Where do guests look for appealing restaurants online? If you know how people find restaurants, it’s easier to pinpoint what you need to do to boost your restaurant’s web presence. Good news: It doesn’t take a ton of time or money to rank high in local searches. We’ll break down how Google Search works and what really matters for restaurant owners.
Written by Max Falkenstern. This article was originally published in German and has been updated and translated for our English-speaking audience.
Table of Contents
- Dining out: It all starts with an online search
- Understanding User Intent: The Bridge to a Restaurant Visit
- How You Can Influence Your Restaurant’s Online Visibility
- Your Ace up Your Sleeve: The Role of Your Restaurant Website
- Is AI Changing How Guests Search for Restaurants Online?
- Conclusion – Meet Your Guests Where They Are Looking for You!
Dining out: It all starts with an online search
Nothing happens without a reason. A guiding principle that also applies to Google Search.
When users start a search via the input mask, they are pursuing a specific purpose. Perhaps they are keen to learn more about a non-specialist topic, such as how search engines work or how the shortage of skilled labor in the hospitality industry is developing.
Possibly they would like to buy or book something online: sunglasses for a vacation, the next package tour. If they look back on good experiences with a specific tour operator, they may even enter the operator’s name directly into the search.
And then, in the digital world, there are also searches that bridge to the real, physical world: local search queries.
Doctors, hairdressers, craft businesses, and, you guessed it, naturally also bars, cafés, and restaurants. Although these search queries may take place online, they usually follow the overall purpose of actually visiting the searched location. In the case of a restaurant, the intention can be clearly broken down: the interested party wants to stop by the premises.
Understanding User Intent: The Bridge to a Restaurant Visit
But what does that mean specifically in the context of Google search?
Richer through countless data analyses, Google has become increasingly better at recognizing the underlying user intent behind a search query. In other words, the concrete intention.
- Do they want to inform themselves about a topic? Then Google spits out matching search results for news portals, encyclopedias, and blog posts (like this one!).
- If the user has the intention of buying running shoes, a list of suitable articles and online stores comes closest to the transactional purpose.
- If the user links their search entry to a specific brand or a specific company, Google usually lists the website, any social media accounts, and industry profiles.
- Searching for restaurants? Then the search query is most likely for the purpose of satisfying hunger. This necessarily requires a restaurant visit on-site. Therefore, a listing of restaurants (nearby) with location, contact options, and reservation options is appropriate.
Understanding user intent supports Google in its self-declared mission to present the most appropriate result for each search query. The goal naturally follows a purely entrepreneurial purpose, namely to keep users, entrepreneurs, and advertisers within its own ecosystem.
Restaurant operators must keep one thing in mind:
The assumed user intent makes a significant difference in which search hits are displayed in a fraction of a second and how.
The graphic below illustrates what a search results list for a local search query (Italian restaurants) could basically look like:
It is immediately apparent that Google primarily suggests potentially suitable restaurants nearby.
Noticeable here:
- The three highlighted suggestions (“Local Pack”) are framed in a box with a map section and location markers.
- Only below this do the so-called “organic search hits” follow, which are classic links to websites.
- A search query via the Google Maps map service does not provide organic hits in the classic sense, because here the search intention is expectedly clearly focused on locations.
For restaurateurs, it is worth taking a look at the restaurant results positioned prominently above in the Local Pack. This is because all data, such as restaurant names, location information, and opening hours, are fed from the respective Google Business Profiles.
This allows for a conclusion:
If you want to be found online by guests as a restaurant, you must be positioned as far up as possible in the Local Pack as a search suggestion. A Google Business Profile is a prerequisite for this.
How You Can Influence Your Restaurant’s Online Visibility
You guessed it: the search results are not identical for all users. This is because Google and other search engines take many other factors into account for the search results list in addition to the assumed user intent. Thus, the context and the relevance of a search query are of high importance.
It makes a difference for the output of the search results list whether and where you are currently in Nuremberg and searching for suitable restaurants. Keywords that make statements about a very specific type of restaurant ("Italian", "Pizzeria" etc.) or highlight attributes ("open", "with terrace", "family-friendly" etc.) consequently lead to different search hits.
Does this mean, in turn, that you have no way of being at the forefront of local search results with your restaurant? And without immediately investing in search engine advertising? No, this impression is deceptive.
The examples shown above provide crucial clues that you can proactively influence how your restaurant is positioned online. A key role is played by the Google Business Profile.
A selection:
- The choice of primary restaurant category and secondary categories. Are you a pizzeria with passion rather than a full Italian restaurant? Then place this emphasis on the category selection as well!
- Maintained consistent location information and contact details (restaurant name, address, phone number).
- Up-to-date opening hours, especially on public holidays and special opening times.
- Facilities (e.g., WiFi for students, business people, and tourists), offers (e.g., healthy dishes, vegan options for environmentally conscious guests), and service options (e.g., outdoor seating, pickup option/delivery service).
- Menu, to provide Google with clues when guests search for restaurants with a specific specialty (e.g., Franconian Schäufele).
