Measured in more than rankings.

Chef-led landmark restaurant · name withheld · Dublin city centre restaurant corridor

Entering an occupied market and ranking ahead of it.

Sep 2025 baseline – Feb 2026

From no non-branded visibility to a #7 Google local results position on Dublin's most contested restaurant discovery term.

Four well-resourced venues already held the discovery terms in Dublin's most competitive restaurant corridor. The venue did not rank on non-branded discovery terms at all.

Premium steakhouse group · name withheld · Dublin 2

Building local search infrastructure from the ground up.

Nov 2024 – Jan 2026 · 15 months

Fifteen months of local search infrastructure: Domain Authority 33 to 47, linking domains 104 to 197, 83% map pack coverage.

Strong brand, no digital foundation: Domain Authority 33 at the start, no managed citations, and no map pack presence on the high-intent terms a new guest would actually use.

Chef-led landmark restaurant · name withheld · Dublin city centre

When the local market fell, this restaurant grew covers.

Aug 2024 – Jan 2026

Covers grew 33% year on year while a 75-venue OpenTable benchmark for the same area fell 9% — a 42 percentage-point spread.

Covers were declining year on year, slightly slower than the surrounding market. There was no map pack presence and no managed local search foundation underneath the venue.

Premium steakhouse group · name withheld · Dublin 2

What was recorded, and what it doesn't prove.

A Dublin 2 steakhouse grew covers 7% while its market fell 13%. OpenTable and Google data side by side, without claiming what they can't prove.

The venue grew covers while its local market declined. OpenTable and Google records show different parts of the picture, not a single booking journey.

Chef-led landmark restaurant · name withheld · Dublin city centre

How a restaurant search actually becomes a booking.

Full year 2025

766K profile views, 75% of them on Maps Mobile, and 19,600+ direction requests — mapped across five stages of guest discovery.

Understanding which surfaces guests genuinely use to choose a restaurant — and where the venue appeared, or did not, at each stage of that decision.

Premium steakhouse group · name withheld · Dublin 2

From falling covers to growth while the market fell further.

15-month documented engagement

Covers moved from −8% to +7% year on year while the Dublin 2 benchmark fell 13% — a 20 percentage-point gap.

Covers were falling roughly in line with a contracting Dublin 2 market, with below-average authority, inconsistent citations and almost no map pack coverage underneath a strong brand.

Chef-led landmark restaurant · name withheld · Dublin city centre

The complete day-one audit next to the month-eighteen result.

18 months

Domain Authority 15 to 44, zero managed citations to 107, an unclaimed profile to 766K views — eight categories measured twice.

A landmark name with no search foundation: Domain Authority 15, no managed citations, an unclaimed Google Business Profile and covers falling 7% year on year.

Premium steakhouse group · name withheld · Dublin 2

706,000 impressions — and the reservation page that leaks them.

Full engagement period

The full funnel from impression to action, including a reservation page served 124,501 times at a 1.15% click-through rate.

Strong top-of-funnel visibility does not guarantee capture. The question was where demand was being served in search but not converted into a click or a booking.

Google Ads · A Dublin restaurant that hosts weddings

2.16K clicks at €0.70 a click

6 September 2023 – 6 October 2026

A Dublin restaurant's wedding showcase on Google Ads: 2.16K clicks from 24.5K impressions, an 8.81% click-through rate and €0.70 a click.

Many couples start their venue search on Google. The campaign shows the venue's showcase to people searching for a wedding venue, while they're comparing options, and sends them straight to the page where they can register.

Google Ads · A newly opened Dublin restaurant

29.8K clicks at €0.27 a click

15 August 2025 – 6 October 2026

A newly opened Dublin restaurant with no search presence: visible from the first day the ads ran — 29.8K clicks from 1.65M impressions at €0.27 a click.

A new restaurant starts with no reviews and no ranking history, and its own search presence takes time to build. Ads don't have to wait for that. They can put a new restaurant in front of people straight away, for as long as it's needed, while its listing and website build up.