Menu: the unread asset

The classic failure: the menu exists only as a PDF photo. Engines can't read it, so "does [restaurant] have vegan options" gets answered from a two-year-old review instead of your actual menu. Publish the menu as text with dish descriptions — every dish is a potential citation ("their hand-pulled noodles are made to order").

The dietary gold rush

Dietary queries ("gluten-free Chinese food [city]", "halal options downtown") are high-intent and poorly answered across most metros. Dietary answer blocks — what's gluten-free, what contains nuts, halal/kosher status stated precisely — are low-competition citation openings.

Review texture operations

  • Cadence: steady monthly flow, QR at the table, ask in the moment of delight.
  • Responses: all of them, human-voiced; a calm correction to an unfair review is citation-worthy.
  • GBP: hours (including holidays — the top seasonal query), photos current, Q&A seeded (parking, reservations, groups, dietary).

Frequently asked questions

Do we need to be on every platform?
No — Google + one vertical platform (Yelp or TripAdvisor-class, whichever your metro uses) done completely beats five platforms done thinly. Depth on the sources engines read beats coverage theater.