The compliance and policy guidelines for Google Business Profiles (GBP) in the restaurant industry focus on accurate representation, verification, and maintaining up-to-date, truthful information to avoid suspensions and improve customer trust.
Key guidelines include:
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Accurate Business Information: Use the exact restaurant name as officially registered, avoid marketing taglines or special characters in the business name, and ensure the address matches physical signage and online listings. Provide direct local phone numbers and location-specific website URLs. Operating hours must reflect actual staff availability.
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Location and Service Areas: For restaurants with physical locations, provide a precise, verifiable address visible on Google Maps, with staff available during listed hours. For service-area businesses (e.g., delivery-only), hide residential addresses and define service areas properly.
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Verification: Google requires verification via postcard, phone, or email to confirm ownership and prevent fraudulent listings. This step is mandatory before optimization and management of the profile.
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Business Links and Landing Pages: As of September 2025, Google enforces stricter policies requiring dedicated landing pages linked from the profile that comply with crawlability and HTTP status code standards to ensure accurate, functional business information and prevent fraud.
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Content Policies: All profile content (reviews, photos, videos) must comply with Google’s prohibited and restricted content policies. Violations can lead to content removal or profile suspension.
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Prohibited Practices: Avoid using virtual offices without staff, online-only businesses without physical presence, or misleading information. Business names should not include hours, contact details, URLs, or location details.
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Optimization for Restaurants: After compliance and verification, optimize the profile by adding high-quality images, linking menus and ordering platforms, responding to reviews, and keeping hours and contact info current to attract customers effectively.
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Account Standing: Maintain a Google Account in good standing; repeated policy violations or account restrictions can lead to suspension of the Business Profile and loss of access.
These guidelines ensure that restaurant Google Business Profiles are trustworthy, visible, and compliant, enhancing customer experience and local search performance.
If you need detailed steps or examples for specific compliance areas, I can provide those as well.
