The 90-Day Restaurant Growth Plan

Name, address, phone, hours and website, copied from your Google listing. Every listing below should match these exactly. This is the same list from Task 4 part E; if you have it, reuse it.

biz.yelp.com. Claim your page, verify by phone, then fix hours, categories, photos and the menu link. Reply to reviews here too. Yelp will call you about advertising; you do not need it for this plan.

businessconnect.apple.com. This is what shows in Apple Maps and to anyone who asks Siri where to eat. Claim, verify, add photos and an action link for ordering or booking.

bingplaces.com. It can import your Google listing directly, which takes five minutes. Do that and check the result.

tripadvisor.com/Owners. Claim it if you get any visitor or hotel trade. Hours, photos, reply to reviews.

Even before Task 9 makes it a real channel, the page needs correct address, hours, phone, website and a category. People check it.

Wherever you are listed: name, address and hours should match, and the photos should be yours and current. A wrong closing time on a delivery app produces refunds and one-star reviews.

business.google.com → Home → Get more reviews. Copy the short link. It sends people straight to the "write a review" box.

Best: your POS. Many point-of-sale systems (SkyTab, Toast, Square, Clover and others) can text or email a review request after payment. Look in your POS settings under customer engagement, marketing, or reviews. Turn it on with a 60 to 90 minute delay so it arrives after they have left. Good: a QR code. Put the link as a QR on receipts and a small card at the table. Manual: staff mention it at the table and hand over a card. Manual works for a fortnight and then stops, which is why the automated version wins.

Short, warm, one link. Use the template below or your own words. No incentives: offering anything for a review breaks Google's rules and can get reviews removed.

Every guest, not the ones you think were happy. Filtering the ask to likely-positive guests is called review gating and also breaks Google's rules.

Positive ones get a specific thank-you that mentions something they said. Negative ones get an apology, a short factual response, and an invitation to talk directly. Never argue in public. Templates below.

Reply to every review from the last 90 days that has no response. Do this once, in one sitting.

Count reviews received in the last 30 days and the date of the newest one. Put both on the scorecard.

Menu, directions, call, hours with open-now status, reserve, order. Visible on the first screen of a phone without scrolling. Most site builders let you add a button bar under the header.

Auto-playing video, splash screens, newsletter popups that appear before the page is readable. They cost seconds and they are the first thing a guest sees.

It should be a link, not just text. In most builders, link the number to tel: followed by your number.

A page on your own site with sections, item names, prices and short descriptions as text. Not a PDF, not an image of the menu. This is what lets Google show your dishes in search and what an AI assistant reads when someone asks what you serve.

If you want a printable version, link it from the menu page. The page is primary.

Go to pagespeed.web.dev, enter your homepage, and look at the mobile result. The number you care about is "Largest Contentful Paint". Under 2.5 seconds is the target.

Compress images so each is under 200 KB (free tools: Squoosh or TinyPNG). Remove the hero video. Remove plugins or apps you do not use. Retest.

The title is what shows in the browser tab and in Google's results. Homepage: [Restaurant name] | [Cuisine] in [City]. Menu page: Menu | [Restaurant name]. Your site builder has a field for this under page settings or SEO.

At minimum: home, menu, hours and location, about. If you do catering or private events, each gets its own page. One long homepage is not enough.

As text, not an image. Exactly matching your Google listing.

A short block of code that tells Google "this is a restaurant, here is the menu, here are the hours" in a format it reads directly. Your web developer will know it as Restaurant and Menu schema. If you do not have a developer, note it for the call.

search.google.com/search-console. Add your site and verify it. Once it has data, it shows you which searches bring people to your site and whether all your pages are indexed. Free, and it is Google telling you directly.

Copy them from your Google listing. That is the master version.

Website footer, Yelp, Facebook page, Instagram bio, TripAdvisor, Apple Maps, every delivery app. Suite numbers, "St" vs "Street", old phone numbers. Google trusts a business more when the details agree.

If you do not have your own ordering yet, note it. It is worth a conversation about what a marketplace is costing you.

It should land in an inbox that is checked during service, or better, send a text to whoever is on. Set a standard: reply within an hour during service, same day otherwise.

