Optimising Google Business Profile for Restaurants

Field by field: how to set up a Barcelona restaurant's Google listing to win visits, bookings and commission-free orders.

The Google listing is a restaurant's real homepage: most diners decide without ever reaching your website. This guide covers the fields that actually move the needle in hospitality.

Business name: exactly what is on the sign

No "Cheap Italian Restaurant Eixample". Google penalises keyword stuffing in the name and competitors report it in one click.

Categories: one specific primary, up to four secondary

The primary decides which searches you compete for; secondaries widen reach without diluting. A Mediterranean restaurant serving Sunday brunch might use primary "Mediterranean restaurant" with "Brunch restaurant", "Breakfast restaurant", "Wine bar" and "Terrace" as secondaries.

Attributes: the most underused field

Attributes feed the filters diners use to narrow results. In Barcelona the highest-converting ones are terrace, wheelchair accessible, dog friendly, vegetarian/vegan/gluten-free options, booking required, group friendly, set lunch, brunch, late dinner, and the languages your staff speak.

Menu and dishes: in the listing, not just the website

Each dish you upload with name, description and price is indexable text that surfaces you for ultra-specific searches like "where to eat fideuà in Poblenou". Upload at least your 15 best sellers and refresh prices each season.

Hours: special hours matter more than regular ones

Holiday hours cause the most damage when wrong. Set Christmas Eve, Sant Joan, La Mercè, your summer closure and district holidays in advance. A listing saying "open" on a day you close earns one-star reviews that take months to offset.

Photos: quantity, order and freshness

Your cover should be a full dining room or a recognisable storefront, never a plated dish on white. Then upload facade, room, terrace, five signature dishes, the team and a bar detail — followed by three new photos every week.

Bookings and orders: take back control

If your booking button only points to a portal, you pay commission on a customer who had already found you. Connect your own booking engine or at minimum a tracked link to your website's booking page.

Q&A: seed it yourself

You can post questions and answer them from another team account. Seed the five real questions you get by phone: gluten-free menu, nearby parking, groups of twelve, high chairs, heated terrace.

What to measure monthly

Discovery vs branded searches, direction requests by origin neighbourhood, booking-button clicks vs calls, and new reviews with average reply time.

Conclusion

A well-configured listing does not replace a good website — it amplifies it. Start with categories, attributes and the menu, then build the weekly photo and review routine.