Your Google Business Profile is often the first thing a hungry customer sees, before your website, before your social media. It decides whether you appear in the map results, and more and more it feeds the answers people get from Google’s AI Overviews and AI assistants. Getting it right is one of the cheapest wins in restaurant marketing.
Get the basics exactly right
- Business name: your real trading name, with no extra keywords. Stuffing ‘Best Indian Restaurant Bedford’ into the name can get a profile suspended.
- Primary category: be specific, such as ‘Thai restaurant’ rather than just ‘Restaurant’. Add secondary categories that genuinely apply.
- Address, phone and website: identical to what’s on your website and other listings, down to the spelling.
- Opening hours: kept up to date, including special hours for bank holidays and Christmas.
- Menu: add your menu link and, where you can, menu items with prices. Keep it current.
- Booking and ordering links: point them to your own booking system and direct ordering page where possible.
Photos that make people choose you
Profiles with plenty of recent, good-quality photos get more clicks. Upload your best dishes, the dining room at its busiest, the outside of the building so people can recognise it, and your team. Add new photos every month, especially when the menu changes.
Reviews: get more, and answer every one
- Ask at the right moment: when a table is clearly happy, or in a follow-up email after a booking.
- Make it easy with a short link or QR code on the bill or a table card.
- Reply to every review, good and bad, within a couple of days.
- Never offer incentives for reviews or post reviews yourself. Fake and undisclosed incentivised reviews are now illegal in the UK under consumer protection law, and Google removes them.
Posts and updates
Google posts are short updates that appear on your profile. Use them weekly for specials, events, seasonal menus and offers. They keep your profile looking active and give customers a reason to visit now.
Help AI search understand you
AI tools build their answers from information they can trust. A complete, consistent profile, steady recent reviews and a website that clearly states what you serve, where and when all make it more likely your restaurant is the one recommended.
The quick checklist
- Name, address and phone match everywhere
- Specific primary category set
- Hours correct, including holiday hours
- Menu and booking links added and working
- At least 20 recent, good-quality photos
- Every review replied to
- A new post at least once a week
- Profile checked monthly for edits made by Google or the public
All of this is included in every one of our plans, starting with Found.
Want this done for you? Get a free proposal.