When consumers are hungry, 62% use Google to search for a restaurant.
One of the best ways to increase brand awareness, online orders, and revenue is by optimizing your restaurant’s Google Business listing, which is connected to your Google Maps listing. Simply put, by ensuring your restaurant shows up where guests are looking.
While there are several ways to optimize your restaurant's Google listings, your top priority should be driving current and prospective guests to your website to order.
Why? In a nutshell, more direct orders mean more actionable guest data and more revenue. But more on that in a bit.
Olo’s Order with Google Enhanced Redirect makes it easy to grow direct orders by ensuring your restaurant’s website appears alongside search results—complete with the richest and most accurate data available.
Before we get into what makes Olo’s Google integration unique, here’s how Order with Google works.
What is Order with Google?
Google launched Order with Google in 2018. It allows guests to easily find and order food directly from restaurants using Google Search and Maps.
When guests click the “Order” button in a restaurant’s Google listing, they see a list of websites they can order from, including the brand’s website—the preferred ordering method of 40% of consumers in 2023—and any third-party site where the restaurant is listed. See the example below.
Olo’s Order with Google Enhanced Redirect prioritizes direct orders placed on the restaurant’s website
5 ways Olo’s Google integration helps restaurants boost revenue
Here’s how Olo’s Order with Google Enhanced Redirect sets restaurants up for success.
1. Direct orders
On Google, guests are presented with a variety of ordering options, including your restaurant's website and third-party marketplaces. Olo’s Order with Google Enhanced Redirect ensures brands are best positioned to receive direct orders, minimizing dependence on third-party services that charge commission fees.
2. Guest acquisition
Olo's Google integration makes it easier to find and attract new guests. It ensures people using Google Search or Maps to locate similar restaurants or menus in their area can easily order directly from your brand’s website.
3. Streamlined setup
Olo offloads the administrative burden of establishing and maintaining a Google integration from your IT team—including conversion-tracking back to Google to ensure your website maintains priority.
4. Brand visibility
By automatically sending Google the richest menu data, accurate quote times, estimated fees, and other guest-centric information, Olo’s integration boosts your brand’s visibility and guest experience. If Google isn't receiving this dynamic data, it can impact your restaurant’s SEO. For example, if someone searches for “dumplings near me” and Google isn't getting updated menu data, this could impact where your brand appears in search results.
5. Guest data access
You maintain ownership of your guest data and control their experience when guests order directly through your Google listing. Alternatively, when guests order through third-party apps, the platform owns that data, making it difficult for your restaurant to build a relationship with the guest—and preventing you from leveraging those insights to drive retention and inform business decisions.
Why direct orders are mission-critical for restaurants
Orders placed directly on your restaurant’s website or app provide you with essential first-party data—or information your brand collects from guests and owns. This data is essential for identifying guests, understanding their purchase behavior, personalizing communications, driving repeat orders, and recovering churn risks.
Olo’s Order with Google Enhanced Redirect helps ensure current and prospective guests using Google Search or Maps can easily find your brand’s website and order directly from you.
See why leading brands prioritize their direct ordering channels in our comprehensive ebook: Everything You Need to Know About Direct Ordering.
Learn all about Olo’s Order with Google Enhanced Redirect and contact our team of restaurant experts to see how your brand can drive more direct orders and revenue from our integration.
