It's half six on a Friday. Someone in Wool has had a long week, can't face cooking, and reaches for their phone. They tap out "chinese takeaway near me" — and in the next ten seconds, Google decides which three places they see first. If you're one of them, you're in with a shout of the order. If you're not, you may as well be shut.
Here's the thing most takeaway owners don't realise: whether you show up in that little map at the top has almost nothing to do with your website. It comes down to something else entirely — and the good news is it's mostly free and within your control.
It starts with your Google Business Profile
That box of local results at the top of the page — the map with a few businesses pinned to it — is called the "map pack," and it's powered by your Google Business Profile: the free listing that shows your name, hours, photos and reviews. Get that right and you're in the running. Ignore it and you're invisible, however smart your website looks.
If you've never claimed yours, that's job one. Search your takeaway's name and look for "Own this business?", or head to google.com/business. Once it's yours:
- Pick the right category — be specific (Takeaway, or Chinese restaurant)
- Fill in everything: address, phone, opening hours, the lot
- Add proper photos — the shopfront, a few dishes, the menu
- Put your menu in, or a link straight to it
Google rewards listings that are complete and looked-after. Half-finished ones get buried.
Reviews are the currency
Ask any takeaway that dominates local search and they'll all have one thing in common: a steady stream of recent reviews. Google treats reviews as a vote of confidence, and the businesses with more of them — fresher, and replied-to — tend to sit higher in the map.
You don't need hundreds. You need a habit:
- Pop a little card in with deliveries: "Enjoyed it? A quick Google review means the world."
- A QR code on the counter that goes straight to your review page works a treat
- Reply to every review — good and bad. A calm reply to a grumpy one says more about you than the complaint ever could
The businesses that win local search aren't the biggest. They're the ones that keep their profile tidy and their reviews fresh.
Get your details the same everywhere
Google likes to be sure you're a real, settled business. One way it checks is by seeing your name, address and phone number written identically wherever you appear — your Profile, your website, Facebook, the delivery apps, the lot.
"High Street" on one and "High St" on another sounds trivial, but that inconsistency makes Google less confident — and less confidence means lower down the list. Pick one format and use it everywhere.
Your website backs it all up
So if the Profile does the heavy lifting, why bother with a website at all? Because once someone's found you, they want to decide — and a quick, tidy site closes the deal:
- The full menu, easy to read on a phone
- Today's opening hours, dead obvious
- A tap-to-call button, so ordering is one thumb away
It doesn't need to be big or clever. A single clean page that loads in a blink will out-perform a slow, fussy one every time — and a fast site quietly helps your ranking, too.
Keep it alive
The last bit is the least glamorous: the takeaways that win keep at it. A photo of this week's special posted to your Profile, the odd update, replies to reviews as they land. Ten minutes here and there tells Google you're open, active and worth showing. Listings that go quiet slowly slide.
The honest summary
None of this is hard. It's just fiddly, and it never quite stops — which is exactly why most takeaways never get round to it, and why the few that do clean up locally.
Rather someone else kept on top of it?
That's the whole idea behind our Local SEO Care — your Google Profile looked after, reviews chased, posts going out, every month. You run the takeaway; we keep you found.