Every figure on this page is measured in the client’s own Google Search Console, and every one separates branded search from unbranded search. That distinction is the whole point. Branded searches are people typing the restaurant’s name because they already know it. Unbranded searches are people looking for a Turkish restaurant in London, a place to eat in Covent Garden, or somewhere to take a group on a Friday. Growing the second group is what restaurant SEO is actually for, and it is the only honest way to show that marketing created demand rather than counting demand that already existed.
The Mantl came to us with very little traffic from people who were not already searching for the restaurant by name. We rebuilt the search strategy around commercially useful discovery terms, including Turkish restaurant searches, halal dining and location led searches, combining on page SEO, site improvements, content expansion and link building. In July 2025 total organic traffic was 264 percent higher than the pre SEO comparison period, and unbranded search traffic had increased 20x, a 1,900 percent increase in the first 11 months. By the February 2026 analysis The Mantl was on page one for every primary target search term, clicks from searches containing the word best had grown 139 percent, and best Turkish restaurant London alone had gone from 100 to 204 clicks while its average position improved from 7.9 to 4.5.
Website migrations routinely destroy search visibility when URLs, redirects and location architecture are handled badly. The Black Penny migration went live on 9 February 2026. Comparing average clicks per day before and after, and removing a two week transition period while Google processed the new URLs, organic unbranded clicks per day increased 66 percent across the site. Covent Garden grew 77 percent, South Bank 133 percent and Sloane Square 368 percent, while total unbranded clicks per day across organic search and Maps rose 25 percent. The homepage lost 76 percent of its unbranded clicks, which was the intended architectural shift: Google began sending local restaurant searches to the correct venue pages instead of a generic homepage.
temper had a harder problem: fewer people were searching for the restaurant by name at all. Across the three month comparison branded traffic fell by roughly 6,500 visits, about 13 percent. Non brand organic traffic grew by more than 65 percent over the same period, adding approximately 1,550 visits, including commercially relevant searches such as Taco Tuesday London, Covent Garden restaurants and pre theatre menu Covent Garden. A restaurant can lose brand demand while its SEO is working, and separating the two is the only way to see it.
Three different problems, one method: understand which searches carry booking intent, build or fix the pages that deserve to win them, make those pages readable to search engines and AI assistants, and measure the outcome in the client’s own data. We make no claims here about bookings, revenue or return on investment, because these figures measure search visibility and discovery. Book a free 15 minute call if you would like the same analysis run on your venue.
How do you measure restaurant SEO results? Every figure on this page comes from the client's own Google Search Console, not an agency dashboard, and branded searches are separated from unbranded ones. Branded searches are people typing the restaurant name because they already know it. Unbranded searches are people looking for somewhere to eat who have never heard of you, which is the growth that actually matters.
What is the difference between branded and unbranded search? Branded search is someone typing your restaurant name. Unbranded, or non brand, search is someone typing what they want, such as best bottomless brunch in London or Turkish restaurant Mayfair. Agencies that report total traffic can look successful when a venue simply becomes more famous. Reporting unbranded growth separately is the honest measure of whether marketing is working.
What results have you achieved for restaurants? The Mantl grew unbranded search traffic 20 times over, a 1,900 percent increase in the first eleven months. The Black Penny saw a 66 percent increase in organic unbranded clicks per day after a multi location website migration. temper in Soho grew non brand organic traffic by 65 percent while branded demand was falling, and across sixteen months that account earned 3.69 million impressions and 212,000 organic clicks.
How long did these results take? The Mantl figure covers the first eleven months of work. The temper figures cover sixteen months. In our experience technical improvements show within weeks, competitive rankings move within three to six months, and the compounding growth follows after that.
Can you share the underlying data? Yes. Every number quoted here can be shown as a screenshot from the client's own Google Search Console on request. If an agency cannot show you results inside a client's own account, treat the numbers with caution.
Rankings and clicks matter when they put the restaurant in front of people who did not already know where they were going to eat.
These are three examples of restaurant SEO work where we can show exactly what changed in Google search visibility and non-brand discovery.
The Mantl came to us with very little search traffic from people who were not already looking for the restaurant by name.
That distinction mattered. Branded searches such as “The Mantl” come from people who already know the restaurant. The SEO opportunity was to get The Mantl in front of diners searching for what they wanted before they had chosen a venue.
More importantly, unbranded search traffic had increased 20x, a 1,900% increase in the first 11 months.
The later February 2026 analysis showed that The Mantl was on page one for every primary target search term. Despite branded search clicks falling 25% year on year, unbranded clicks were still growing.
Searches containing “best” grew from 149 to 356 clicks, an increase of 139%. “Best Turkish restaurant London” alone increased from 100 to 204 clicks while its average position improved from 7.9 to 4.5.
The growth was not coming from more people typing The Mantl into Google. It was coming from diners searching for a restaurant, cuisine or occasion and discovering The Mantl in the results.
That is the job restaurant SEO needs to do: create visibility before the customer has chosen the brand.
Website migrations can destroy search visibility when URLs, redirects and location architecture are handled badly.
The Black Penny migration went live on 9 February 2026. To judge the impact properly, we compared average clicks per day before and after the migration and removed a two-week transition period while Google processed the new URLs.
We also separated branded from unbranded traffic and organic search from Google Maps, then mapped the old and new location URLs together.
Covent Garden increased 77%. South Bank increased 133%. Sloane Square increased 368%.
The homepage itself lost 76% of its unbranded organic clicks. That was a positive architectural shift, not a failure. Google was sending location searches to the stronger location pages instead of using the generic homepage.
The migration did more than preserve SEO performance.
It gave Google clearer location pages for local restaurant searches and moved discovery traffic onto the pages that actually matched what the diner was looking for.
temper had a difficult search problem: fewer people were searching for the restaurant by name.
Across the three-month comparison, branded traffic fell by around 6,500 visits, approximately 13%. That meant SEO had to create more discovery traffic from people searching for restaurants, locations and dining occasions without already having temper in mind.
We focused on on-page SEO, site structure, Google Business Profile work and link building around commercially useful restaurant searches.
Non-brand organic traffic increased by more than 65%, adding approximately 1,550 visits in the three-month year-on-year comparison.
The growth included commercially relevant searches such as:
“Taco Tuesday London”: +113 visits “Covent Garden restaurants”: +50 visits “Pre theatre menu Covent Garden”: +44 visits
This happened while branded traffic was moving in the opposite direction.
A restaurant can lose branded demand even while its SEO is improving.
Separating branded from non-branded search showed what the SEO work was actually contributing: more people discovering temper while looking for the type of restaurant, location or occasion they wanted.
We will separate brand demand from genuine discovery, show you where competitors are winning and identify the searches, services and locations with the strongest commercial opportunity.
Prefer email? Write to jon@intrinsicmarketing.uk and we will come back to you the same working day.
