Restaurant SEO: Attract more traffic to your restaurant’s website 

Think back to the last time you searched for a product online. Did you choose one of the top results, or did you scroll further down? Chances are, you ended up purchasing from one of the businesses listed at the top.  

That, in short, is what search engine optimisation (SEO) is all about – securing a good ranking in search results. If your restaurant isn’t visible on search engines like Google, you risk losing potential customers to competitors, even if your menu offerings are superior. 

In this guide, we’ll show you how to attract more traffic to your restaurant’s website with 8 simple SEO tips. 

What is restaurant SEO? 

Restaurant SEO is about optimising your restaurant’s online presence to make it easier for potential customers to find you on the web. This involves choosing the best keywords and improving the user experience on your website.  

By working on SEO, you ensure your restaurant is visible where most customers start their journey – online. 

Why SEO is important for your restaurant 

Visibility, visibility, visibility – SEO is critical to ensuring your restaurant appears in potential customers’ search results. Here are some key benefits: 

Online visibility brings you more customers 

Do you run a French restaurant in Manchester? Wouldn’t it be fantastic if your restaurant appeared at the top of the search results when someone in Manchester Googled “French restaurant near me”? With SEO, you can attract potential customers who might not have found you otherwise.  

Once new customers discover your restaurant, they’re likely to recommend it to others, leading to even more visitors and increased revenue. 

SEO is cheaper than paid advertising 

While paid advertising campaigns often yield quick results, SEO provides long-term benefits without requiring a large budget. Once your content starts climbing to the top of the search results, you can increase website traffic without paying per click, as you typically would with Google Ads. 

Stay ahead of competitors 

When you work on SEO, you’ll discover valuable insights about your competitors, such as which content on their websites performs best in search results, the keywords they use, and what they’re missing. This allows you to optimise your own content to achieve a better ranking. 

Haven’t created a website for your restaurant yet, or does your old site need a revamp? With the one.com Website Builder , you can create a complete website in minutes using AI – or without it if you prefer. Either way, you can quickly and easily build an appetising restaurant website, even if you’re not tech-savvy. 

8 tips for SEO-boosting your restaurant’s website 

Let’s get started on driving traffic to your restaurant’s website. Below are 8 beginner-friendly tips to help you become more visible in search results, attract more local customers, and convert website visitors into diners. 

1. Know your target audience

Understanding your target audience is crucial for an effective SEO strategy. Maybe your customers are mainly young people looking for a trendy dining spot, families seeking child-friendly menus, or foodies craving the ultimate gourmet experience. Knowing your audience will help you tailor your content to their preferences and achieve better results.  

If you haven’t identified your target audience yet, check out our article on Finding your target audience. 

2. Find the best keywords

Keywords are the words users type into search engines like Google when looking for a product or information, such as a good restaurant in a specific city. Keyword research is one of the most important steps in SEO. The goal is to identify which keywords your target audience uses when asking Google for help finding a great place to eat or tasty takeaway for a cosy night in. 

The keywords you find should be used in headings, subheadings, and body text on your website. The trick is to integrate them naturally, as Google easily detects keyword stuffing, which can negatively impact your ranking. Overusing keywords can result in a lower placement in search results. 

Keyword research can be carried out with free or paid SEO tools. Free tools typically have limitations, but they’re still helpful for understanding how to conduct keyword research. 

Free SEO tools for keyword research: 

• Ahrefs Free Keyword Generator – shows whether the search volume (number of searches per month) for a keyword or phrase you enter is above or below 100 or 1,000. 
• Ahrefs Rank Checker – provides insight into which keywords your competitors rank for. 
• ChatGPT – AI tools like ChatGPT from OpenAI can help brainstorm keywords. However, it does not have access to actual search volume data or competitor analysis, so it’s best to combine AI tools with real SEO tools. 
• Google’s “People Also Ask” Section – shows related searches for phrases like “best Greek restaurant” or “where can I eat sushi in Slough?” 

The downside of free tools is, as mentioned, that they provide limited data. For deeper insights and a more data-driven SEO strategy, it might be worth investing in a paid tool. 

Paid SEO tools for keyword research: 

• Ahrefs Premium Version – provides detailed insights into search volume, keyword difficulty, search intent, your competitors, and allows you to track the keywords you rank for. 
• Semrush – offers comprehensive insights into search volume, competitors, search intent, and your own ranking. 

3. Focus on local SEO

For most restaurants, being discovered by local customers is crucial, since guests who live nearby are more likely to return. Prioritising local SEO is therefore logical when optimising your restaurant’s website. 

Local SEO is, simply put, SEO with the goal of signalling to both users and search engines that you are a local business catering to customers in a specific geographic area. This is done by optimising your website with local keywords and phrases, such as “Indian restaurant in Bristol,” and using schema markup to make it clear to search engines that your website content is relevant to users in the area. 

4. Google Business Profile and other listings 

While discussing local SEO, it’s important to emphasise the significance of setting up a Google Business Profile for your restaurant. Once your business profile is created, it will appear prominently to the right of search results, dramatically improving your restaurant’s visibility and increasing the likelihood of potential customers visiting your website.  

