When someone searches your restaurant name in Google, the panel that appears on the right side of the results is your Google Business Profile. It shows your hours, your phone, your photos, your reviews. For most diners, this is the only page they read.
What you'll be able to do by the end
- Claim a new Google Business Profile (or verify via video or postcard).
- Pick exactly one primary category from 27 restaurant taxonomy options.
- Write a 750-character description following the what-where + signature + practical structure.
Plain language version — the fast read
Claim your Google Business Profile. Google may send a postcard or use video to check you're real. Pick one main category from a list. Write a description: what you cook, your signature dish, when you're open. About 750 characters.
Why the GBP matters more than the website on launch day
Your website is downstream of your GBP. Diners search you by name and land on the GBP first. They tap "Website" only if they need something the GBP doesn't show — usually the full menu or a reservation link. The GBP gets ~10× the impressions of the site itself, and ~3× the conversion to walk-in. The GBP is not a marketing channel; it's the visible part of you to the search world.
Operators who skip this lesson and ship the website alone discover this the hard way: launch traffic underwhelms, Google ranks them below better-claimed competitors who opened a year before, and they spend the next quarter chasing review velocity instead of getting walk-ins.
Claim it, before you do anything else
The GBP exists whether you claim it or not. Google auto-creates listings from any data it finds — a building permit, a Yelp page, an Instagram bio. The first job is to claim ownership so you control the listing.
- Claim a GBPFree. Verification is by video call (often same-day), phone, or postcard (5-14 days, fallback if video isn't offered for your category). Restaurants in major US cities are usually offered video first in 2026.business.google.com →
If a listing already exists for your address, you'll be asked to claim it; if not, you'll create one. Either path, the verification process is the same — Google needs to confirm you're actually at the address.
The twelve fields Google asks for — eleven copy-paste, one to write
Once you're in, Google walks you through twelve fields. Eleven of them you've already drafted in earlier lessons of the bootcamp — name, address, phone, hours, photos, and the rest. Copy each value across into Google's UI; consistency with what's on your website is what matters most.
One field — the description — you'll write here, because it's the one most operators get wrong, and getting it right pays for itself in walk-ins.
- Business nameFrom Lesson 1 — what's on your sign. Avoid keyword stuffing ("Joe's Pizza · Best Pizza Bethesda" violates Google's guidelines and risks suspension).
- CategoryPick one primary (e.g., "Mexican restaurant") + 2-4 secondaries (e.g., "Taqueria," "Catering"). The primary affects search ranking heavily.
- AddressFrom Lesson 1. Must exactly match the website footer + any directory listings. NAP consistency is one of the top local-SEO signals.
- PhoneFrom Lesson 10. The one that gets answered. Format doesn't matter; consistency across listings does.
- HoursFrom Lesson 10. Must match the website. Set holiday hours from inside the GBP — Google's holiday display is more reliable than yours.
- Website URLUse the L14 generator's deployed URL when ready. Until then, leave blank rather than pointing to a placeholder.
- Description750 characters. Most operators get this wrong. Write below.
- PhotosFrom your Lesson 9a brief. Upload the home-page top-three first; add deeper ones over the first month.
- Service optionsDine-in / takeout / delivery / outdoor seating / reservations. Tick what's true; don't aspirational-tick.
- AccessibilityWheelchair-accessible entrance, wheelchair-accessible restroom, wheelchair-accessible parking. These matter to a real percentage of diners.
- From the businessQuick attributes: gender-neutral restrooms, family-friendly, LGBTQ+ friendly. Skip the ones that don't apply.
- PostsRecurring updates. Lesson 16 (30-day rhythm) folds GBP posts into a calendar.
Most of the work is one-time. The two that compound and matter most week-to-week are description and posts. Skip everything else for thirty minutes and write the description well.
Preview your card + pick your category
The card below is what your Google Business Profile will look like in search results — built from everything you've put into the bootcamp so far. The readiness checklist underneath flags what's still missing. Pick your primary category first; it's the single biggest factor in local-search ranking and you can only have one.
Write your GBP description
Google's description field is 750 characters. Most operators waste it on marketing fluff ("a passion for hospitality and a commitment to fresh ingredients"). The diners reading this field are deciding between you and the place next door — give them something concrete to choose with.
Three components to include, in this order:
- What you cook, where. Same opener as your one-sentence promise (Lesson 3), expanded to two sentences.
- The signature thing. One dish, one technique, or one ingredient that defines you. The same one you wrote about in your one-promise (Lesson 3).
- The practical detail. Hours, neighborhood, parking situation, or "best to call ahead on Fridays." Concrete and useful.
Read it back. Does it tell a diner deciding between three restaurants why you? If yes, ship it. If it could describe four other restaurants in your city, rewrite the signature sentence until only your restaurant fits.
One free tool to grade your draft
- Muntin GBP GraderFree, no signup. Scores your GBP on completeness, NAP consistency with the website, photo coverage, and description quality.Open the grader →
Verification timing. Video verification often clears the same day; postcard fallback runs 5-14 days. If you're opening soon, start the claim today even if the description isn't finalized — you can edit fields any time after the listing is verified.
Process — keep it alive after launch
A claimed GBP that nobody updates drifts back to a stale GBP in six months. Two cadences keep it alive: a quick check every two weeks (5 min — open the GBP, scan for new reviews, post one update) and a full review every quarter (30 min — verify hours match website, refresh photos, audit categories).
Lesson 16 (30-day rhythm) folds both cadences into a recurring calendar you can export. Pick the person who owns it today — the GBP needs a real human on a real cadence, not a "we'll get to it." Add them as a manager in GBP settings before you close this tab.
What this changes downstream
Lesson 12 (local SEO) reads your GBP description as the source for keyword suggestions — same words your customers search will appear in your description. Lesson 13 (reviews) walks through asking for and responding to GBP reviews. Lesson 16 (rhythm) builds the cadence for posting on the GBP every couple of weeks so the listing stays alive.
The bootcamp's L14 generator also auto-fills the schema.org markup on your website's home page to match your GBP — improving how Google links the two. Both sides of the diner's first impression should tell the same story.
Your listing is yours, and it sounds like you.
A claimed GBP with the twelve fields filled, a 750-character description in your voice, and the connection to your website's schema set up — saved in your browser as the description, and live on Google after verification.
The GBP is what most diners read about you on a Tuesday at 7pm. Writing it well is one of the highest-leverage hours you'll spend on Google itself.
Module 3 ends here regardless of track. Next is Module 4 — local SEO, reviews, the L14 generator, deploy, the 30-day rhythm. The heavy curriculum work is behind you; M4 is mostly mechanics and the final ZIP download.