To remove a Google Business Profile, log into your Google Business Profile Manager, select the location you want to remove, click 'Info' from the left menu, scroll to the bottom, and select 'Close or remove this listing.' You'll then choose between marking it as temporarily closed or permanently removing it. For permanent removal, Google asks you to confirm the decision and may take 3–7 days to process the request, though the listing can remain visible in search for 2–4 weeks while their systems update. If you're closing a physical location but keeping the business operational elsewhere, choose the temporary closure option instead. This preserves your reviews and history if you reopen. Permanent removal deletes everything including reviews, photos, and post history. You cannot undo this. For businesses with multiple locations, remove each profile individually. If you sold the business or no longer own it, you should transfer ownership rather than delete it, which preserves continuity for customers and the new owner's local rankings. Ottawa SEO handles dozens of these transitions annually for clients buying established businesses. Three common scenarios require extra steps. First, if you don't have access to the account, you'll need to request ownership through the 'Own this business?' option visible when you search for it while logged into Google. Second, if the profile was created by Google automatically and you never claimed it, you still need to claim it first before you can remove it. Third, duplicate listings sometimes require filing a support ticket through the Google Business Profile Help Center because the removal option doesn't appear. Watch out for local citation sites like Yelp, Yellow Pages, and Apple Maps. Removing your Google profile doesn't touch these. If you're truly shutting down, manually update or remove listings on those platforms too, or customers will keep finding outdated information. The removal process itself is straightforward, but cleaning up the entire local SEO footprint takes deliberate effort across multiple directories.