Once Task 5 is done, look in Google Analytics under Acquisition. Most visits should come from Google search and your Google listing. If most come from social or ads, your search presence is weak.

business.google.com → Performance. Nothing to install. It shows calls, direction requests, website clicks and the searches people used to find you.

Calls, direction requests, website clicks. Write them in the scorecard as your starting point.

Under "Searches breakdown". If nearly all of them are your own name, people are finding you only when they already know you. That is the gap Task 1 and Task 6 are about.

analytics.google.com → Start measuring. Create a property for your restaurant. You will be given a measurement ID that starts with G-.

Squarespace, Wix, Shopify and most builders have a field for it under settings, usually called Analytics or Integrations. Paste the ID. WordPress: a free plugin such as Site Kit does it. Otherwise your developer needs five minutes.

In Analytics, open Reports → Realtime. Visit your own site on your phone. You should see yourself appear within a minute.

Admin → Events. The simplest version: mark a view of the menu page as a key event, and if your booking or ordering ends on a confirmation page, mark that page view too. Click-to-call and directions clicks can be added later or with a developer's help.

So Analytics can tell visitors from your listing apart from everyone else. In your Google Business Profile, edit the website link to add this on the end: ?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=gbp. The site still works exactly the same.

If you did this in Task 4, tick the box. If not: search.google.com/search-console, add your site, follow the verification steps.

A separate phone number on your website that forwards to your real line and counts every call. Useful if calls are a big part of your bookings. Not essential in month one.

Every Monday from now on. Twenty minutes. It is the only meeting this plan requires.

Fill in the log below. Phrase 1 is broad. Phrases 2 to 4 are specific to what you sell. Phrase 5 is an occasion. Keep the same five for all 90 days.

Inside your restaurant, same spot each time. Location on, personal Google account or a private window, not the business account. Note the time of day and keep it consistent.

One at a time. Do not tap your own listing before you have recorded the result; that changes what you see next.

Are you inside the map box at the top (the three businesses with the map)? Yes or no. And what position are you in the full list when you tap "More places"? If you cannot find yourself in the first twenty, write "20+".

Save them in a folder named with the date. Memory is unreliable; screenshots are not.

Results change with where the searcher stands. A second reading from the edge of your trade area tells you how far your visibility reaches.

Which phrases moved up? Those are responding to what you did in Task 1. Which did not? Those need the work in Task 4, or more time.

Look at the trend across all four readings, not any single one. A phrase that went from 20+ to 8 to 4 is working. One that has not moved in 60 days needs a different approach.

If your POS has email and SMS built in, use that; it is already connected to your customers. If not, any established small-business SMS and email tool will do. The things to confirm before you sign up: it stores consent per contact, it handles STOP replies automatically, and it walks you through carrier registration.

US carriers require business texting numbers to be registered (you will see it called 10DLC). Your platform handles the paperwork; you provide business details. It can take several days to approve, so do it first.

POS prompt, website form, table card. Use the template below. Store the exact wording shown and the date and time of consent. That record is what protects you.

A simple form or a small banner on the menu page, with a reason to join: first look at specials, a small welcome offer, the slow-night deal. Not a popup on page load.

"Text JOIN to [number]" or a QR to the form. Small, on every table, with the same consent language.

Sent automatically the moment someone joins. One line of thanks, what they will get, how often, and how to stop.

Join your own list from your phone. Reply STOP. Confirm you are removed and get a confirmation. If that does not work, do not send anything until it does.

It does not have to be a discount. A free appetiser on the next visit, a first look at a new dish, an invitation to a weeknight special. Something small that makes the second decision easy.

Two sentences and the offer. Add a code word or a link so you can count who used it.

Six to ten days after a first visit if your POS can trigger on that. If not, six to ten days after opt-in in your messaging platform.

Staff need to know the offer exists and how to honour it.

Add a line to the scorecard.

A Facebook Page and an Instagram business account. If they exist but nobody has the login, recover access now; it gets harder later. Connect the two in Meta Business Suite at business.facebook.com so you can post to both at once.

Name matching your listing. A bio that says what you serve and where, in one line. Address, hours and phone filled in. The link goes to your menu page or your site, not a marketplace. Turn on the Order or Reserve action button if your platform supports it.

business.google.com → Edit profile → Social profiles. Add Instagram and Facebook. Google shows them on your listing.

