Consumers Are Converting More Often Through Google

New product features like Google Reservations and Google Food Orders allow customers to make bookings or order food directly from the business's listings –– saving businesses time and money by reducing the need for customer service representatives. If you're a business that relies on customers making reservations or ordering food, then Google Reservations and Google Food Orders are important new features for you to leverage. By updating your Listings to reflect the updates of these new features, you can make it easier for customers to find and book your services. In addition, you can use these features to promote your business to new customers who may not be aware of your company. Google recently started supporting the ability for restaurants to add a first-party link for both Pickup and Delivery via the Google Business Profile API, which means restaurants can manage this aspect of Google Food Orders within Yext. Here are the benefits of doing so:

1. If you previously weren't taking advantage of Google Food Orders, adding a first-party link will result in a new 'Online Order' box that gets featured on your Google Business Profile listing.
2. Providing first-party links for Google Food Orders helps improve your rank in search. The more confident Google is that you support pickup and delivery, the more likely they are to rank your business for those types of searches. After all, think about all the times you've searched on Google for something along the lines of 'Chinese restaurant near me that offers pickup.'
3. Not to mention: adding a first-party link for Google Food Orders also provides more confidence to consumers. When Google isn't certain if you support online food orders, it denotes that right on your listing with text that reads 'may offer delivery' and 'may offer pickup. By providing a URL explicit to delivery and pickup, the 'may offer delivery' and 'may offer pickup' will disappear. Want more insights from the Data & Insights team? Subscribe to the blog and keep an eye out for the remaining blogs in this series. Disclaimer: This analysis was taken from a sample of Yext customers that saw positive values for Google's new 'Reservations' and 'Food Orders' products. The sample skews towards food services and hospitality customers.**