Case study · Restaurants
Tables booked direct, not through a platform
A restaurant group was paying commission on most of its bookings and orders, because booking and delivery platforms outranked its own website. This is how we made each restaurant the first result for its own name and its own neighbourhood.
Project overview
Local SEO aimed at direct bookings.
- Industry
- Restaurants
- Client
- Confidential
- Solution
- Local SEO
- Platform
- Google Business Profile + website
- Timeline
- 4–6 months
- Team
- 3 people
- Locations
- Every restaurant in the group
- Goal
- Direct bookings and orders
- Integration
- Booking and ordering systems
Expected business outcomes
What the client set out to achieve
The measure that mattered was commission saved, not visits gained.
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30–60%
More direct bookings
Booking buttons on profiles and pages go to the restaurant's own system.
Target range over six months; measured in the booking system
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15–30%
Less commission paid to platforms
Bookings and orders move from third-party platforms to direct.
Target range; depends on each location's platform mix
-
4.5+
Average review rating maintained
More reviews, answered promptly, from a consistent process.
Tracked monthly per restaurant
Business challenges
Where the client started
Guests searched for the restaurant and were sent somewhere else to book it.
Search results
Platform listings ranked above the group's own website.
Profiles
Booking links on Google pointed to a third-party platform.
Menus
Menus were PDFs, invisible to search and out of date.
Reviews
Replies depended on whichever manager had time.
Cost
Commission was the group's fastest-growing marketing cost.
Proposed solution
What the local SEO programme covered
Make the direct route the easiest route, everywhere a guest looks.
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Business Profiles
Accurate hours, photos and menus, with booking links to the group's own system.
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Menus as web pages
Menus published as real pages with structured data, updated from one source.
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Restaurant pages
A page for each restaurant, built for its name and its area.
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Reviews
A reply standard and a weekly routine for each manager.
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Direct booking tracking
Bookings and orders attributed to their source.
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Group dashboard
Direct versus platform bookings per restaurant.
Project requirements
What the client asked us for
The request was to reduce platform commission without losing covers. That meant winning the searches for the group's own restaurant names first, which is the cheapest traffic there is.
Menus mattered more than expected: guests search for dishes, and a PDF cannot answer that search.
What the project had to deliver
- 01Direct bookings ahead of platforms
- 02Menus that appear in search
- 03Consistent review replies
- 04Commission tracked per restaurant
Key challenges & considerations
What made it harder, and what we did
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Platforms bidding on the restaurants' own names
What we did
Brand campaigns and complete profiles put each restaurant's own listing above the platforms for its own name.
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Seasonal menus that change often
What we did
Menus were published from one source, so a seasonal change updated the website and the profile together.
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Managers with no time for marketing
What we did
Managers were given a ten-minute weekly routine and a standard for replies.
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Different booking systems in different restaurants
What we did
Each booking system was linked directly, with the source recorded on every booking.
What we watched for
- Win the brand searches first
- Publish menus as pages, not PDFs
- Give managers a ten-minute routine
- Measure commission, not traffic
Development process
Own the brand searches first
The quickest savings came from guests who were already looking for the restaurant.
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Audit
Where each restaurant's searches and bookings actually went.
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Profiles
Links, hours, photos and menus corrected.
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Menus and pages
Menus rebuilt as pages, and a page for each restaurant.
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Reviews
A reply standard introduced with each manager.
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Tracking and review
Direct and platform bookings compared monthly.
Technology stack
Profiles, pages and a booking feed
Simple tools, kept accurate.
Local
- Google Business Profile
- Local rank tracking
- Menu structured data
Website
- WordPress
- Restaurant page templates
- Menu management
Bookings
- Booking system integration
- Online ordering links
- Source tracking
Reporting
- Google Analytics 4
- Looker Studio
- Review monitoring
Quality assurance & deployment
Checked before it went live, measured after
Marketing work is only as good as its measurement. Tracking was verified before anything launched, technical changes were tested on staging, and every result was reconciled with the client's own sales or booking data.
- Conversion tracking tested end to end before launch
- Technical changes checked on staging with a full crawl
- Redirects, links and structured data validated
- Copy and claims reviewed by the client's experts
- Reported figures reconciled with the client's own system
Deployment
- 01ReviewsA reply standard introduced with each manager.
- 02Tracking and reviewDirect and platform bookings compared monthly.
- 03Staged releasesChanges went live in small batches, each one watched in the first days.
- 04Reporting and handoverA monthly review against the agreed targets, and documentation the client's team can work from.
Final deliverables
The restaurant's own site is the first result
A guest who searches for one of the restaurants now finds its own page and books through its own system. Menus appear in search and stay current.
Managers have a short weekly routine for reviews and updates, and the owners can see commission falling restaurant by restaurant.
- Direct booking links everywhere
- Menus published as pages
- A page for every restaurant
- Direct and platform bookings compared monthly
Handed over to the client
- 01Audit and roadmapFindings ranked by their effect
- 02Implemented changesIn the client's own site, accounts and tools
- 03Tracking and dashboardResults in the client's own figures
- 04Content and campaign assetsTemplates, pages and creative
- 05Documentation and trainingSo the client's team can carry on
Success metrics
How success is measured
| Measure | Outcome | How it is measured |
|---|---|---|
| More direct bookings | 30–60% | Target range over six months; measured in the booking system |
| Less commission paid to platforms | 15–30% | Target range; depends on each location's platform mix |
| Average review rating maintained | 4.5+ | Tracked monthly per restaurant |
Verified reviews
What clients say about working with us
Verified reviews from our clients, published on Clutch.
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Web Development
Custom Web Development for a Software Solutions Company
We can rely on them to handle almost any task with confidence, as they consistently deliver good results.
Casper Hougaard Jensen
CEO & Co-Founder, Iterator IT Jul 2021 – Sep 2022
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Web Development
Web & Mobile App Development for a Software Development Company
They efficiently organized tasks and deliverables while promptly addressing questions.
Damien Retzinger
Founder, Graycore Jun 2021 – Feb 2023
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Web Development
Website Development for a Software Engineering Company
They have a broad understanding of different technologies.
Eugene Bosikov CEO, Ezibeline LLC Mar 2022 – Ongoing Verified review on Clutch (Eugene Bosikov, opens in a new tab)
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