Google Business Profile for restaurants: set it up to bring in diners and orders
A Google Business Profile is the free listing that shows your restaurant on Google Search and Maps: hours, menu, photos, reviews, and the buttons people tap to call, get directions, book or order. For a restaurant, the parts that bring in diners are a specific category, correct hours for dine-in, takeout and delivery, a menu Google can read, an Order button that goes to your own ordering page, fresh photos, and replies to reviews [1]. It costs nothing, and Google says you can't pay for a better local ranking [2].
Below: what the profile shows a hungry person, every field a restaurant should fill in, how to add the menu and set the Order button, how to ask for reviews within Google's rules, posts, the numbers worth watching, and a 15-minute weekly routine. If your restaurant isn't on Google yet, start with how to get your restaurant on Google Maps, which covers claiming and verifying step by step.
What a Google Business Profile does for a restaurant
When someone searches "tacos near me" or your restaurant's name, Google shows a panel built from your profile. For most people that panel is the first and sometimes the only thing they see about you before they decide. From it they can:
- see whether you're open right now and until when;
- look at the menu and prices;
- see photos of the food and the room;
- read reviews and your replies;
- tap to call, get directions, visit your website, book a table or order food.
Google's own guide for restaurants lists the same jobs: keep your information right, take orders and bookings, show the menu and photos, post updates, reply to reviews, and watch the numbers [1]. The profile is managed from your Google Account, on a computer or in the Google Maps app, and you must be verified as the owner before you can edit it or reply to reviews [5].
How Google decides which restaurants show first
Google names three things that decide local results: relevance (how well your profile matches what was searched), distance (how far you are from the searcher or the place they named) and prominence (how well known you are: reviews, links and articles about you, your site's position in web results) [2]. Google also says a complete, accurate profile helps, and that more reviews and positive ratings can improve your local ranking [2].
You can't move your restaurant closer to anyone, so the work is on the other two:
| Factor | What raises it for a restaurant |
|---|---|
| Relevance | A specific primary category ("Thai restaurant", not "Restaurant"), the right extra categories, a menu with real dish names, attributes like "Takeout" and "Outdoor seating", a description in plain words. |
| Prominence | A steady flow of honest reviews, replies to them, a website of your own that the profile links to, mentions in local press and food blogs. |
| Distance | The pin on your actual front door. Nothing else you can change. |
Putting extra words in the business name ("Joe's Pizza Best Pizza Downtown") is against Google's guidelines and can get a profile suspended [3]. The name is the one on your sign.
Every field to fill in, and what to write
Open your profile (search your restaurant's name while signed in, or go to business.google.com) and work down this list. Each line is something a diner uses to decide.
| Field | What to put | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Business name | Exactly as on your sign | Extra words break Google's rules [3] |
| Primary category | The most specific one: "Pizza restaurant", "Bakery", "Coffee shop", "Ramen restaurant" | The main signal for which searches you show in |
| Extra categories | Only true ones: "Takeout restaurant", "Caterer", "Bar" | Lets you show for those searches too |
| Address and pin | Street address; pin dragged to the door | Directions that end at the right entrance |
| Hours | Regular hours, plus separate hours for takeout, delivery, pickup or drive-through if they differ [1] | "Closed" when you're open loses the visit |
| Special hours | Holidays, private events, closures, set ahead [1] | Stops the angry "came and it was closed" review |
| Phone | A number someone answers in service hours | Calls for takeout and bookings |
| Website | Your own site, ideally the page with the menu and ordering | Counts toward prominence [2]; a delivery app link sends your diner to a marketplace |
| Menu | Text menu in the menu editor, plus a menu link (next section) | The most looked-at thing for a restaurant |
| Ordering | Your own ordering page set as preferred (section below) | Decides who gets the order, and the fee |
| Reservations | Reserve with Google through a supported booking provider, or your booking link [1] | A "Book" button on the profile |
| Attributes | Every one that's true: dine-in, takeout, delivery, outdoor seating, wheelchair access, vegetarian options, kids' menu, payment types | Filters people use on Maps |
| Description | Two or three plain sentences: what you serve, the dishes you're known for, the neighborhood | Answers "what kind of place is this?" |
| Photos | Outside (so people find the door), inside, 10+ best-selling dishes, the menu | People decide on the food photos |
| Social links | Instagram, Facebook if you post there [1] | Shows you're active |
Delivery-only kitchens and virtual brands have their own address rules; Google's restaurant guide links to them [1]. Food trucks that move each day usually set up as a service-area business instead of showing an address.
How to add your menu to your Google Business Profile
Google gives food and drink businesses a menu editor, and it shows on your profile under Menu [4]. There are three ways to fill it, and you can use more than one:
- Type the menu in the editor. In your profile, choose Edit menu. Add sections (starters, mains, drinks), then items with a name, a short description and a price. Choose Save [4].
- Upload a photo or PDF of the menu. In Edit menu, under Photos of menu, upload your own. If diners uploaded an old menu photo, you can flag it for removal and add the current one [4].
