TLDR
- Local SEO for restaurants and bars rests on three factors Google names: relevance, distance and prominence. Google also says there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking.
- Google's category help says to pick a specific category from its list, and that the categories you select affect your local ranking.
- Of 1,728 UK independent restaurants and bars whose profiles we read, 33% list only "Restaurant" or "Bar" as the primary category. That is 20% of the restaurants and 57% of the bars.
- Google gives no weights and we measured no ranking effect. For a bar, "Bar" can be the right label.
Google's own help pages on local ranking are short. They name three factors, say position can't be bought, and ask each business to pick a primary category from a list.
This post sets those pages beside what we found when we read the primary category on UK profiles. It ends with a question about your own.
How many UK restaurants and bars list only "Restaurant" or "Bar" as their Google category?
33% of the 2k we read. Google shows each business one primary category, and we read that label from the latest capture of each profile. The sample is independent restaurants and bars in eight UK cities: Manchester, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Birmingham, Liverpool, Leeds, Bath and Belfast. London isn't in it.
Generic here means the primary category is exactly "Restaurant" or "Bar". Anything else, such as "Italian restaurant", "Cocktail bar" or "Modern European restaurant", counts as specific.
| Venues | Number | List only "Restaurant" or "Bar" |
|---|---|---|
| All in the sample | 2k | 33% |
| Restaurants | 1,119 | 20% |
| Bars | 609 | 57% |
Another 16% list a generic primary category and no other category at all. The labels that came up most were "Bar", "Restaurant", "Cocktail bar", "Italian restaurant", "Indian restaurant" and "Wine bar".
The 57% for bars isn't 57% wrong. A bar that is a bar is correctly listed as "Bar". The question for each venue is whether a more exact label is true for it, and whether Google's list has one.
The study shows the label on each profile. It doesn't show who set it, because we didn't check whether a profile is claimed, and it says nothing about ranking. About a third of the sample is Manchester, and we read one capture per venue. We split restaurants from bars by our own venue type, not by the Google label.
How does Google decide which restaurants and bars show up in local results?
On three factors it names itself. Google's help page on local ranking says local results are "mainly based on relevance, distance, and popularity". The sub-headings under that sentence read Relevance, Distance and Prominence, so those are the three words we use.
Distance is how far you are from the person searching. Prominence is how well-known you are, and Google says it's "based on info like how many websites link to your business and how many reviews you have".
Relevance is "how well a Business Profile matches what someone is searching for". The step Google gives for it is to "provide complete and detailed business info". On your Google Business Profile (GBP), that means how closely the information in your profile matches what people type.
One line on the same page is worth knowing before you hear a sales pitch: "There's no way to request or pay for a better local ranking on Google." That is Google's wording, not ours.
Does a more specific Google category help a restaurant or bar rank?
Google says the categories you select affect your local ranking, and gives no weights. We measured no effect either.
The wording is on Google's page on managing your business category. It says to "select a primary category that best describes your business", and to "select a specific category from the list that shows up". Its own example is a salon that should choose "Nail salon". Then: "The categories you select affect your local ranking on Google."
What the page doesn't say is how much, or that the primary category outranks the others. We can't tell you that moving from "Restaurant" to "Italian restaurant" moves a venue anywhere.
What we can say is narrower. Google tells businesses to be specific, and about one restaurant in five and more than half the bars we read list the general label as their primary category. That describes the label, not the result.
What does Google say to check before changing a category?
You choose from Google's list. The page says "You can't create your own category", so the exact word you'd use for your venue may not exist. If the specific one isn't there, Google says to select a general category that describes your business.
Google says "Do not select a category for every product or service" and to use "a few categories" from its list instead. It gives no number.
It also says that if you add or edit a category, "you might be asked to verify your business again".
And the label has to fit. Google asks for the category that "best describes your business", so a specific label that doesn't describe you is the wrong answer.
What would Google call your venue if it only had one word?
Can booteek help me choose my Google category?
And that is where booteek helps: booteek Pro works through your GBP with you in conversation. In your first conversation it offers a short list of more specific categories when yours is only the general one, and you choose, or keep what you have. You make the change on Google yourself. It doesn't pick for you and can't promise a higher position, because Google gives no weights.
One label for the lot? Name the room you've got.
Where do these figures come from?
- booteek GBP category study (booteek, 9 November 2026). The primary category shown on the Google profile of UK independent restaurants and bars, read from our latest capture of each profile (captures dated 29 March to 9 November 2026). Starting from 3k UK venues we hold, we took out 1,110: chains and excluded categories, cuisines and names (418), venues on a pub-company website (123), other pubs (440; a UK pub counts as independent only if it's confirmed a free house), cafés (7), venues that aren't a restaurant or bar by our own venue type (54), venues with no capture (67) and one with no category on any capture. That leaves the 2k in the table, split by our own venue type into restaurants and 609 bars, in eight cities: Manchester 35%, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Birmingham, Liverpool, Leeds, Bath and Belfast. Generic means the primary label is exactly "Restaurant" or "Bar": 569 of the 2k (33%), 221 of the restaurants (20%), 348 of 609 bars (57%). Another 278 (16%) were generic with no other category listed. There were 146 different primary labels. A few venues in scope carry a label such as "Pub" or "Cafe", because our own venue type decides scope. We didn't check whether a profile is claimed or who set its category. Six checks ran first and all passed: UK country code, the funnel adding up, a database count matching a second count, the generic test on known labels, no Spanish or Portuguese labels, and specific labels present. It shows the label, not the effect on ranking, and not that any label is wrong. There's no public page for it yet.
- Tips to improve your local ranking on Google (Google Business Profile Help, undated, read 9 November 2026). The three factors, the reviews and links wording, and the line that you can't pay for ranking. Google help page
- Manage your business category (Google Business Profile Help, undated, read 9 November 2026). Choosing a specific category from the list, what to do when it isn't there, a few categories, and the verification line. Google help page