Ordinami.itWhen someone searches for "pizza place near me" or your restaurant's name, the first thing they see isn't your website - it's your Google profile, with photos, stars, hours, and reviews. For most restaurants, it's the most viewed storefront, and too often it's neglected: old photos uploaded by customers, incorrect hours, missing menu. Fixing it takes an afternoon and pays off more than many paid ads.
The basics to fix right away
- Claim your profile if you haven't already: until you're the owner, your storefront is written by others.
- Categories: the primary one must be precise (pizzeria, trattoria, seafood restaurant), with secondary ones to complete.
- Always accurate hours, including holidays: a customer who finds you closed after Google said you were open is lost forever, and often writes about it in reviews.
- Phone number and reservations: check that the number is correct and the reservation link works from your phone.
Photos: the battlefield
Profiles with curated photos receive many more clicks and requests for directions: it's the field where the difference is most visible. Upload your best photos - dishes, dining room, outdoor seating, recognizable facade - and update them with each season. If you don't, the profile shows customer photos: often dark, blurry, with half-eaten dishes. A dozen good, updated shots are enough, not a hundred mediocre ones uploaded once and forgotten.
The menu in your profile
Google allows you to link your menu to your profile, and it's one of the most consulted fields: whoever decides where to dine wants to see dishes and prices before moving. The best link is to your digital menu: always updated, with current photos and prices, instead of a PDF photographed two years ago that still appears on many profiles. With Ordinami, the menu has a stable public link, made to be pasted into your Google profile and social media profiles: you update it from the panel and everywhere it points to the current version.
Reviews and responses
Respond to all reviews, including positive ones, even with two lines: demonstrate active management to both Google and the customers who read. The volume and freshness of reviews weigh on local positioning: a constant flow of recent reviews counts more than a treasure accumulated years ago.
Monthly maintenance
Half an hour a month is enough: update photos if the season has changed, check holiday hours, post a news update, and verify user questions, where often requests have gone unanswered for months. The Google profile is not a chore: it's your first salesperson, and it works for free. And if multiple people work at your restaurant, assign the task to a specific person with a fixed deadline: everyone's profile is no one's profile, and after a month it shows.