Google Search might be looking at the items in your menu within your Google Business Profile and how busy your establishment is during popular times as local ranking factors and signals.

That’s according to a report by Claudia Tomina. Tomina documented tests on this and believes Google is using these signals to rank businesses in Google Maps and the Google Search local pack.

Menu items. Adding menu items can help a restaurant rank for those menu items on Google, according to the report. So if you add “caesar salad” to your menu items in Google Business Profiles, Google may rank you for [ceasar salad] searches.

This chart shows the ranking improvement for that local restaurant on Google for a search on [best caesar salad near me]. It went from position 71 to position 1 with the change:

I spoke with Tomina, who showed me several other examples of this working.

Popular times. Busier establishments during the Google popular times window tend to rank better than less busy establishments, according to the report.

• “My research shows that if a business is busier at a specific time of day then they outrank their competitors,” Tomina wrote.

The charts below show local Google ranking reports for the keyword [caesar salad near me]. The rankings improved during popular times throughout the day.

Why we care. If you do local SEO or manage your own local business, maybe try some of these things out to see if your rankings will improve. You can easily add your menu to your Google Business Profile to see if it makes a difference in your foot traffic and online orders. And maybe that effort might also increase how busy you are during those popular times and help you rank better.