Imagine you’re visiting a new city and get hungry while out exploring. As you walk down the main street, you see a restaurant with a bright, inviting sign, the windows show activity inside, friendly staff at the entrance, and a menu displayed outside. This restaurant’s “storefront” makes you stop, glance, and decide: Should I step in?

In a time where much of modern life has migrated online, foot traffic from curious passersby is pretty rare. Most people use the internet to explore places to eat and the first glimpse most diners get of your restaurant isn’t your website or delivery apps — it’s your Google Business Profile (formerly called Google My Business). That profile shows up in searches and on maps, where hungry customers type in “best kimchi near me” or “Italian restaurant open now.”

Your website is important, it’s like the host greeting them once they step inside, but if your digital storefront (Google Business Profile) isn’t doing its job, you’ll lose the customer before they ever reach your website. According to a 2024 study, 81% of consumers say they use Google to read reviews, making it by far the dominant review platform.

The point: if you treat your Google profile like a neglected window display, diners will walk past, even if your food is exceptional. On the other hand, if you use it as a local marketing tool, optimize it, keep it fresh, and use it strategically, Google Business Profile can become the #1 tool for your local restaurant growth.

Below, we’ll cover exactly what Google Business Profile is, why it is important as a growth tool for your restaurant, and how you can use it to drive visibility, trustworthy reviews, foot traffic, online orders, and long-term growth.

Google Business Profile (sometimes abbreviated to GBP) is a free tool that lets you manage how your business appears on Google Search and Google Maps. This includes your name, address, phone, hours, photos, menu links, posts, and reviews. This is especially important for brick-and-mortar businesses like restaurants. For restaurants, your business profile on Google is the virtual version of a storefront, window display, or directory listing. It helps you show up exactly when someone is searching nearby.

The key parts of a Google Business Profile are:

• Business name, address, phone number (NAP) and hours (including holiday hours)
• A primary category (“Mexican restaurant,” “Chinese restaurant”), and optional secondary categories or attributes (e.g., “Outdoor seating,” “Take-out,” “Delivery”). (See Google Help’s article on keeping your business information accurate)
• Menu, ordering link or booking link (especially relevant for restaurants)
• High-quality photos and video (exterior, interior, menu items)
• Google Posts / updates (special offers, events)
• Reviews and ratings (plus the ability for you to reply)
• Insights / analytics (info on how many views your profile gets, how many calls/clicks/directions).

Because your restaurant’s Google listing is free and so visible, it’s become a foundational piece of local restaurant SEO (SEO = search engine optimization, the term used for improving your ranking on Google and other search engines). It isn’t an exaggeration to say that your Google Business Profile is your restaurant’s most important tool for showing up in search results when diners are looking for local restaurants.

Having a quality website is still really important, but just having a website is not the same as being found in local search. Your Google profile is what helps diners find you. Your website is essential for helping diners choose to eat at your restaurant after you’ve been found. This is why we believe your Google Business Profile is more important than your website.

Let’s review some of the core reasons your Google profile is so important, with data and logic suggesting why this tool is the best way for restaurants to be discovered.

When people search for restaurants or dining options, many begin with Google Search and Google Maps. A recent local-SEO study found Google is the top platform people use to find local businesses: 72% use Google Search and 51% use Google Maps.

In other words, when someone in your neighborhood is hungry and goes online to figure out where to eat, they’re probably going to use Google to make the decision.

If your restaurant doesn’t have an optimized Google Business Profile, you reduce your chances of appearing in the “Local Pack” or “Map Pack” (the top 3 listings shown for local intent searches). And that’s a big deal — businesses that show up in the top 3 Local Pack receive 126% more traffic and 93% more actions (calls, website clicks, and driving directions) than businesses ranked 4-10.

Because the discovery happens in search rather than via social posts or ads (which cost money), your Google profile is your front door for diners. Without that working, your website or social content aren’t likely to help you catch up with competitors.

Discovery is just the first step, but your business profile on Google can also help with the next. Your Google profile enables immediate action: one tap can get directions, place a call, view your menu, order online, or book a table. These quick actions are exactly what your restaurant needs.

And it’s not just that your Google Business Profile makes it easy to take these actions, it makes them easy for exactly the people your restaurant wants to reach: hungry diners ready to eat soon. One source cites Google data that suggests, “76% of people who search for something nearby, visit a business they find online within a day.”

That means optimizing your profile isn’t just about ranking — it’s about being ready to convert at the key moment someone is wanting to get food. This makes it uniquely powerful compared to just a website or social page.

“Social proof” is a marketing term for efforts to prove that other people speak highly of your business. Any time you see a website that says something like “over 10,000 happy clients nationwide,” this is an attempt at using social proof to build trust. Trust is an important factor for any business, but especially for restaurants where the customers are literally putting the product into their bodies.

By far the most convincing form of social proof is customer reviews, and most people turn to Google to find those reviews. When a diner is deciding where to eat, trust signals matter. What’s more, 88% of consumers say they’re more likely to use a business that responds to all reviews, versus 47% that don’t. For restaurants, having a strong review count, high rating, recent reviews, and active responses is a direct advantage — and your business profile on Google is where that lives prominently.

