When a guest asks a search engine or an AI assistant for a restaurant, the answer is built from facts the system can read and trust. Two places carry most of those facts for a local restaurant: your Google Business Profile and your own website. If both say the same clear things, you are easier to find and easier to recommend. This guide covers what to set up in each, in an order you can finish in an afternoon.

Why these two sources matter

Your Google Business Profile is the record Google shows on maps and in local results. Your website is the record you fully control. Search engines and AI tools compare them. When your hours, address and menu match in both places, there is less room for a wrong answer about you.

1. Fill in every field of your Google Business Profile

Start with the basics: exact business name, address, phone number, website link and opening hours. Pick a main category that describes what you really are, for example "Turkish restaurant" or "Meyhane", and add secondary categories only if they are true. Add the attributes that apply to you, such as outdoor seating, reservations, vegetarian options or accessibility. Guests ask for these things directly, and assistants use them to filter.

2. Keep hours accurate, including holidays

Wrong opening hours are one of the most common reasons a guest leaves a bad review. Set your regular hours, then add special hours for public holidays and for any day you close early. Check them again before each holiday period.

3. Link your menu and keep it as text

Add your menu link to your profile. Make sure the page behind that link shows dish names, descriptions and prices as real text, not only a photo or a PDF scan. A text menu can be read by search engines and assistants. A digital menu, like the one Foost builds from the PDF you already have, keeps the text and the photos together on one page.

4. Add real photos and update them

Upload clear photos of your dishes, your dining room and your entrance. Use your own photos, not stock images. When you change your menu or your interior, replace the old photos so guests see what they will actually get.

5. Answer reviews and questions

Reply to reviews in a calm, short and specific way, including the negative ones. Answer the questions guests leave on your profile. These answers become part of what is published about you.

6. Add schema markup to your website

Schema markup is a small block of structured data in your page that tells machines what the page contains. For a restaurant, the relevant types from schema.org include Restaurant, Menu, MenuItem and OpeningHoursSpecification. They describe your name, address, cuisine, opening hours and menu items in a fixed format. Ask whoever manages your website to add them, or check whether your website builder offers it. Google's Rich Results Test and the Schema Markup Validator are free tools that show whether the markup is readable.

7. Make the details match everywhere

Compare your name, address and phone number across your website, your Google profile, your social media pages and any delivery or booking platforms. Small differences, like a different phone number or an old address, make it harder for a system to be sure which facts are right. Fix the sources you control first.

A short checklist for this week

Check that your name, address, phone number and hours are correct on Google.

Add or confirm your main category and the attributes that apply.

Link a menu page that shows real text.

Add current photos of your dishes and space.

Reply to your latest reviews.

Ask your web developer about restaurant schema markup.

No one can promise that a profile or markup will make an assistant recommend you. What you can do is remove the confusion. Clear, matching and current facts give search engines and AI assistants less reason to skip you.