You can create a Google Business Profile for free here. Remember to add appealing photos of your dishes and interior, along with a link to your website and accurate contact information. 

If you build your website with one.com, you can easily connect it to your Google Business Profile. You can also showcase your top Google reviews directly on your site. 

Being visible on other platforms such as TripAdvisor, Trustpilot, and Yelp also strengthens local SEO. Registering your restaurant on these platforms increases visibility and provides social proof, as positive feedback from satisfied guests makes it more likely that new customers will choose you over a competitor with no online reviews. 

5. Start a restaurant blog

We’ve already touched on keyword research and the best keywords. A blog is an excellent tool for leveraging these keywords naturally while reaching food enthusiasts who aren’t actively searching for a place to eat but could still become potential customers. 

On your blog, you can write blog posts about wine pairings for pasta dishes with fish, share your knowledge about Turkish food culture, or describe the journey of your ingredients from farm to table. The possibilities for blog content are virtually limitless.  

By creating engaging posts that also answer common online questions, a blog can drive traffic to your website and ultimately bring more diners to your restaurant. 

6. Create a great user experience on your website

There’s more to ranking highly in search results than using the right keywords. Google’s discerning search algorithms also prioritise user experience and web accessibility when deciding which content to place at the top of search results. To improve user experience, it’s essential to ensure your pages load quickly so that neither visitors nor search engines become impatient and move on to other websites. 

One of the best things you can do to improve website speed is to compress large image files, which are often the main cause of slow page loading times. We recommend using a tool like Imagify, which compresses your images without compromising quality. Your pictures will remain sharp and load faster. 

Additionally, your website should be responsive, meaning it should work equally well on mobile devices and computers with varying screen sizes. 

To ensure good web accessibility, follow relevant guidelines, such as choosing suitable colours and fonts for your site. You should also ensure all your images have alt text, which helps visually impaired users interpret the content of the images. Alt text is also beneficial for voice search optimisation, which is increasingly used via mobile devices and voice assistants. 

7. Use an SEO plugin or on-page scanner

For best results when optimising your restaurant’s website, consider using tools that automatically scan your site and provide specific recommendations for improvements. 

Rank Math 

If your restaurant’s website is built on WordPress, you can install the Rank Math plugin, which automatically implements a wide range of SEO improvements as soon as it’s activated. The free version of Rank Math can be installed through 1-click installation in WordPress via one.com. 

The paid version, Rank Math PRO, makes it even easier to reach the top of search results. The PRO version also includes a Content AI tool, which helps you write SEO-optimised content for your restaurant’s website. Content AI can generate blog posts and articles tailored to your restaurant and write SEO texts in various languages. The texts generated by Rank Math Content AI are based on keyword research, making the tool particularly suitable for creating SEO content. 

Marketgoo – SEO tool in the one.com Website Builder 

If you build your website with one.com’s Website Builder, you can access the Marketgoo SEO tool directly from your control panel. The free version performs basic measurements and gives you up to five keywords and two competitors. Upgrading to a paid package provides more keywords, daily SEO monitoring, and extended reports. 

Both tools make SEO work more manageable and less time-consuming, allowing you to focus on creating exceptional dining experiences for your guests. 

8. Monitor your search rankings

The impact of restaurant SEO won’t be obvious overnight. Typically, it takes a few months before you start seeing results. Additionally, SEO is not a one-time task but an ongoing process that requires regular monitoring of competitors, content rankings, and website traffic.  

Besides tracking keywords with SEO tools, connecting your website to Google Analytics can provide deeper insights into which pages are most popular with visitors and which ones can be improved. 

Top keywords for restaurant websites – a template with examples 

The keywords you use to optimise your restaurant’s website will depend on its concept, cuisine, location, and target audience.  

To help you get started, here’s a template with adaptable keyword suggestions – remember to analyse them with a keyword tool before using them on your website.

• Cuisine-based keywords: Best [cuisine type] restaurant in [city] 
   
  Example: Best vegan restaurant in Brighton 
   
• Experience-based keywords: Romantic/child-friendly/takeaway restaurant in [city] 
   
  Example: Romantic restaurant in Cambridge 
   
• Dish-based keywords: Best sushi/burger/pasta in [city] 
   
  Example: Best sushi in London 
   
• Local neighbourhood keywords: [Cuisine type] restaurant in [neighbourhood] 
   
  Example: Italian restaurant in Shoreditch 
   
• Branded keywords: [Your restaurant’s name] + menu, reviews, takeaway, gift cards 
   
  Example: Restaurant One Christmas menu 2025 

Restaurant SEO: the recipe for more guests 

With even minimal effort, SEO can significantly enhance your restaurant’s online visibility. While SEO can’t replace marketing, it complements a solid marketing strategy and a well-designed website, helping you attract more potential diners and increase revenue in the long term. For more insights, check out our article 25 tips for search engine optimisation.