⏱️ Quick answer: To optimise your restaurant’s Google profile, start with the right primary category, accurate hours (holidays included), your menu, recent photos and a booking link. Then keep it alive: reply to every review, add photos and posts regularly, and keep your details identical everywhere online.
When someone searches “restaurant near me”, Google shows a map with a few places. What appears under your name (rating, photos, hours, booking button) comes from your Google Business Profile. Google doesn’t publish the exact weight of each factor, but it looks at relevance, distance and prominence (reviews, mentions online). Here is the checklist.
The 12-point checklist
- Primary category: pick the most precise one, e.g. “Italian restaurant” rather than “Restaurant”. Only one is allowed.
- Secondary categories: only those that truly match what you do (wine bar, caterer…).
- Hours, including special hours: set holiday hours, annual closures and private events so Google never shows you “Open” when you’re closed.
- Attributes: terrace, wheelchair access, vegetarian options, Wi-Fi, dogs allowed… Tick everything that is true.
- Menu: add the link to your website’s menu page and, if offered, a few dishes with price and photo. Our free menu QR code generator helps for in-room menus.
- Photos: cover, logo, exterior, dining room and dishes. Adding photos regularly is more useful than thirty at once.
- Booking link: depending on your category, Google lets you add one. See how to add a booking link to your Google profile.
- Description: 750 characters to say who you are, your cuisine, specialities and neighbourhood. No keyword lists, links or promotions.
- Posts: weekly specials, events, holiday closures. Read our guide to Google Business posts.
- Questions and answers: where shown, answer common questions yourself before strangers do.
- Review replies: reply to every review, positive or negative, briefly and personally. To get more reviews, often you just need to ask: see how to ask for a Google review.
- Consistent details everywhere: name, address and phone written the same way on Google, your site, TripAdvisor, TheFork and directories (“NAP” consistency).
Example description for a restaurant
Here is an example you can adapt. It is simple, factual and answers the questions guests ask:
“Neighbourhood bistro in the heart of Croix-Rousse, cooking fresh market produce with a short menu that changes every week. Lyon specialities and vegetarian dishes every day. Set lunch Tuesday to Friday, terrace in summer, private room for 25 guests. Booking recommended at weekends.”
Notice what is missing: no keyword list, no superlatives (“the best restaurant in Lyon”), no phone number or link. Those have their own fields in the profile.
Why it also matters for AI assistants
More and more people ask ChatGPT, Gemini or their phone’s assistant for “a good Italian restaurant nearby”. These assistants rely on public information: your Google profile, website, reviews and directories. A complete profile, accurate hours and recent reviews you have replied to make your restaurant easier to describe, and therefore to recommend. Nobody can guarantee being cited, but an incomplete profile starts with a handicap.
Common mistakes
- Adding the city or keywords to your business name: it breaks Google’s rules.
- Forgetting to update hours during holidays.
- Leaving negative reviews unanswered.
- Keeping a cover photo chosen by Google that doesn’t represent you.
More in Google Business Profile mistakes to avoid.
How do you know where your profile stands?
Our free Google listing audit gives you a score out of 100 and priority actions in 30 seconds. “GEO” simply means your visibility on Google and in AI assistants such as ChatGPT or Gemini, which also rely on your public information. Voxtya customers get the Google profile optimiser at no extra cost: a score out of 100 and a clear list of what’s missing.
Photos: what to shoot first
If you only have one afternoon, shoot in daylight and in this order: the front of the restaurant (so people recognise it from the street), the dining room from the entrance, the terrace if you have one, three or four signature dishes on a plain table, and the team. Avoid heavy filters: guests want to see what they will actually get. Then add one or two new photos a month, for example the dish of the week or a seasonal dessert.
Reviews: the part you control every week
Your rating and the number of recent reviews are among the first things guests look at. You cannot write reviews yourself, but you can make leaving one easy: a QR code on the table or the bill, a word at the end of the meal, an email after an online booking. Ask every guest, not just the ones who seem happy: Google’s rules forbid selecting who gets asked. And reply to every review, including the short five-star ones: a simple, personal thank-you is enough.
Booking and menu links: the two buttons that bring guests
Many guests decide in a few seconds on the profile itself. Two links do most of the work: the menu and the booking link. Point the menu link to a real menu page, readable on a phone, and the booking link straight to your booking form, not your homepage. Test both from a phone in a private window after every change of website or booking tool.
A simple routine
- Weekly: reply to new reviews, add a photo or a post.
- Monthly: check hours, menu and booking link.
- Before holidays: set special hours.
- Each season: update menu, cover photo and description.
Want to know what your profile is missing? Run the free audit above, then try Voxtya free for 30 days.