim; keep it. A pet parent account cannot own a listing.

You can sign up with an email address and password, or with a Google account. Two things to know before you choose:

• Use the email address you use for the business. If it is on the same domain as your website, the claim is approved automatically (next section). A personal Gmail, Yahoo, iCloud or Outlook address works fine, but it will need one of the other two checks.
• Check your inbox after signing up. With email and password we send a confirmation link, and the claim cannot start until you click it. If it is not there in a few minutes, look in spam and promotions. Still missing after ten minutes? Go through sign-up again with the same address, which sends a fresh link, or contact us.

After confirming, you are sent back to the claim page. Choose Claim this listing.

How we check that the business is yours

Every claim goes through one of three checks. You do not pick one; the first two happen automatically when they apply, and the third is the fallback.

1. Your email is on your website's domain

When you submit the claim, we compare the domain of your confirmed account email with the domain of the website on the listing. If they match, for example jane@bestgroomerever.com and bestgroomerever.com, the claim is approved on the spot and the dashboard opens.

Shared providers never count as a match, so bathtimebandits@gmail.com will not approve automatically even if your website is bathtimebandits.com. Subdomains have to match exactly as well.

2. A code read to the phone number on your listing

If your claim is not auto-approved and the listing has a phone number, the "Claim under review" page offers Call me now. We place an automated call to the number on the listing, the same number the public sees, and read a six-digit code twice. If the call goes to voicemail, the code is in the message. Enter it on the page and the claim is approved immediately.

Limits, so you can plan the call: three calls per claim, at least 60 seconds between calls, and five attempts at entering a code. If you use them up, the claim simply stays in the review queue.

This is the fastest route when you use a personal email address. Make sure you can answer that number before you press the button.

3. Manual review

Any claim that has not been approved by the first two checks waits for a person on our team. We email you when a claim is submitted and again when it is decided, usually within one to two business days.

Two things speed a manual review up:

• Reply to the "We're reviewing your claim" email from an address on your business website's domain.
• Include a link to your Google Business Profile, or anything else that shows you run the business.

Ownership is not granted until the review is done. Until then the dashboard shows the claim as under review, and if you close the tab and come back, the same page is waiting for you.

After approval

You will get a "You've claimed" email and your dashboard opens at groomlocator.com/dashboard. A few things are already set up for you:

• Business hours exist for all seven days but are marked closed. Open the days you work from Hours.
• The name, address and phone from your public listing are in place. Check them on Profile.
• Your listing is live already. Anything you change is on the public page within a couple of minutes.

The first three things worth doing, in order: add photos, write your description, and set your hours and services. The dashboard home shows a completeness score that ticks up as you go.

If something goes wrong

The claim was rejected. The email includes the reviewer's note. Reply to it with something that shows your connection to the business and we will look again.

Someone else already claimed it. If a listing shows as claimed and it is your business, contact us with the listing link and your business phone number. We can check who claimed it.

"You already have a claim under review." Each account can have one open claim at a time. Wait for the decision, or reply to the review email if you claimed the wrong listing.

"This account already owns a business listing." An account can own one listing. If you run more than one location, ask us about a franchise or multi-location account, which manages all of them from one login.

The confirmation email never arrived. Check spam, then go through sign-up again with the same address to get a fresh link. If you signed up with Google, there is no confirmation step at all.

Your listing has the wrong phone number, so the call check cannot reach you. Skip the call and let the claim go to manual review; mention the correct number in your reply to the review email. You can fix the number from the dashboard once approved.