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7 Google My Business Tips for Restaurants Affected by COVID-19

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Google my business tips for restaurants

If your restaurant is operating differently than normal these days due to the Corona Virus outbreak, you should log in to your GMB account and update your Google My Business listing to provide the most accurate information about your restaurant to your customers. Changing your restaurant’s hours of operation, adding takeout, updating delivery or curbside pickup attributes can help. All the updates will appear on your business profile on Google Search and Google Maps.

1- Update Hours of Operation

Update hours of operation

If your restaurant’s business hours have changed, update the times when you will be open or closed. Your restaurant’s operating hours will be shown to your customers when they visit your restaurant’s profile on Google.

2- Mark Your Restaurant as “Temporarily Closed”

Mark business as temporarily closed

You can mark your restaurant as “Temporarily Closed” if you’ve stopped offering dine-in, takeout, delivery, or curbside pickup. Google also takes reference for data from authoritative sources to mark specific types of businesses as “Temporarily Closed” on Google Search and Maps.

3- Update Your Dining Service Options

Google my business attributes

You can update the dining options and inform your customers whether the restaurant offers takeout, delivery, or curbside pickup and/or stopped providing dine-in service. You can do it by adding or editing the “Dine-In,” “Takeout,” “Delivery,” and “Curbside pickup” as Google My Business attributes in your listing.

4- Update Your Restaurant’s Menu

Update restaurant menu

Update the menu of your restaurant if you’ve reduced your selection or have deals and specials in your Google My Business listing to attract customers.

5- Create a Post in Google My Business

Google my business posts

Google My Business posts are one of the most effective ways you can use to communicate with your customers to give them more detailed and timely updates about what’s going on with your restaurant directly. You can post information about temporary closures or changed hours of business/special hours, and menu items or deals you offer through Google My Business posts. You can also post about the steps or health measures your restaurant has taken for the safety of your premises, food, or customers. You can also use the COVID-19 post type on Google My Business so that it can appear in an even more relevant way to your customers. The customers can come across your posts and updates in the knowledge panel of your business on Google, Google Maps, and local finder. However, COVID-19 update posts will appear at the top of a business’s profile in local search results. So you can continue to publish other types of posts, and the COVID-19 post will remain pinned to the top.

6- Allow GMB Messaging from Your Customers

Google my business messaging

To help your customers reach you, download the Google My Business app and turn on messaging. Restaurants can provide their customers with the support they need through messaging after their business hours or when unreachable by phone.

7- Accept Orders Online

Accept orders online

U.S.-based restaurants can accept online food orders for pickup directly from customers. The Ordering.app builds a customized ordering site for the restaurants so their customers can order available food items right from the website, Google search results, Maps, and more. The Ordering.app is now a part of Google, and its per-order fee is waived currently to support restaurants as they face COVID-19 challenges.