Your Google profile: hours, photos, and ratings are one job

An extra star will not help if the profile says you are closed. The map lies before the food can speak.

People decide to come in from the map before they reach the door. Wrong hours, two-year-old photos, or a sleeping ratings tab, and the code on the table never meets that guest.

Ratings are one part. The whole profile is a channel. Fix these three before you ask for more stars.

1. The hours you actually work

“Open” on Google while you closed early in Ramadan, or Friday starts later — they arrive at a locked door and write from there.

Better: review hours every season. If you close a day, mark it on the profile the same day. Do not leave last year’s timetable.

2. Photos of the place and food now

The facade was painted; the photo is still the old wall. Or a dish left the menu and still leads the gallery.

Better: new photos of the front, the inside, and three dishes that sell. Delete what lied. The map is not an archive.

3. A phone number that answers

An old number on the profile sends people to another shop or a dead line. Then a rating: “nobody picks up.”

Better: the WhatsApp number is the Google number. Test it from another phone every month.

4. Ask for ratings after the house is in order

Asking for stars while hours are wrong brings people in to get upset early. Tidy the profile, then ask.

Better: once hours and photos are right, put the rating button on the menu. Four and five stars can reach Google.

5. A reply on the map is service work

A red review with no reply reads as if the shop does not exist. A short, calm reply is quieter than silence.

Better: reply within the week. Inside the dashboard, fix the cause. Outside, one sentence without heat.

A search test

Search your name on a phone that is not logged into the account. Are the hours right? Do the first photos look like today? If not — fix that before an ads campaign.

menutables collects ratings from the menu and opens a Google door for four and five stars. Start free and let the page and the map tell the same truth.