BREAKING: Google adds “Popular Dishes” feature to Maps listings
Most of us have been using Google Maps to help locate restaurants for years. This exceptionally priceless app has also been great for checking out restaurant reviews and ratings, and browsing galleries, all of which can help consumers decide which restaurant to choose.
Now, in mid-2019, Google Maps has made it even easier to pick your flavor by releasing a ‘popular dishes’ feature (currently only functional on Android devices but rolling out to iOS devices over the coming months), which is tipped to be a game changer if you’re the kind of visual person who scans menus online before visiting in person.
Powered by a machine-learning algorithm, the ‘popular dishes’ feature matches dish names (provided by Google Map users) with relevant photos and reviews.
To see an example pull up a restaurant listing on Google Maps and check out the most popular dishes in the overview tab. As an added useful bonus it will even attempt to translate reviews for if you are travelling in a country where you don’t speak the local language.
But as a local food and beverage business, why should this matter?
This matters to those in the Hospitality Industry because reviews & recommendations should be at the top of your list when it comes to your online marketing strategy, however, you now have another way to optimize your Google Maps listings.
We recommend encouraging your customers to post photos of their meals and/or drinks every time they visit, and to leave reviews if they’re comfortable doing so. This is ultimately the best way to build up a listing’s ‘popular dishes’ section.
Being aware of this new feature and implementing it into your marketing strategy could put you that step ahead of your competitors, by helping your customers choose you over another establishment.
