How to make your restaurant’s Google My Business profile work for you

Whether you ever update it or not, or whether you even know about it, your restaurant almost certainly has a Google My Business profile. Don’t believe us? Google your restaurant name.

Now that you can see your Google My Business profile on the right hand side of your screen, look for where it says, “Own this business?” Click on that link and you’re on your way to claiming your profile.

And that’s something you really want to do. Google My Business is a great free tool for restaurants. Because we all know that the biggest way hungry customers find restaurants nowadays is on the internet. If your business doesn’t already have a profile, you can create one here.

Keeping your business info up to date

The most important thing you’ll want to edit your Google My Business profile for is the basic facts about your restaurant. Namely, hours of operation and location.

Just make sure you’re logged into your account and then you can edit these fields under “Info.” Note that it may take up to 60 days to delete the information you previously added.

Optimizing your profile to attract customers

When customers do find your business on Google, you want to control what they see. Think of your Google My Business profile as your restaurant’s first impression on a potential customer. There are a few areas you don’t want to leave blank in your profile.

Description

The blank description section may seem daunting, and you may not be sure where to start. But a succinct description with a few keywords can make a huge difference in a potential customer’s decision. The key points you want to include in your description are

• type of cuisine
• type of atmosphere, and
• if you have any special diet menu items, such as gluten-free or vegan.

Think of those three key points and the description becomes much easier to write and easy for potential customers to take in.

Photos

Photos your customers add of your restaurant will show up in this section. However, that doesn’t mean you have no control. You can choose which image is displayed first on your profile, and of course, flag photos that you believe were taken elsewhere or are inappropriate in any way. But the biggest way you can boost the appearance of this section is by adding your own photos. Along with food shots, consider adding interior shots that show off your restaurant’s atmosphere.

Menu, reservations, and ordering – Making the sale right there

Google allows you to link your menu or display it right within your profile. If you choose to display it there, you’ll be able to break it out into sections, edit names and descriptions, and even add prices. And once potential customers have perused your menu, they can take action directly from your profile if you include the right features.

Enable the Reservations feature so customers can grab a spot for dine-in, and add an Order button that links them directly to the ordering platform you use for to-go orders. Both of these features require integration with a third-party provider, but if you already have those partnerships, this feature is simple to set up.

Engaging with your customers

Your Google My Business profile can also be a place to engage with your customers. Here are the three main ways you can do this.

Respond to reviews

Customers are going to leave your restaurant reviews on Google. Responding to these reviews builds trust and credibility, and shows that you care about your customers. Just make sure if it’s a negative review you’re responding with proper PR protocol, making sure your response is helpful, polite, and ultimately makes your restaurant look better, not worse.

Answers questions in the Q&A section

Any user can pose a question about your restaurant in the Q&A section. Keeping up with these is not only helpful to the users asking the questions, but also to other potential customers who may be wondering the same things. Monitoring this section can also give you ideas about information to add to the description section of your profile or to your menu.

Post about events and promotions

Google My Business has a post section, kind of like social media. While you don’t want to use this section as much as you use your restaurant’s Facebook or Instagram, including upcoming events or current promotions here can be a great way to get the word out (without overwhelming the reader with too many posts).

Taking it further – tracking the data

Once you’ve done everything you can to optimize your profile, you may want to take it a step further and track how it’s doing. The Insights feature lets you see information such as how customers are finding your listing, customer actions, and what your business is known for. Tracking and measuring this data does take time and careful reading, but you may find it helpful or encouraging to see what’s going on with your profile on a deeper level.

We hope this post showed you that making your business listing awesome and improving your local ranking on Google is easier than it seems. If you need more help getting started, here’s some support from Google itself. And if you’re looking for restaurant equipment and supplies, you can find everything you need at etundra.com.