Most people choose a restaurant by googling "restaurant near me", looking at the stars, scrolling the photos and deciding in under a minute. Your restaurant's Google Maps profile is often the very first encounter a guest has with you, long before they see your menu.
I've done redesigns of more than twenty Danish restaurant websites, and almost every time, the Google Maps profile and the website disagree about something basic. Here's what to get right.
Why Google Maps became the restaurant's most important sign
Google doesn't show restaurants in random order. The algorithm looks at, among other things:
- How close you are to the person searching
- How relevant your category is to the search term
- The number of reviews and how good they are
- How often and how quickly you reply
- Whether hours, photos and menu are up to date
So your position is the result of active work, not luck.
The details have to match the website
This is the core of it. At a French bistro, Facebook and Tripadvisor were only linked from the booking page, never the front page, and sameAs in their JSON-LD was an empty list. Google had no verified connection between the domain and the profiles.
At a restaurant in northern Denmark, the opening hours contradicted themselves between the booking page and the hours page. When the profile and the website tell two stories, Google gets confused, and your ranking pays for it.
Check: do the name, address, phone number and hours read identically on your Google profile and your website?
Pick the precise category
"Restaurant" is usually too broad. Choose the most specific category you can: "Italian restaurant", "burger bar", "Mexican restaurant". It determines which searches you show up in at all.
Photos decide whether people book
People eat with their eyes, digitally too. A photo of a steaming dish in natural light does more for your conversion than most copy. Prioritise:
- Good-quality photos of the food, ideally swapped out by season
- Photos of the interior so guests can see the atmosphere
- An up-to-date menu or a link to the digital one
Google also shows photos that guests upload themselves. If those look messy, add enough good ones to drown out the bad.
Reviews: how to get more and better ones
A restaurant with 4.7 stars and 300 reviews almost always beats one with 4.2 and 15, even when the food is equally good. How to get more without being pushy:
- Ask directly, right after a good meal
- Make it easy with a small sign and a QR code by the exit
- Reply to every review, good and bad
- Never buy fake reviews, Google spots it faster than you'd think
One bad review isn't the disaster. What counts is that you reply calmly and specifically.
Mistakes I see over and over
- Wrong or missing opening hours, especially around public holidays
- No replies to reviews for months
- Old photos from when the restaurant opened
- Duplicate profiles where old addresses or closed locations are still listed
- A missing menu link, so people google onwards to the competitor
Aggregator sites often pull data from a profile nobody maintains. The descriptions on them are usually AI-generated and invented. Your own updated profile is what counts.
What I don't promise
I don't promise a top spot in the local pack. Nobody can. What I do is make the profile and the website tell the same story, so Google has something to trust.
Frequently asked questions
How long before my restaurant appears in search results?
A new profile can take from a few days to a couple of weeks to be indexed. Optimising an existing profile, you often see changes within two to four weeks if you're consistent with updates and reviews.
Can guests book a table directly through Google Maps?
Yes, if your restaurant is connected to a booking system that supports it. It shortens the path from search to booking.
Why doesn't Google Maps show my restaurant even though I created a profile?
Usually because the profile isn't verified yet, the category is a poor fit, or there aren't enough signals in the form of reviews and photos. Also check whether the profile has accidentally been marked as closed.
Do more reviews always mean a better ranking?
Not automatically, but it helps. Google looks at volume, quality and how recent the reviews are. A steady stream signals that something is happening.
Do I need a menu on the Google profile when I already have one on the website?
Yes, or at minimum a direct link. Without it, people google onwards to a competitor whose menu is easier to find.
One last thing
I don't do brand awareness. I do revenue, rankings and websites that sell. Check your opening hours now, see whether the photos still look like what guests actually walk into, and reply to the review you've been putting off. It takes ten minutes.