- Let Google read a photo into a text menu. Google has an experimental feature that turns a menu photo or PDF into sections, items, descriptions and prices. The menu must fit on one page and in one photo, and you accept Google's generative AI terms to use it [4]. Check every price it reads before you save.
Add a menu link too: Edit profile → Business information → Contact → Menu link, then the address of your menu page [4]. If Google finds more than one menu source (your editor menu, your website, a delivery app), it lets you pick which one shows: Edit menu → Full menu tab → choose your preferred source [4]. Pick the one you keep up to date. Phone steps, the photo-to-menu feature, and what to do when Google shows an old or wrong menu are in how to add a menu to your Google Business Profile.
Changes can take 24 to 48 hours to show on Maps and Search [4]. Google may also copy menu items from your website by itself [4], which is one more reason to keep your menu on your own site as text, not a picture. Why a photo or PDF menu reads poorly, and the markup that helps, is in how Google reads your menu.
Popular dishes. Google can show a "Popular dishes" strip built from diners' photos and reviews; its help page explains how owners review and edit it [9]. The more good dish photos you add with the dish name, the more the strip shows what you want people to order.
How to set the Order button to your own ordering page
This is the setting that most decides what each online order costs you. If you do nothing, Google lists the delivery apps and ordering companies that say they work with you, and a diner who taps "Order online" may land on an app that takes a commission. You can choose instead [6]:
- In your profile, open Food ordering.
- Make sure Accept orders on your profile is on. Turning it off hides every provider and link [6].
- Choose Add a link and enter your own ordering page (a custom link). Custom links show on Search and Maps [6].
- Select that link, choose Set as preferred, turn on Preferred for pickup (and for delivery, if your page offers it), and Save [6].
- To take a provider off your profile, select it and choose Remove link. Google says providers must take down their links within 5 business days of your request, and gives a complaint form if one doesn't [6].
What the choice is worth on a $25 order:
| Where the Order button goes | What you pay on a $25 order |
|---|---|
| A delivery marketplace (15–30% commission plan) | $3.75 to $7.50 plus payment fees; see DoorDash's fees and Uber Eats' fees |
| Your own ordering page, pickup, flat-fee or free ordering tool | Card processing only, about 3%, so roughly $1 |
The options, from free to paid, are compared in commission-free online ordering, and the setup itself in how to set up online ordering. You can keep the delivery apps for delivery and send pickup to your own page: Google lets you set a different preferred provider for each [6].
Reviews: how to get more, and how to reply
Google says more reviews and positive ratings can improve your local ranking, and that replying shows customers you value them [2]. Reviews are also what the person reading your profile trusts most, because other diners wrote them.
How to ask, within Google's rules
Google gives every verified profile a review link and a QR code to share [5]. Put the QR on the receipt, a table card or the pickup bag, and the link in your order confirmation. Then keep to Google's rules for merchants [7]:
| Allowed | Not allowed (can remove reviews or restrict the profile) |
|---|---|
| Ask every customer for an honest review | Ask only the happy ones, or steer unhappy ones away ("selectively solicit positive reviews") [7] |
| A QR code on a card or receipt | A discount, free dessert or any reward for a review [7] |
| A link in the order email or text | Pressing people to review while they're still in the restaurant [7] |
| Staff mentioning that reviews help | Staff or former staff reviewing the restaurant, or a quota of reviews per server [7] |
Step by step, with print sizes and the wording for the card, is in how to make a Google review QR code for your restaurant. For what to write back, good or bad, see these restaurant Google review reply examples.
A review tool that sends happy guests to Google and unhappy ones to a private form is the "selective" asking the policy describes. Ask everyone the same way.
How to reply to reviews
In your profile choose Read reviews, then the reply icon next to a review, write, and choose Reply [5]. Replies post under your business name, the reviewer is told you replied, and they can still change their review [5]. Google checks replies against its policies; most are reviewed within 10 minutes, some take up to 30 days [5].
What works in a reply:
- Good review: thank them by name, mention the dish they named, invite them back for something specific. Two sentences.
- Bad review with a fair point: thank them, say what went wrong in plain words, say what you changed, give a way to reach the owner directly. No arguing in public.
- Bad review that isn't true or isn't a customer: reply once, calmly, with the facts, and flag it if it breaks Google's policies (spam, off-topic, conflict of interest) [5] [7].
- Never post a customer's personal details or order history in a reply.
Posts: specials, events and news
Posts show on your profile as small cards. Google offers three kinds [8]:
- Update: news with a photo or video and an optional button ("Order", "Call"). New seasonal menu, a new dish, summer hours.
- Offer: a deal with a title and dates, and a "View offer" button. Happy hour, a weekday lunch combo.
- Event: a title with start and end dates and times. Trivia night, live music, a wine dinner.
Create one under Posts → Add post; you can schedule a post or set it to repeat [8]. Posts older than 6 months are archived unless they have a date range [8]. A phone number in the text can get a post rejected if Google can't match it to your business [8], so use the Call button instead. One post a week with a real dish photo is plenty for most places.
