DANTECH
SEO · Restaurants · 2026-10-13 · 7 min read
When someone within three miles searches for the kind of food you make, Google shows three restaurants on the map before anything else. Getting into those three is worth more than any ad. Here is the checklist we run for every restaurant client.
Google Business Profile
- Claim and verify the profile; make sure the name matches your sign exactly
- Choose the most specific primary category (“Mexican restaurant”, not “Restaurant”)
- Add hours including holidays, and keep them accurate — wrong hours kill trust
- Upload 20+ real photos: dishes, interior, exterior, team
- Add the menu with prices, and link to ordering
- Post weekly: specials, events, new dishes
Reviews
- Ask every happy table — a QR code on the receipt works
- Reply to every review, good and bad, within a day
- Mention the dish in your reply (“glad you loved the pescado a la veracruzana”) — it reinforces keywords
Your website
- A menu as real text, not an image or a PDF, so Google can read it
- Your address, phone and hours on every page
- Restaurant schema markup with cuisine, price range and hours
- Loads in under two seconds on a phone
- A Spanish version if your customers speak Spanish
Consistency everywhere
Make sure your name, address and phone are identical on Yelp, Apple Maps, DoorDash, Facebook, Instagram and every directory. Inconsistencies confuse Google and cost rankings.
Run through the list once a quarter. Most restaurants we audit are missing five or more of these — which means the restaurant down the street probably is too.
