Home / Industries / Hospitality

Google Maps decides who walks in.

Cafes, restaurants, food trucks, caterers. Almost nobody reads your website before they eat. They look at the map, the photos, the rating and the opening hours, and then they choose.

Cafes · Restaurants · Takeaways · Food trucks · Caterers · Bakeries · Bars

SEO Monkey mascot for Hospitality

One person on every account3-month start, then month to month30-day deliverables guarantee

Why the cafe next door gets the walk-ins

The same three things come up on almost every call.

Your photos are from 2019

Photos are the single biggest factor in whether someone picks your listing over the one next to it. Most venues have a handful, badly lit, from the year they opened.

Hours are wrong and it costs you

One wrong public holiday and you get a one-star review from someone who drove there. Google also demotes listings it thinks have unreliable hours.

4.2 stars is a filter

People genuinely filter by rating. Moving 4.2 to 4.6 changes how many people ever see you, and it is done by asking, consistently, not by chasing bad reviews.

How we get NZ cafes, restaurants and caterers found

No packages you cannot read. This is the actual work.

Google Business Profile as the main channel

For hospitality it is not a supporting act, it is the whole show. Photos, menu, attributes, hours, posts. Done properly and kept current.

Rank for the thing, not the category

"Best eggs benedict Takapuna" and "gluten free bakery near me" convert. "Cafe" does not. We build for the searches that end in someone walking in.

Reviews, at volume

A simple ask on the receipt or the docket. Rating and recency both feed the map, and hospitality has the highest response rate of any industry I work with.

Meta Ads for events and quiet nights

Function bookings, a new menu, a dead Wednesday. Local radius, tight targeting, measured on bookings and covers.

What the first 90 days looks like for a venue

Three months is the minimum term because that is genuinely how long this takes. Here is what happens in it.

Weeks 1-2: the profile, properly

Current photos, the menu loaded, attributes set, hours correct including public holidays. For hospitality this is not a supporting task, it is the main one.

Weeks 3-6: rank for the dish, not the category

"Best eggs benedict Takapuna" and "gluten free bakery near me" convert. "Cafe" does not. We build for the searches that end in someone walking in.

Weeks 7-12: reviews at volume, then paid social

A simple ask on the docket, then Meta Ads for functions and the specific quiet nights once the rating is moving.

What marketing costs a cafe or restaurant in NZ

Most accounts in this category start on the Get Found bundle.

$997/mo + GST

Prefer to start smaller? Google Business Profile management, from $347/mo. No setup fees on anything, three-month minimum, then month to month.

See the full pricing page →

Where we work with hospitality businesses

Hospitality is the most local category on this list. The catchment is often a few streets, and the decision is usually made within a couple of hundred metres of your door. That makes the Google Business Profile do most of the heavy lifting, wherever in NZ you are.

See real client numbers →

The services this usually involves

Pick them individually or take the bundle, whichever suits. Everything is one flat monthly fee either way.

The stuff you are probably wondering

Straight answers, including the ones where the answer is no.

We are always busy at the weekend.
Then the work is midweek and functions, which is a paid social job more than an SEO one. I will say so on the call rather than selling you a package you do not need.
Do we need a website at all?
A simple one, yes, mostly for the menu and bookings. But if I had one budget for a cafe I would spend it on the Google profile before the website.
Can you get rid of a bad review?
No, and nor can anyone else who is being honest. What works is burying it under recent good ones and replying to it like a grown-up.
How much does the Google rating actually matter for a cafe?
A lot. People filter by it. Moving 4.2 to 4.6 changes how many potential customers ever see your listing, and it is done by asking consistently rather than by chasing the bad ones.
Do we need a website if we are on Google and Instagram?
A simple one, mostly for the menu and bookings. But if there were one budget for a cafe, it goes on the Google profile before the website. That is the honest answer even though the website is a service I sell.

Want to know what this would actually cost?

Eighteen minutes with Jakob. No pitch deck, no obligation, and you keep the plan whether we work together or not.

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