Photos that make people come in
People choose a restaurant on Google with their eyes. Add, at least:
- The front by day, so people recognise it from the street.
- The inside: tables, counter, the patio if you have one.
- Your 10 best-selling dishes, one each, shot near a window in daylight, from above or at 45 degrees, on a clean table.
- The current menu, as a photo, as well as the text menu.
- People if you have staff who are happy to be shown.
Diners upload photos too. You can't delete theirs, but adding fresh photos of your own every month keeps the best ones near the top, and you can report a diner's photo that is off-topic or breaks Google's rules.
The numbers worth watching
The Performance view of your profile shows how people found you and what they did [1]. For a restaurant, the ones that matter:
| Number | What it tells you | When to act |
|---|---|---|
| Searches (and the words people used) | Whether you show for "pizza near me" or only your own name | Only your name: work on category, menu text, attributes, reviews |
| Calls, directions, website clicks | How many people acted after seeing you | A month that drops: check hours, recent reviews, photos |
| Menu clicks | Interest in the menu [1] | High clicks, low orders: the menu or the order page loses them |
| Orders and bookings made on Google | What the profile brings in directly [1] | Compare with your own ordering page's numbers |
Compare month to month, not day to day: weather, holidays and school terms move restaurant searches more than anything you change in a week.
A 15-minute weekly routine
- Reply to every new review (5 minutes).
- Check the hours, and set special hours for anything coming in the next two weeks (1 minute).
- Check the menu: prices changed? a dish dropped? (2 minutes).
- Add two or three photos of this week's food (3 minutes).
- Post one update or offer (3 minutes).
- Look at "Suggested edits": anyone can suggest a change to your hours or phone. Accept the right ones, reject the wrong ones (1 minute).
Once a month, look at Performance and at the Order button: providers can be added to your profile again by an app that says it works with you, so check that your own link is still the preferred one [6].
Common mistakes restaurants make
- A delivery app as the website. It sends diners to a marketplace that shows them other restaurants and charges you per order.
- One set of hours for everything. If the kitchen closes at 9 but the bar stays open, set the takeout and delivery hours on their own [1].
- A menu from two years ago, uploaded by a diner. Flag it and upload your own [4].
- The profile under a manager's or agency's account. When they leave, you're requesting ownership of your own restaurant. Add them as managers instead; keep ownership.
- Paying for reviews or rewarding them. Against the policy [7], and Google removes reviews it finds that way.
- Keywords in the name. Can get the profile suspended [3].
- Setting it up once and forgetting it. Hours, the menu and the Order button drift the most.
Questions
Is Google Business Profile free for restaurants?
Yes. Creating and running the profile costs nothing, and Google says there's no way to pay for a better local ranking [2]. Google Ads can put a paid ad above the local results, but that is separate from the profile.
How do I add my menu to Google?
In your profile choose Edit menu and add sections, items and prices, or upload a photo or PDF of the menu; add your menu page under Edit profile → Contact → Menu link [4]. Changes take 24 to 48 hours to show.
How do I get rid of DoorDash or Uber Eats on my Google listing?
Open Food ordering, select the provider and choose Remove link. Google says providers must remove their links within 5 business days [6]. Or keep them, and set your own ordering page as the preferred link for pickup.
Can I delete bad Google reviews?
No, not yourself. You can reply, and you can flag a review that breaks Google's policies (fake, spam, off-topic, from a competitor or ex-employee) for Google to review [5] [7].
Do I need a website if I have a Google Business Profile?
You can run without one, but the profile has a Website field and a menu link, Google may read your menu from your site [4], and a website you own counts toward prominence [2]. It's also where your own Order button can point.
How often should I post on my profile?
Google sets no number. Posts archive after 6 months without a date range [8]; one a week, with a real photo of something on the menu, keeps the profile current without much work.
Your profile's Website, Menu and Order fields all need a page to point to. Build your menu site free from a photo of your menu: a text menu Google can read, and pickup ordering with no fee per order that you can set as the preferred Order button. More plain answers are in all our guides for restaurant owners, including SEO for a restaurant website.
Sources
- Get started with a Business Profile for your restaurant, Google Business Profile Help, read Nov 3, 2026.
- Tips to improve your local ranking on Google, Google Business Profile Help, read Nov 1, 2026.
- Guidelines for representing your business on Google, Google Business Profile Help, read Nov 1, 2026.
- About the menu editor, Google Business Profile Help, read Nov 3, 2026.
- Manage customer reviews, Google Business Profile Help, read Nov 3, 2026.
- Manage online ordering options, Google Business Profile Help, read Nov 3, 2026.
- Prohibited & restricted content, Maps User Generated Content Policy Help, read Nov 3, 2026.
- Create & manage posts on your Business Profile, Google Business Profile Help, read Nov 3, 2026.
- Find and edit popular dishes for restaurants, Google Business Profile Help, as listed in search Nov 3, 2026.