Local SEO for Restaurants With More Than One Location

The first venue usually finds its feet on Google over a few years. Reviews pile up, the listing gets photos, regulars search for it by name. Then the second venue opens and owners expect it to inherit all of that. It doesn't. On Google Maps, each location is judged on its own: its own address, its own reviews, its own distance from the person searching.

That is good news once you accept it. A group of restaurants can show up in several suburbs at once, as long as each venue is set up as a separate place with its own signals. Here is how we set that up, and the mistakes we see most often when a group grows.

One venue, one Google Business Profile

Every location that serves customers at its own address needs its own Google Business Profile. Not a shared one with "two locations" in the description, and not one profile for the brand with the other venues mentioned in posts. Google ranks places, so each place needs a listing.

Each profile should have:

• The address of that venue, with the pin dropped on the actual entrance.
• A local phone number that rings at that venue. A single head office number shared by every profile makes the listings look like one business and annoys customers who want to ask about a table.
• That venue's hours, including public holidays. Venues in different states will have different public holidays.
• Its own photos: the room, the front of the shop from the street, dishes from that kitchen.

If you run ten or more locations of the same business, Google offers bulk verification through a location group, which saves verifying each one by postcard or video. Below ten, verify them one at a time. Put them all in the same location group either way, so more than one person can manage them and nobody loses access when a manager leaves.

Keep the name the same, and honest

Google's guidelines ask that the profile name matches what customers see on the sign, the menus and the receipts. For a group, that means the same brand name on every listing. Adding the suburb ("Bistro Name Richmond") is only fine if that is how the venue is actually branded. Adding keywords like "best pizza" is against the rules and a common reason restaurant listings get suspended.

The suburb belongs in places where it is allowed and useful: the location page title on your website, the profile description and your Google posts.

Pick categories for each venue, not for the brand

Two venues from the same group often do different jobs. One is a breakfast and coffee spot near the station, the other a dinner restaurant with a bar. Their primary categories should reflect that. If both are "Restaurant" and nothing else, Google has little reason to show either one for the specific searches that fill tables. Our guide to Google Business Profile categories for restaurants explains how to choose the primary category and the extras.

Different categories also help when two venues are close together. Google is less likely to show your two places against each other for the same search if each one is clearly better matched to different searches.

Give each venue its own page on your website

This is the piece most groups skip. The website has one contact page listing every address, and every Google profile links to the homepage. Google then has nothing on your site that is specifically about the Richmond venue.

Build one page per location, at an address like /locations/richmond, and put on it:

• A page title with the venue and the suburb, for example "[Brand] Richmond | Breakfast and Coffee on Swan Street".
• The address, phone number and hours, matching that venue's Google profile exactly.
• An embedded map and directions from the nearest station or car park.
• The menu for that venue as text on the page, especially if menus differ between sites. A PDF link is not enough (we explain why in is a PDF menu bad for your restaurant).
• Something only true of that venue: the private dining room, the courtyard, the head chef, the parking.
• Booking and ordering links that go to that venue, not a generic page where the customer has to pick a location again.

Then set each Google profile's website link to its own location page. This connects the listing to a page that confirms what the listing says, which helps relevance. It also lands customers on the page that answers their question in one tap.

Avoid copying one location page and swapping the suburb name. Pages that are near identical give Google little reason to rank either, and customers notice too.

Reviews stay with their venue

Reviews are tied to the profile they are left on. A review of your city venue left on your suburban one does nothing for the city venue, and it confuses customers reading about a meal they can't get there.

• Make a separate review link and QR card for each venue. Label the cards so staff who work across sites don't mix them up.
• Track review counts per venue every month. New venues start from zero and usually need a steady push for the first year. Our post on how many Google reviews a restaurant needs shows how to set a target from the places around you.
• Reply from each profile, and mention something specific to that venue. Copying the same reply across every listing reads badly.

Keep details consistent everywhere

Each venue's name, address and phone number should match across Google, your website, Facebook, Instagram, TripAdvisor, Apple Maps and the delivery apps. Groups run into trouble when the head office number ends up on a delivery app listing, or when an old venue that has closed still has a live profile. Mark closed venues as permanently closed rather than deleting them, and make sure no other venue's details are sitting on them.

Watch for duplicates as well. Delivery platforms and customers sometimes create extra listings for a venue. Two listings for one address split the reviews and the clicks. Claim the duplicate and ask Google to merge or remove it.

Report on each venue separately

Group totals hide problems. If three venues are growing and one is falling, the total can look flat and the falling one goes unnoticed for months. Pull each profile's performance numbers (searches, views, calls, direction requests, website clicks) monthly and look at them side by side. Check each venue's position for the five or six searches that matter in its suburb as well. Ranking changes street by street, which we explain in how near me searches work.

What one well-run listing can do

The work on each venue is the same work that makes a single restaurant rank. For Desi Adda in Surfers Paradise, profile and review work took Google profile views up 99% year on year three months after we started, with direction requests up 63% and calls up 36%. The venue now sits in Google's top three for "indian restaurant surfers paradise". We wrote up how that happened step by step. A group gets that result one venue at a time, by treating each listing as its own small business.

FAQs

Does each restaurant location need its own Google Business Profile?

Yes. Every venue that serves customers at its own address should have its own profile, with its own address, phone number, hours, photos and reviews. One profile for the whole group cannot rank in more than one suburb.

Can I add the suburb to my restaurant name on Google?

Only if the suburb is part of the name on your signage and menus. Google's guidelines say the profile name should match the real-world name, and adding a suburb or keyword that isn't part of it can get the listing suspended. Put the suburb in the location page title and the profile description instead.

Should each location have its own page on our website?

Yes. Give each venue a page with its address, phone, hours, menu, photos and something specific to that venue, then link each Google profile's website button to its own location page rather than the homepage.

Will two of our locations compete with each other on Google Maps?

Only if they are close enough to show for the same searches and their profiles look alike. Different categories that are true for each venue, a distinct location page and separate reviews help Google show the right one for each searcher.

How do we manage reviews across several restaurants?

Each location collects and answers its own reviews. Give each venue its own review link and QR card, and make sure staff hand out the right one. A review left on the wrong location helps neither.