How to Get a Restaurant Listed on Google and Verified

To get a restaurant on Google, search Maps for your name and address first, then either claim the listing that's already there or create a new Google Business Profile, and finish Google's verification step so you can manage it. After that, the work that decides whether hungry people pick you is filling the profile in properly: the right categories, accurate hours, a menu link, attributes and photos. Here's the order to do it in, with the places people trip up.

Step 1: Search for yourself before you create anything

Open Google Maps and search for your restaurant's name plus your street. Then search the address on its own, and the old name of the space if it used to be something else.

A listing for your restaurant may already exist even if you never made one. Listings can come from public information or from people adding a place they visited. You may also find the old restaurant that used to be at your address, still showing up next to yours.

Write down what you find:

• A listing for your restaurant: you'll claim it in step 2.
• A listing for a previous business at your address: if it still shows as open, you can suggest an edit on Maps to mark it closed. Don't take it over and rename it as yours. Google's guidelines cover a change of owner and a new business at an old address differently, so read them before you decide what applies to you.
• Two listings for your own restaurant: note both. You'll deal with the duplicate at the end.

Step 2: Claim it or create it

To claim an existing listing, open it in Google Search or Maps and look for the link that offers to let you own or manage the business. Follow the prompts. If someone else already manages it, such as a former manager, a past agency or the previous owner, Google gives you a way to request access, and the current manager gets a chance to respond first.

To create a new one, sign in to Google Business Profile with an account the business will keep. Not a server's personal Gmail, and not the account of the nephew who built your website. Then enter:

• Your business name exactly as it appears on your sign and your receipts. Adding words like "Best Pizza in Midtown" is keyword stuffing, which is against Google's guidelines and can get the profile suspended.
• Your category (more on this in step 4).
• Your street address, and confirm that guests come to you there.
• Your phone number and website.

Once you're in, add a second owner or manager you trust, like a business partner or GM, so access to the profile doesn't depend on one person's login.

Step 3: Get verified

Verification is how Google confirms you're really the business at that address. Google picks which methods your listing is offered, and they change from time to time. Options it has used include a phone call or text, an email, a recorded video, a live video call, and a postcard with a code mailed to the address.

If you're asked for a video, Google's on-screen instructions list what to show, and following that list exactly is the fastest way through. Plan a short continuous clip in daylight with the sign out front, the street around it, the inside of the restaurant and something only someone running the place can do, like unlocking the door or opening the register. Shoot it before service, not during the rush.

While verification is pending, avoid editing your name, address or category. Changes to those details can trigger another review and slow everything down.

Step 4: Set your categories

You get one primary category and can add secondary ones. The primary category does a lot of the work of matching you to searches, so pick the most specific option Google offers that's true. "Pizza restaurant" fits a pizzeria better than "Restaurant". "Ramen restaurant" fits a ramen shop better than "Japanese restaurant".

Add secondary categories for real parts of the business: a bar, a caterer, a bakery counter, a brunch service. Pick from Google's list as it appears in the profile; don't add categories for things you only do once a year.

Step 5: Get the hours right, all of them

Your regular hours should match when the doors are actually open. Then:

• Add special hours for holidays and planned closures ahead of time.
• Use the extra hours options, where Google offers them for your category, for things that run on their own clock: happy hour, brunch, kitchen hours, takeout or delivery.
• If the kitchen closes before the bar, make that clear. A guest who drives over for dinner at 9:45 and finds only the bar open won't be happy.

"Open now" and "Closes soon" on Maps come from these hours. Wrong hours cost you guests at the exact moment they're deciding.

Step 6: Add your menu, ordering and reservation links

Point the menu link at a real menu page on your site, with dishes and prices typed as text, not a PDF or a photo. We wrote up why menus work better as web pages and how to move one over in an afternoon.

Depending on your category, the profile may also let you add menu items directly, plus links for ordering and reservations. Google may show Order or Reserve buttons on your profile, but it decides when and whether they appear. Google may also show ordering options from other providers. Check what appears on your own profile, and where the profile offers a way to set your own link as the preferred one, use it.

Step 7: Fill in attributes, photos and the description

Attributes are the small facts guests filter on: outdoor seating, wheelchair-accessible entrance, Wi-Fi, good for kids, vegetarian options, takeout, delivery. Mark the ones that are true and leave the rest. Some attributes are filled in by diners' answers, so check them now and then.

For photos, start with these:

• The front of the building from across the street, by day and at night, so guests recognize it when they arrive.
• The dining room set for service.
• Your five best-selling dishes, shot near a window in natural light.
• The bar, the patio or the private room, if you have them.

Write the description the way you'd explain the place to a friend: what you serve, the neighborhood, what you're known for. Leave out prices and limited-time offers that will date.

Getting listed and verified is the starting line. Showing up for "pizza near me" across your part of town, for people who don't know your name yet, is the longer job our local SEO for restaurants work covers.

Avoiding duplicate listings

One location, one profile. Duplicates split your reviews, confuse guests and can cause trouble with Google.

• If you move, update the address on your existing profile rather than starting a new one, and read Google's guidance on relocations first.
• If you rebrand but the business stays the same, update the name on the existing profile.
• Don't create a second profile for the same location to get a fresh start on reviews, or to list your lunch counter as a separate place. Google's guidelines for representing your business spell out when a separate listing is allowed.
• If you find a duplicate of your restaurant, report it through the suggest-an-edit option on Maps or through Business Profile support, and keep the profile that has your reviews.
• Food trucks, ghost kitchens, virtual brands and caterers without a dining room: eligibility and setup are different for these. Check Google's current guidelines before you create anything, because they change.

Then copy it everywhere else

Once your Google profile is right, put the same name, address, phone number and hours on Apple Maps through Apple Business Connect, on Bing Places and on Yelp. When every listing says the same thing, guests don't get sent to last year's hours, and search engines get a consistent picture of who you are.

Once you're verified, a free Maps audit is a good next step. We'll look at how your new profile shows up for the searches that matter near you, and what the places ranking above you have that you don't yet.