The link in bio for a local business — map, hours, menu, bookings, all in one tap

Picture the person who taps the link in a café's Instagram bio. They're standing on a street corner, or on a bus, or in bed deciding whether to go tomorrow. They want three things: where is it, is it open, and can I book or order. If the link opens a homepage with a hero video and a "Our Story" section, they close it and search Google Maps instead.

A local business's bio link has one job: answer those three questions instantly on a phone, and then give the person a way to act. This guide builds that page, section by section, with the blocks that make each part work.

The first screen

Everything the visitor needs should be visible before they scroll. On a phone that's roughly: your name, one line saying what you are and where, and the two or three buttons that matter.

Hero. Logo or a photo of the front of the shop. Your name. One line: "Specialty coffee and brunch in Shoreditch. Open daily." Skip the paragraph about your journey. That's for the About page, if you ever make one.

The action buttons. Pick the two or three things people actually do:

• "Book a table" or "Book an appointment"
• "Order online" or "See the menu"
• "Get directions"
• "Message us on WhatsApp"

Style the most important one differently so it stands out. For a restaurant that's usually "Book". For a shop it's "Shop online" or "Directions". For a salon it's "Book".

The map

Embed a map. Not a link to a map: the map itself, on the page, with your pin on it. A person looking for you sees the neighbourhood, recognises the street, and taps for turn-by-turn directions. This one block removes the most common reason people give up: "I couldn't find it."

On BonPages, add an Embed block and type your address into it. That's all. It renders a Google Map centred on you. A Maps link works too if you'd rather paste one.

Under the map, write the practical line: "Between the pharmacy and the bike shop. Entrance on the side street."

Opening hours

A small table: day, hours. Seven rows. Tables read cleanly on a phone and are easy to update when hours change for a holiday. Put "Closed" in the row rather than deleting the day, so the table always has all seven.

If you have seasonal hours or a kitchen that closes before the bar, add a second column or a line under the table. The point is that nobody has to phone to ask.

The menu or the price list

Restaurants and cafés: the menu, as text on the page, not a PDF that needs zooming. A Table block with dish and price, grouped under headings, or a Markdown block for a longer menu. Keep it current; a menu with a dish you stopped making in spring costs you a disappointed customer and a bad review.

Salons, studios, trainers: the price list. Service, duration, price. Same table.

If a full menu is genuinely long, put the highlights on the bio page and link to the full one.

Booking and ordering

Whatever system you already use, put it on the page. Options, from simplest:

• A button to your booking or ordering system's link.
• An embedded booking page, if you use Calendly or Cal.com. The calendar appears inside your bio page and the customer picks a slot without leaving.
• A form on the page: name, phone, date, party size, notes. Every submission is emailed to you and kept in an inbox. For a small business without a booking system, this is the whole booking system. You reply to confirm.

For the form route, keep it to the fields you need to say yes. Name, phone or email, date, and one free-text box. A dropdown for party size or service helps you triage.

The WhatsApp button

Most quick questions from customers are better as messages than calls. A floating WhatsApp button on the page lets them ask "do you have space for six at eight?" in one tap. Set a prefilled message so they don't have to think about what to type.

BonPages has this as a site setting: turn on the chat button, enter your WhatsApp number (or a Telegram handle), and choose which corner it sits in.

Photos

A gallery of six to nine images: the room, the food, the work, the team. People want to see what they're walking into. Make the photos tappable so they open full size. Real photos over stock, always.

If you have a reel that shows the place well, embed it below the gallery. It'll load when someone taps it, so it doesn't slow the page.

Proof

Two or three review quotes. Copy them from Google, with the reviewer's first name. A star rating if it's good. This sits just above the booking section, because it's the last thing someone reads before deciding.

FAQ

The questions your staff answer on the phone every day:

• Do you take walk-ins?
• Is there parking?
• Are you dog-friendly?
• Do you do gluten-free?
• Is there a deposit for bookings?
• Do you do gift vouchers?

Expandable answers keep the page short. Every question you put here is a phone call you don't take.

Everything else

Social icons for Instagram, Facebook, TikTok. A link to your Google Maps listing for reviews. A "Gift vouchers" product with a buy button if you sell them. A newsletter form if you run events or specials, with a specific promise ("Wednesday's specials every Tuesday night").

The page, top to bottom

1. Hero: photo, name, one line.
2. Action buttons: book, order, directions, WhatsApp.
3. Map with the address.
4. Opening hours table.
5. Menu or price list.
6. Photos and a reel.
7. Reviews.
8. Booking form or embedded calendar.
9. FAQ.
10. Vouchers, newsletter, socials.

That's a page a customer can use with one thumb while walking. It's also, in practice, a better website than most local businesses have, and it took an afternoon.

A page per kind of business

The structure above is the general case. Three variations that come up often:

Restaurant or café. Book and menu at the top, then map and hours, then photos. The menu is the thing people came for; the map is the thing they need once they've decided. A "Reserve for a group" form with date, time and party size catches the bookings your phone misses during service.

Salon, barber, studio, clinic. Book at the top, then the price list, then the team with a photo each and what they specialise in, then reviews, then map and hours. People choose a person as much as a place. If you take bookings through a system, embed it; if not, a form with "preferred stylist" as a dropdown works.

Shop or market stall. Directions and hours at the top, because most visitors are deciding whether to come, then the products or the "this week" stock as a grid, then the map, then a "we've got it, hold it for me" form. For a stall or pop-up, a countdown to the next market date and a "where we'll be" table replace the fixed map.

The Google Business connection

Your bio page and your Google Business profile do different jobs and should point at each other. Google is where people search "café near me"; the bio page is where people go from Instagram. Put the bio page link in the website field of your Google profile so search visitors land on a phone-first page rather than nothing, and put a "Leave a review" link on the bio page that goes to your Google reviews. Reviews feed the search ranking, the search ranking feeds the visits, the visits feed the page.

Keeping it alive

The page earns its keep when it's current. Things that should change:

• Hours for holidays, and back again after.
• The top button during a promotion ("Book for Valentine's").
• A countdown to an event, a pop-up, a seasonal menu.
• The menu when dishes change.
• A "this week" line in the hero if you do specials.

Because it's a page you edit on your phone, none of this needs a developer or a designer. Change it, publish, done.

What to watch

Two numbers in your page analytics matter for a local business: how many people tap "Directions" (they're coming) and how many tap "Book" or submit the form (they're committed). If lots of people view the page and few tap either, the first screen isn't doing its job. Also look at the hour-by-hour heatmap: it shows when people check you out, which is usually the evening before. Post your specials then.

Getting it done

On BonPages, sign up, pick the Studio or Forest theme, choose the Seller or Service starter as a base, and replace the sample content with yours. Add the map, the hours table and the booking form. Put the link in your Instagram bio, your Facebook page and your Google Business profile.

It's free: the map, the tables, the form, the WhatsApp button, the gallery and the analytics are all on the free plan. If the page outgrows a thousand views a month, PRO lifts the cap and puts the page on your own domain, so yourcafe.com opens straight onto it.