Your Google profile doesn’t just bring visibility, it can establish trust.

Unlike paid advertising (which stops when you stop paying) Google Business Profile is free to claim and use. Your investment only comes in the time you spend optimizing and maintaining it. Each review you earn, each photo you upload, each post you publish builds long-term equity.

Google sees activity, freshness, and engagement and it all helps your visibility and conversion over time. Because restaurants typically have tighter marketing budgets, your Google profile is your highest-leverage growth tool.

For restaurants, the “digital storefront” needs to include some basic features: an up-to-date menu, ordering or reservation links, and delivery/take-out attributes. Google Business Profile supports all of these.

When diners see “Order Online,” “View Menu,” or “Reserve” buttons right in the search result, you’ve shortened the path from search to sale to just one tap. That makes a Google profile especially potent for restaurants versus many other local business types.

Photos matter, especially in the restaurant world. We dedicated a full article on optimizing your Google profile photos, because it really is that important. US Foods found that nearly 3 out of 4 diners say menu pictures directly influence what they order. Our own Beyond Menu data shows that diners are 83% more likely to order food items with photos than those without.

Good imagery in your profile grabs attention, conveys the ambiance and cuisine, and helps move someone from “I guess we could try this place” to “I’ve got to try this dish.”

Google allows you to upload photos of your restaurant’s exterior, interior, team, menu item photos, and link to video so you’re essentially able to create a mini visual storefront inside search results.

Google Business Profile provides you with extremely insightful information that you can use to improve your visibility and convert more viewers into happy customers. Data like how many times your profile was viewed, what people typed into Google to find you, how many calls resulted, what photos performed best, and more.

Google gives you access to all of this data for free. That means you can make better decisions. For example, you might decide to change business hours if the data shows direction requests drop at the same time every day. If views of your menu items start to drop, maybe it’s time to update photos or focus posts around menu items that drive clicks.

Hopefully all of the above made our point crystal clear: Google Business Profile is likely your #1 growth tool as an independent restaurant. Now the question is how to use the tool effectively. 

One of our most popular services is helping restaurant owners with their Google profile but, if you’re the DIY type, here’s a rundown on the basics you should cover at a minimum:

1. Claim your restaurant’s Google Business Profile and verify it. Ensure you are the manager/owner and can control updates. (See Google Help for more detail on this.)
2. Fill out your name, address, phone (NAP) exactly as it appears in the real world.
3. Set your primary category (“Restaurant” or cuisine-specific) and add relevant secondary categories or attributes (e.g., “Delivery,” “Takeout,” “Outdoor seating”).
4. Set your business hours and any holiday or special-event hours.
5. Add your menu link or ordering/reservation links (if available).
6. Upload high-quality photos: exterior, interior, dishes, menu items, team. Use new photos regularly.
7. Create Google Posts at least weekly to highlight offers, promotions, or events.
8. Encourage customers to leave reviews and reply promptly to all reviews (good and bad).
9. Monitor Insights: look at how many views you get, how many calls/directions/website clicks, what search queries led to you.
10. Maintain consistency: ensure your website, directory listings and Google profile all use the same NAP, categories, menu information, photos.

Once your profile is set up correctly, here are additional tactics that separate good restaurants from great ones online:

• Refine your categories and attributes seasonally: For example, during summer you might create an attribute for “Outdoor seating available” and around holidays you could highlight “Gift cards available.”
• Photo cadence strategy: Upload 3-5 new photos each month. Name the files clearly (e.g., “signature-dish-name.jpg”), and ensure alt-text or captions on your website reflect dish name for SEO.
• Menu optimization: Avoid static PDF menus when possible. Structured menu listings that search engines can parse will perform much better. Highlight signature dishes and dietary options.
• Post calendar: Use your Posts section to publish limited-time offers, new menu items, special events, happy hour deals, and similar promotions. Keep posts short, visual, and focused on the action you want them to take (for example, “Book Now”).
• Review flywheel: Generate QR code review invites on receipts, take-out packaging, table tents. Respond to all reviews: thank positive ones, address concerns in negatives, and invite return visits. 
• UTM tracking & attribution: Add UTM parameters to your website/menu/ordering links in your Google profile so you can measure how many orders or visits came via your restaurant’s listing in Google in your analytics tool.
• Spam monitoring: Record any incorrect listings or duplicate profiles pointing to your address and report them to Google to reduce competition and improve your profile’s performance.
• Multi-location governance (if applicable): If your restaurant has more than one location, maintain structured naming (e.g., “Restaurant Name – City”), ensure each location has a unique Google Business Profile, unique photos, and a review management process.

These advanced tactics aren’t “nice to have.” They’re what move your Google profile from “just adequate” to best-in-class.

Your restaurant’s online success starts the moment someone types in “restaurants near me.” That moment is your opportunity. And the best way to capture it is by treating your Google Business Profile like your most visible digital storefront—fresh, accurate, compelling, and optimized for action.

The checklist and advanced optimization provided above can feel overwhelming but consistent effort is really the key. The silver lining is that if you find it difficult to keep up on everything needed to make your Google listing succeed, your competitors do as well. That means this is an opportunity to stand out. If you’re interested in getting our help with your Google profile, we’d love to talk with you.