- The quality and quantity of customer reviews on the Google Business Profile suggest higher relevance. Authentically generated guest reviews can be continuously collected without much effort via automated feedback management.
The first step is, above all, a filled-out Google Business Profile.
This is also proven by an analysis from the search engine giant:
With a complete business profile, users are 70% more likely to visit you. The probability of a purchase increases by 50%.
Source: Google
Now, the numbers are likely to vary greatly depending on the type of business, location, and market environment. But even if so, you still have the opportunity to take the perspective of your guests who are looking for your restaurant on the internet.
Which restaurant would you rather favor: the one with a representative business profile that answers all questions, has appealing photos, combines many reviews, and perhaps even lets me book directly via Google? Or the complete opposite?
Your Ace up Your Sleeve: The Role of Your Restaurant Website
The fact that Google primarily presents business profiles for local search queries makes the restaurant website appear insignificant at first glance. In fact, the number of so-called zero-click searches, which end without visiting a website, tends to increase. The hype around AI is further fueling this trend, as experience shows that sources referenced by language models are often not even clicked on.
Nevertheless, previous development as an argument against a website for restaurants falls short.
There are three reasons for this in particular:
- The website is the hub of all online marketing activities. It belongs entirely to you, meaning you have much more control and more freedom of design here than with the business profile.
- For regular guests who are familiar with your restaurant offer, your website is the central point of contact for staying up to date on current offers and news.
- For potential new guests, the website is a business card that reinforces the impression of the Google Business Profile, perhaps even exceeds it—for example, through a particularly attractive design, interesting anecdotes, and stories about the restaurant.
- A good restaurant website is not just a digital window into your establishment; when guests come to your homepage today, they do so with a higher purchase intent. An online reservation tool is therefore now essential to convert mere visitors into paying guests.
The prerequisite for this is that your website fulfills as many criteria for (local) search engine optimization as possible. A descriptive meta title, HTTPS or SSL encryption, and a mobile-friendly display are among the minimum requirements.
In any case, the location information (restaurant name, address) and your contact data (phone number) should exactly match the details in your Google Business Profile.
This so-called NAP data is used by Google to authenticate your local business. Consistent data stored across all channels serves as cross-references; they help Google understand that it is a real, existing restaurant.
From this, we derive the recommendation to first become aware of the online presences. Where and how can your restaurant be found online? Is the contact and location information provided there correct? Do I have access to the respective profiles, and can I change the information?
Is AI Changing How Guests Search for Restaurants Online?
Since October 2025, Google’s AI mode has also been available in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Google has even been providing AI-supported summaries (AI Overview) for search queries in an informal context since the end of March 2025. Accordingly, whether and, above all, how the search behavior of guests is changing is hotly debated.
The truth is that we can currently only answer this hypothetically at best. This is because the technological development of AI language models (so-called LLMs) is proceeding rapidly.
At present, the hype seems exaggerated: AI will not completely replace search results.
Google earns money through advertising and local entries. In a search with a clear purchase intent (“Italian near me”), Google will consequently continue to prioritize the “Local Pack” (the map with the 3 pins) because it serves the relatively simple search request most effectively.
It is different for more complex search queries (so-called long-tails) such as the question for pizzerias with Neapolitan pizza, a modern ambiance, and additionally a very specific wine and cocktail list: here, the picture can shift in favor of AI applications in the future. Especially since users can always ask follow-up questions.
Our three most important findings so far:
- The decisive driver remains data quality, i.e., how up-to-date, consistent, and complete your restaurant’s online presence is. If relevant information about your catering business is missing or incomplete, language models like Google Gemini cannot reliably answer concrete user questions. The consequence: Your restaurant will be filtered out.
- The online reservation option remains at least as important. Because the AI will assume the implicit intention of wanting to go out to eat in restaurant searches, i.e., to take a concrete action. Restaurants that serve this demand via Reserve with Google will tend to be suggested more often than those that do not.
- Language models like Google’s Gemini are more capable than ever of grasping the context of a query. Often they already do this via guest reviews directly from the Google Business Profile. Restaurant operators should definitely automate the collection of reviews, ideally with the Manager for guest reviews.
We remember: everything is subordinate to a positive user experience at Google. Because satisfied users remain in the ecosystem of the search engine giant. Experience shows that those restaurants increase their online visibility more strongly if they provide Google with the most relevant data about their establishment.
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Conclusion: Meet Your Guests Where They Are Looking for You!
Whether at home in front of a laptop or spontaneously on the go with your own smartphone, guests nowadays naturally search for new restaurants on the internet.
Understanding your guests’ search paths holds significant advantages for restaurant operators. If your restaurant fits the user intention and the respective search query perfectly, the probability increases that Google will suggest your restaurant business to guests as an ideal search hit. With higher brand awareness, your reservations also increase.
A decisive tool in the struggle for higher online visibility is the Google Business Profile. A filled-out restaurant profile is indispensable if you want to stand out from the crowd of competitors on the internet. The right “mindset” plays an important role in this context: only if you give your digital profile similar care and appreciation as your physical location can something sustainable grow from it.
