Resources · Local SEO
Google Reviews & Google Business Profile
Google Business Profile and reviews are two different things that get lumped together, but they work closely enough with each other that it's worth covering in one place.
Google Business Profile basics
This is often the first thing a potential customer sees, before they ever hit your website. Worth keeping current:
Hours, including holiday hours. This is the one people forget.
Menu, or at least a link to it.
Photos, updated regularly, not just from opening week.
The right category and relevant attributes, such as outdoor seating or takeout.
Posts, short updates about specials, events or news. These don't need to be frequent to help, but never posting doesn't help either.
Getting more reviews, the right way
Two policies worth knowing: Google doesn't allow incentivizing reviews (discounts, freebies or contest entries in exchange for a review) or gating them (only asking happy customers, filtering out anyone who might leave a negative one). Both can get a business profile penalized, and neither actually builds trust, since the reviews stop reflecting reality.
What works instead
Ask at the right moment. Right after a good meal, in person, works better than an email three days later that gets ignored.
Make it easy. A short link or QR code on the receipt or table saves someone the trouble of searching for you.
Ask consistently, not in bursts. A steady trickle of reviews over time reads as more genuine than fifty reviews in one week, and it looks that way to Google too.
Responding to reviews
Responding to both positive and negative reviews shows you're paying attention. For negative reviews specifically: acknowledge the issue, keep it brief, take it offline if there's a real problem to resolve, and skip the defensive tone. A calm, specific response to a bad review often does more for a hesitant reader than the review itself did damage.
Where this shows up in practice