When someone in Delhi decides they want dinner, they often start the same way: they type the name of a place, or a dish plus a neighbourhood, into Google. Zomato is widely used, and many people will open it next. But the first screen they see is frequently Google itself: a map, a few restaurants, opening hours, photos and a phone number.
If those details are wrong, the rest of your marketing has a leak in it. A full page on Facebook and a well-kept Zomato profile will not help the person who searched on Google, saw yesterday’s hours, and went somewhere else.
Your restaurant Google listing sits in Google My Business, which is the dashboard Google gives local businesses for their presence on Search and Maps. Getting the menu details, the hours and the photographs right there is some of the most useful work you can do this month, and it does not require a redesign of your website.
People search Google even when they also use Zomato
Zomato is where many diners read reviews, browse menus and sometimes order. We are not suggesting you ignore it. We are saying it is not the only front door.
Someone looking for “family restaurant in Rajouri Garden” or “open now near Nehru Place” will often see a small set of businesses on the Google results page, usually on a map, before they open any other app. If your hours say you are closed when you are not, or if the photos show a dining room you renovated two years ago, you lose that person before they ever compare you on Zomato.
Search on your own restaurant’s name on a phone and look at what Google shows. That box, with the map, the hours, the photos and the call button, is what most hungry people see first.
Hours: the detail that causes the most wasted journeys
Wrong hours are the complaint we hear most often from customers, and the mistake we see most often on listings. A kitchen that now closes on Tuesday is still marked open. A place that starts dinner at 7.30pm still shows 6pm. A restaurant that shut early for a private booking never updated the listing, so a family arrived to a locked door.
Open Google My Business, go through each day of the week, and set the actual opening and closing times, including the afternoon break if you have one. If you close on a weekday, mark that day as closed rather than leaving an old time sitting there.
Then make a habit of changing the hours before something unusual happens: Holi, Diwali, a neighbourhood strike, a planned renovation, or a private party that takes over the floor. Update them again when you return to normal. The “open now” label on Google is only as honest as the times you typed in.
Also check that the phone number in the listing is the one someone should call for a table, not an old personal mobile that a former manager left behind.
Menu: help people see what you actually serve
Google often shows information about what a restaurant serves, and diners use it to decide whether the place is right for them. You may not control every scrap of menu information that appears from other sites, but you can make the truth easy to find.
Keep a clear menu page on your own website and make sure the website link in Google My Business points to the right site, not to a Facebook page or an old domain. If prices or dishes have changed, update that page first. Photograph your current physical menu, page by page, in good light, and upload those photos to the listing. A readable photo of today’s menu answers more questions than a stylish picture of one dessert.
Upload photographs of the dishes you actually serve, with the names people use when they order. If the dal makhani is a house favourite, show that, not only the plated starters you made for a photoshoot last year. Take the pictures in your own dining room so the plates, the light and the tables match what a guest will see.
When you change the menu for summer, for a festival, or because an item has run out for the season, add new photos and take down the ones that no longer apply. An old menu photo that lists a dish you removed three months ago creates the same kind of disappointment as wrong hours.
Photos: show the room people will walk into
Food photos matter, but so do pictures of the entrance, the dining room and the street outside. A guest trying to find you at night should be able to recognise the facade from the listing. If you have parking, a first-floor dining room, or a separate family section, a photograph is more useful than a line of text buried on your website.
A few practical rules:
- Use recent photos. If the interiors have changed, replace the old ones.
- Avoid heavy filters that turn the room a different colour from real life.
- Include at least one wide shot of the dining room and one of the exterior.
- Do not upload pictures of another restaurant, a stock dining room, or a dish you do not serve.
- Look at the photos Google has already gathered from customers and from the web. If an old, poor picture is sitting at the front, add better ones so the listing has something stronger to show.
Name, address and category
Write the restaurant’s name the way people search for it, without stuffing extra words like “best butter chicken in West Delhi” into the title. Extra keywords in the name look spammy and can get the listing filtered or ignored.
The address should match the board outside, including the floor if you are not on the ground level. Pick the category that describes you most accurately, such as North Indian restaurant, cafe or bakery, and add a second category only if it is genuinely true.
If you have moved, update the pin on the map as well as the written address. We have seen listings that still drop a pin two streets away, which is enough to send a driver to the wrong gate.
Keep it accurate when something changes
Google My Business is not a brochure you set up once. It is closer to a noticeboard. When the menu changes, when the Sunday hours change, when you repaint the front, someone on the team should update the listing the same week.
Give that job to a specific person, the way you would give someone the keys or the reserve diary. A listing that three people “keep an eye on” is usually a listing that nobody updates.
Once a month, search for your restaurant on a phone and read the listing as if you have never been there. Check the hours, open the photos, and see whether a stranger would know how to find you, when to arrive, and what they might eat. If anything on that screen would surprise a guest at the door, fix it before the next service.
