Restaurants & Hospitality · Local & GBP
Local & Google Business Profile for restaurants
“Restaurants near me,” “best brunch,” a Google Maps search on the way out the door — the map pack and the star rating under it decide the table before any ad is seen. This is the local surface most restaurants leave to chance.
What I audit in the first 30 days
Same order every time — each step depends on the one before it.
Profile completeness
Menu, hours, photos, reservation link, attributes (outdoor seating, takeout). A thin Google Business Profile caps ranking and loses the diner comparing three spots at once.
Review velocity and rating
Recency and volume of reviews — plus whether the owner responds — drive both rank and trust. A stale 4.6 loses to a fresh, active 4.4.
Photos that sell the room
Diners eat with their eyes on the profile before they ever arrive. Current, appetizing photos of food and atmosphere are a ranking and conversion factor at once.
The playbook
The levers that consistently move these accounts, roughly in order of impact.
A complete, current profile
Menu, hours, reservation and order links, attributes, and fresh photos — the baseline that determines whether the venue even shows in the pack.
A review engine at the table
A simple ask at the end of a great meal — the moment of peak satisfaction — plus a reply to every review. Recency and response rate move rank and trust together.
Photos as a ranking lever
A steady stream of appetizing, current photos keeps the profile fresh and makes the diner choose it over the two spots beside it.
Reservations and orders one tap away
Wire the booking and ordering links directly into the profile so intent converts on the spot instead of leaking to a phone call that goes unanswered.
Consistent details everywhere
Name, address, hours identical across the profile, the site, and directories — inconsistency is a quiet ranking drag the pack punishes.
The benchmarks I hold to
| Benchmark | Typical range |
|---|---|
| Map-pack share of local clicks | 40 – 60% |
| Reviews / month to hold rank | 10 – 30 |
| Profile → reservation/order | 5 – 15% |
| Photo refresh cadence | weekly |
Run this in your shop
If bays are empty while the phone rings, the leak is measurable — and fixable.