One person. Usually whoever is on the floor most and comfortable with a phone. It is a job, not a favour.

Roughly seven posts in ten should be a plate. As it goes out, in good light, phone held level, no filter. Close-ups of the thing you are known for. This is what people came to see and it is what gets shared.

The team, a regular who is happy to be photographed, the dining room during service, a special being made, an event. People, not logos.

Ten to twenty seconds of a dish being plated, a sauce being poured, a cut through something. Vertical, from a phone. Short video reaches more people than a still on both platforms and needs no editing.

You do not need to be a writer. Paste the dish name and two facts about it into ChatGPT, Claude or whichever assistant you use, ask for three short captions, pick one, and trim it. Keep captions plain: what it is, when it is available, how to get it. Template below.

Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday works for most restaurants. One of the three is the video. Stories every day you are open if the person owning it can manage; a story is one photo, no caption needed.

Shoot during the week, then sit down once and schedule the whole week in Meta Business Suite. It posts to Facebook and Instagram at the times you set. Thirty minutes, done.

business.google.com → Photos → Add. Plus one Google Post a week under Promotions: the special, an event, a new item. Two sentences and a button.

Three to five local ones: your city, your neighbourhood, your cuisine plus city. Skip the generic food hashtags; they reach nobody near you.

A DM asking about a table for eight is a booking. Treat messages like the phone.

Ask first if it is a face. Guest photos are free content and social proof at the same time.

Followers is not one of them. In Business Suite insights, watch profile visits, website taps and messages. Add website taps to the scorecard.

Check the integrations or app marketplace in your POS for your email and SMS platform. When it is connected, every new guest with consent flows in on their own and last-visit dates stay current. This is the version you want.

Run the customer export from Task 7. In your messaging platform, find Import contacts, upload the file, and match the columns: phone, email, first name, last visit date, and the consent field. Only import contacts who opted in. Set a reminder to repeat the import on the first of every month.

Recent (last 30 days), Lapsed (60 to 90 days), Regulars (three or more visits), Big spenders (top 20 percent). Most platforms let you save these as lists that update themselves.

POS sales by day of week for the last eight weeks. Most restaurants have two or three. Those are the nights that get a promotion. Do not promote nights you are already full.

A reason is stronger than a discount and costs less. Fill in the grid below. Examples are there to spark ideas, not to copy.

No one person should get more than one or two texts a week. If you promote three nights, rotate who gets which, or send each promo only to the segment most likely to want it.

Under 160 characters. The night, the reason, the code word, and how to stop. Write them all in one sitting. Use the template and an AI assistant if writing is not your thing.

Longer and calmer: what is new on the menu, next month's specials in one list, any event, one photo. Sent on the first. Most platforms have a simple template; use it as is.

In your platform: the day before the promotion, late afternoon, to the right segment. Set it to repeat weekly. You should not have to touch it again.

First of the month, mid-morning, to everyone with an email. Update the content on the last day of each month; it takes twenty minutes.

Staff need to know each night's offer and its code word so they can honour it without asking.

Redemptions per promotion per week. Your POS can track a discount or a modifier per code word; if not, a tally sheet by the till.

Against the four-week average before you started. That is the test of whether the reason was good enough.

If more than two in a hundred people unsubscribe after a send, the message or the frequency is wrong. Change one thing and send again.

A local ad to people near you on Meta or Google. A printed mailer to homes within two miles. A partnership with a nearby business, gym or office. Local event sponsorship. One only.

If you cannot track it, you will never know whether it worked, and you will end up keeping it out of habit. Print campaigns need a code on the card. Digital ones need a tracked link.

Decide now what "worked" means: redemptions, bookings, or covers. Decide what you will spend. Do not extend it because it "feels like it's working".

At the end of the month: cost divided by tracked results. Compare to the second-visit and slow-day numbers. Keep it only if it beats them.

Task 6, same five phrases, same spot. Fill in the last column.

Category, photos, reviews, rating, newest review date.

Month one versus month three, for each of the seven numbers. Which moved the most?

Second-visit redemptions, slow-night covers, win-back redemptions, the retargeting result, the local test. Which cost least per visit?

Whichever moved the numbers most gets more attention. Everything else gets maintained on the weekly rhythm, not expanded. One thing.