Website setup

Add a CoverCount booking link to Google Business Profile

Add a tracked CoverCount reservation link to Google Business Profile so guests can book from Google Search and Maps.

Updated 2026-06-23

Use this guide to add a CoverCount reservation link to Google Business Profile so guests can book from Google Search and Google Maps.

Google Business Profile link options vary by business category, region, and profile state. Restaurants often have reservation or booking link options, but the exact labels in Google can change. If Google does not show a booking or reservation link area for your profile, use your website button, menu link, or another public booking entry point instead.

Before You Start

You need:

  • A verified Google Business Profile
  • Access to edit the profile
  • Your CoverCount tenant slug, such as oak-and-vine
  • One or more optional experience slugs, such as dining, lunch, or wine-tasting
  • A booking link that opens without a login, CAPTCHA, password page, or link shortener

Google may review, crawl, approve, reject, or remove business links. The link should lead directly to the matching venue and let guests complete the reservation action.

Build The CoverCount Link

Use this format for the venue's main public reservation page:

https://explore.covercount.io/oak-and-vine/reserve?utm_source=google-business-profile&utm_medium=local-listing&utm_campaign=reservations

For one specific experience:

https://explore.covercount.io/oak-and-vine/reserve?experience=wine-tasting&utm_source=google-business-profile&utm_medium=local-listing&utm_campaign=reservations

To show more than one specific experience from the same link, join the experience slugs with commas:

https://explore.covercount.io/oak-and-vine/reserve?experience=lunch,dinner&utm_source=google-business-profile&utm_medium=local-listing&utm_campaign=reservations

Replace oak-and-vine and the experience slugs with your CoverCount values.

Recommended tracking values:

Parameter Recommended value
utm_source google-business-profile
utm_medium local-listing
utm_campaign reservations

If the Google link should promote a specific campaign, update utm_campaign, for example:

utm_campaign=summer-tastings

Check The Link Before Adding It To Google

Open the link in a private or incognito browser window.

Confirm:

  • The link returns a working page.
  • The correct venue appears.
  • The correct experience or experiences appear, if the link has an experience value.
  • Guests can see available times.
  • Guests can complete the reservation action.
  • The page is not behind a login, CAPTCHA, password page, or preview mode.
  • The URL is not a link shortener.

This matters because Google requires business links to be functional, direct, and crawlable.

Add The Link In Google Business Profile

Google's current help describes this workflow:

  1. Go to your Business Profile.
  2. In Google Search, choose Booking, Food ordering, or Pickup and delivery if that link type is available.
  3. In Google Maps, choose Edit profile, then the transaction type you want to update.
  4. Choose Add link or Add another link.
  5. Enter the CoverCount URL.
  6. Save the change.

For a restaurant reservation link, use the booking or reservation transaction type when Google offers it.

If Google does not show the expected link type, confirm the profile is verified and that the business category supports that link type in your region.

Set The Preferred Link

If Google shows more than one booking or reservation link, set the CoverCount link as the preferred link when you want guests to use CoverCount first.

Google's current workflow is:

  1. Go to your Business Profile.
  2. Select the transaction type, such as Booking.
  3. Choose Set preferred link.
  4. Select the CoverCount link.
  5. Save the change.

Third-party provider links can also appear on a profile. If an unwanted provider link appears, Google provides a removal workflow in the Business Profile link settings.

Link Policy Checklist

Before relying on the Google Business Profile link, confirm that it follows Google's business-link policies.

The link should:

  • Lead to a dedicated booking page for the same venue.
  • Let guests complete the reservation action.
  • Load without requiring a login, CAPTCHA, or other verification step.
  • Avoid social media pages, messaging links, app-store links, and link shorteners.
  • Return a successful page instead of a 404, 403, 500, or 503 error.
  • Load the required page assets.
  • Avoid geoblocking.
  • Avoid cloaking or serving different content to Google's verification crawler.

For multi-location operators, use the link for the specific venue location, not a generic landing page or another location's booking page.

Test The Public Google Listing

After saving the link, test it from the guest side.

  1. Open Google Search or Google Maps on a phone.
  2. Search for the venue.
  3. Open the public Business Profile.
  4. Tap the booking or reservation link.
  5. Confirm it opens the CoverCount booking flow.
  6. Complete a test booking if appropriate.
  7. Cancel or clean up the test reservation afterward if it should not remain active.

Google profile edits may not appear immediately. If the link is not visible yet, check again after the profile change has had time to publish.

Confirm Source Tracking In CoverCount

After a guest books from the Google Business Profile link, CoverCount should read the UTM values.

Expected attribution:

BookingSource: google-business-profile
BookingSourceDetail: utm_source=google-business-profile;utm_medium=local-listing;utm_campaign=reservations

For a grouped view, open Reports > Reservations by source.

For row-level detail, use Reports > Reservations export and inspect:

  • BookingSource
  • BookingSourceDetail

For more detail, see Track where CoverCount bookings come from.

Common Problems

Google does not show a booking link option

The profile might not be verified, the business category might not support the link type, or the link type might not be available in the business region.

Google rejects or removes the link

Check that the link is not malformed, does not contain spaces or invalid characters, leads to a dedicated location-specific booking page, and can be crawled by Google's verification systems.

The wrong venue or experience appears

Check the tenant slug and experience value in the URL.

Bookings show under the wrong source

Check that the link uses:

utm_source=google-business-profile

Do not use utm_source=google for the Business Profile link unless you intentionally want it grouped with other Google traffic.

More Help

Related guides:

Official Google references:

For the correct CoverCount tenant slug, experience slug, or source-tracking values, contact support@covercount.io.