How to get your new restaurant on Google, Yelp, Apple Maps, Uber and Lyft

Opening day goes better when guests can find you on every map and in every ride app. Google and Yelp take an afternoon. Apple Maps, done properly, takes patience and a bit of planning. Uber and Lyft do not let owners list themselves at all, which is why so many new restaurants stay invisible in the ride apps for months.

This is the order we do it in for our own clients' openings, and where each one gets stuck.

Before you start: have your facts straight

Most listing problems come from small mismatches, so settle these details once and use them everywhere, exactly the same way.

• RequiredYour name, exactly as it appears on your sign. Don't add a city or words like "best tacos." Google can suspend listings for that.
• RequiredYour address, in one format. If you have a suite or unit number, write it the same way every time.
• RequiredA local phone number someone answers. Google and Yelp verify you with a call or text, so have the phone handy, or someone on site who can pick up and pass the code back to you.
• RequiredA page on your website with your name, address, phone and hours.
• Nice to haveYour front door on a map. Drop a pin on your customer entrance and save it. Ride apps often drop guests on the wrong side of the building.
• Nice to haveA folder of proof. Your lease or a utility bill, your business license, and photos of your sign with the street number visible.
• Not critical, but importantYour category, as specific as possible. "Thai restaurant," not just "Restaurant."

Google

Start with Google. It's free, it's where most guests search, and other apps copy its data.

1. Search Google Maps for your restaurant first. Sometimes a listing already exists before you open. If it does, claim it instead of making a new one.
2. Go to business.google.com and create or claim your Business Profile.
3. Not open yet? Add your opening date so guests see that you're opening soon.
4. Verify. Google usually asks for a short video: your sign and street number outside, your kitchen or register inside, and something that shows you run the place, like unlocking the door. Getting all of that into a 30 to 60 second clip is fiddly, and the upload fails more often than it should. Shoot it in one take, in daylight, and keep the original on your phone.
5. Once verified, add your hours, menu, photos, and links to order or reserve.

Common snag: if your sign, your lease and your listing don't match, verification can fail or the listing can get suspended.

Yelp

Yelp matters even if your guests don't use it: Yelp reviews appear on your Apple Maps listing, and Apple Maps is the default map on every iPhone.

1. Search Yelp for your restaurant. Customers can create pages, so you may already have one, possibly with mistakes or no real information on it.
2. Claim or add your business at biz.yelp.com. It's free and quick, and Yelp verifies you with a call or text to your business phone. (5for5 is a Yelp Agency Partner, which means we can claim and manage a client's existing listing directly without the owner having to add us. It saves a round of phone tag on every opening.)
3. Add your categories, hours, menu, photos and reservation link.
4. Don't ask guests for Yelp reviews. It's against Yelp's rules, and Yelp can put a warning on your page if it sees a review push.
5. Expect calls from Yelp's ad sales team. You don't need ads to be listed, and advertising doesn't change your rating in any way. Ask to be put on the do-not-call list if you want.

Take the ads part from someone who made those calls. I was a Yelp account executive from 2015 to 2017, before Google. Advertising never moved a rating.

Ken Waks

Apple Maps

Apple Maps is where new restaurants most often get stuck. Apple verifies your business before it verifies your location, and the clock starts the moment you sign up.

1. Go to business.apple.com. This is Apple Business, Apple's current name for what used to be Apple Business Connect.
2. Create your organization and start verification right away. Apple needs two verification methods, which can take up to five business days. If you don't finish within 60 days of signing up, Apple deletes the account and you start over (Apple Support).
3. Add your location. Search for your restaurant, then claim it or add it as new.
4. Place the pin on your front door, then add hours, photos, and order or reservation buttons.
5. Working with an agency? They can't add your location for you. You create and verify your organization, then invite them using their partner ID (Apple Support).

Why it's worth it: your Apple listing also powers Siri and iPhone search, so iPhone users find you by asking, not just by opening Maps.

Uber

Uber has no sign-up for restaurants that want riders to find them. Uber Eats is a different system, so being on Uber Eats doesn't mean riders can search your name.

1. Wait until at least your Google listing is live. Uber builds its map from outside sources, and Google is one of them, even if it isn't the main one.
2. Open the Uber app and search your restaurant's name. If it doesn't come up, keep going.
3. Report it as a missing place using Uber's "Fix a business or landmark issue on Uber Maps" page. Drop the pin, confirm the location, and include your full name and address (Uber Help).
4. If drivers keep going to the wrong side of the building, report that as a separate issue.
5. Check again every couple of weeks and re-report if needed. On your own this can take weeks. For our clients it is usually days, not weeks, because we go to the sources Uber actually reads rather than the public form.

Lyft

Lyft is the hardest of the five. There's no owner sign-up, no public form for reporting a missing restaurant, and no published explanation of where Lyft gets its map data.

1. Get Google, Yelp and Apple right first. Accurate data everywhere else gives Lyft the best chance of picking you up on its own.
2. Search for your restaurant in the Lyft app after opening, and every couple of weeks after that. Lyft publishes no schedule for how often its map updates.
3. In the meantime, tell guests to type your street address instead of your name.

If you wait it out, Lyft might add you in days, or it might take months. There is a faster route, and it is the one we use for our clients' openings.

Your countdown to opening day

Start about a month out. Apple's verification and the ride apps are the slow parts.

• 4 weeks outLock your name, address, phone, front-door pin and website page.
• 3 weeks outSet up Google with your opening date. Claim Yelp. Sign up for Apple Business and start verification the same day.
• 1 week outSign is up. Record Google's verification video. Add your Apple location.
• Opening dayConfirm Google, Yelp and Apple show the right information.
• 3 days afterSearch for yourself in Uber and Lyft. Report to Uber if you're missing.
• 2 weeks afterCheck Uber and Lyft again.
• 1 month afterCheck again. Anything still missing is worth getting help with.

Or let us handle it

You're opening a business. Map listings shouldn't be what you're chasing the week you open.

5for5 Consulting handles this for restaurants and bars from first listing to opening day, including the Apple, Uber and Lyft steps where most openings stall. For Uber and Lyft we know the data sources they actually pull from and how to get a new business into them, so instead of weeks you're looking at days.

We've done it for 15 to 20 new businesses, 11 of them for Forward Hospitality Group in the last two years: new openings, seasonal pop-ups and one relocation that needed a fresh listing. We have it down to a routine.