·Adiamo Studio
Where your reservation link should go
Choose the one reservation URL your floor answers, put it on the website, and set it as the preferred booking link on Google so a marketplace page does not become a second homepage.
Answer first
Pick the one place a reservation is actually confirmed — WhatsApp, email, the phone, or a booking page your floor checks during service — and use that URL everywhere you ask people to book. Put it on your website as the Reserve button. On Google, add it as a reservation link and set it as the preferred one if you have several. A marketplace can fill seats. It is a bad website: guests who tap “website” still need your hours, your menu, and your name.
Friday at six, three buttons say Book. One opens a marketplace the host stand does not watch. One opens a form that lands in an inbox nobody clears until Monday. One is the WhatsApp the floor actually uses. The guest picked the first. You marked them a no-show. They marked you unreliable.
This guide is which URL should carry the reservation, where to put it on Google, and what still belongs on your own page. How to word the WhatsApp or email path, and who answers by shift, is in WhatsApp and email reservations that actually get answered.
How your page differs from a booking site
Your website is the page that represents the room: the name, the address, the hours, the menu, and a way to ask for a table. A booking site is a checkout for a slot. It can be the right checkout. It is a thin place to learn whether you are open on Monday, what the kitchen cooks, or how to find the door. Google’s guidelines ask you to provide a website that represents your individual location, and they tell you not to offer a URL that only forwards people to some other landing page or to a social profile. That is in Guidelines for representing your business on Google.
| Your website | A booking marketplace | The phone | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What the guest learns | Hours, menu, place, one next step | A slot, if the widget loads | Whatever the person who picks up says |
| Who holds the request | The channel you chose | The marketplace, then your tablet if you watch it | Whoever is nearest the phone |
| When it is the right door | Almost every first visit | When you truly run the book in that tool | Same-day, and guests who will not type |
| What goes wrong | Four equal buttons, none of them watched | A full book on screen and an empty note on the pass | A busy service and a phone in a drawer |
| Google’s slot for it | The website field | A reservation link, if you use it | The phone field, a number you control |
When one link is enough
One URL is the whole system
- An independent room where one person owns the book.
- WhatsApp, email, or a single booking page is already how you confirm.
- You can say, on a Friday, who replies.
- You would rather lose a fancy widget than lose a message.
A marketplace earns a link
- You already seat covers that arrive only through that book.
- Someone on shift watches it as closely as the door.
- Its hours match the door. If they do not, fix that before you advertise it.
- On your site it is the Reserve button, or it is absent. It is not a second equal button.
People scan a page. They do not interview every button. Nielsen Norman Group’s note on how users read on the web is the reason a row of Book, Order, Call, and Menu, all the same size, loses the guest who was ready.
How to place the link
Channel
The one shift answers
Site
One Reserve button
Preferred reservation link
Confirm
Same thread, same facts
Check
Tap it once a month
- 1
Name the channel before you name the button
If the floor lives in WhatsApp, the URL is the chat link. If the book lives in a marketplace, the URL is that booking page, and someone has to watch it. If neither is true, do not print a third system. The setup for a conversation channel is the WhatsApp and email guide.
- 2
Put that URL on your website as the only primary action
The first screen still needs your name and where you are. The button says Reserve, or Book a table, and it goes to the channel you just named. A second path can sit in the footer, visually quieter. The pass/fail version of that first screen is the restaurant website checklist.
- 3
Add it on Google as a reservation link, and prefer it
Google’s help, Manage your local business links, separates a menu link from links for reservations, appointments, and food orders. You can add up to ten links in a category, and you can mark one as the preferred link so it sits at the top. Prefer the URL your floor answers. Do not drop the delivery app into the reservation slot.
- 4
Keep the website field for your page
The website field is the page that represents the location. Reservation links are the booking door. Food-order links are a third door, for a meal that leaves the building. Mixing them teaches a guest who wanted a table to start a takeaway order. Hours for sitting down are their own fact, in how to publish restaurant hours guests can trust.
- 5
Confirm in the same place the guest wrote to you
Reply with the date, the time, the number of covers, and any constraint they named. A guest who wrote on WhatsApp should not have to hunt an email for a yes. If the marketplace sends the confirmation, read it there — and say on your site that this is where the yes will come from.
- 6
Tap the public link once a month
Use a phone that is not logged into your tools. The button should open the channel, not a login wall and not a discontinued campaign. If you changed provider, change the website, Google’s preferred link, and the bio on the same day.
Which Google slot gets which URL
| Slot | Put this URL | Leave it empty when |
|---|---|---|
| Website | Your page: hours, menu, Reserve | You only have a social profile or a forwarder |
| Reservation | The book your floor watches | You take walk-ins and do not promise a table online |
| Preferred reservation link | The same URL, if several exist | You have only one, and it is already the one |
| Food order | The takeaway or delivery path you fulfil | You do not send food out |
| Menu | The menu page, not the booking widget | You have no menu online yet — fix that before you advertise a slot |
A public restaurant page can hold the introduction and the reservation on one address. The card below is a live example: the room is explained on a site the restaurant controls, which is the page the website field should name even when a booking tool does the confirming.
When the link fails
- Three buttons, one watcher. The guest used the button you treat as decoration. The table went to someone else.
- The marketplace hours are last season’s. They booked lunch on a day you are dark. The widget was confident.
- The website field is only a forward. They never saw the menu or the door. They saw a slot picker.
- Delivery sits where Reserve should sit. A table for two becomes a bag at the kerb.
- The confirmation changes channel. They asked on chat and you answered by a mail they do not check. Both of you think the other was rude.
- Nobody taps the link after a provider change. The bio, the tent, and Google still open a dead book.
What a reservation link does not do
It does not fill a room that the page makes hard to trust. Hours, the menu, and a real photo still do that work. It does not let you skip a reply: a link that nobody watches is a closed door with a nicer label. It does not replace a booking engine when you truly need deposits, turn times, and a shared inventory — use that engine as the one URL, and watch it. And Google does not promise where the button will sit, or that every searcher will see it. You control the URL you submit and which one you mark preferred. You do not control the layout of the listing.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use a booking site and my own website?
Yes. Put your page in the website field so guests can read hours and the menu. Put the booking site in the reservation link if that is the book your floor watches. On your own page, make that same URL the Reserve button.
What if we only take walk-ins?
Say so on the page, next to the hours. Do not offer a reservation link that implies a table is held. A phone number you answer is enough for the guest who wants to ask.
Should delivery and reservations share one button?
No. Google already separates food-order links from reservation links. On your site, the primary button should be the meal you most want — a table, or a bag — and the other path should look secondary.
How many booking links can I add on Google?
Google’s help says up to ten links in a category, with one preferred link shown first. Ten is not a goal. One watched link beats a list of providers you forgot to open.
What do I do when I change booking tools?
Change the Reserve button, Google’s preferred reservation link, and any bio or card that names the old URL on the same day. Leave the old link up and the floor will confirm tables in a book you cancelled.
Does Adiamo choose the reservation channel?
You do. A published page uses the reservation contacts you set — WhatsApp, email, or phone — so Reserve points at the channel your team monitors. The public site URL is what belongs in Google’s website field.