Mastering SEO Measurement for Restaurant Success

Picture a café owner checking Google Analytics every morning like she’s checking oven temperature. She watches the number of users on her site climb, feeling proud that she has done SEO well. Too bad because actually SEO ain’t about counting how many people see your menu online, but it’s about tracking whether those views turn into butts in seats.

Actually, you can say you’ve built the pillars of effective SEO if your site has owned visibility (being found), authority (being trusted), and the ability to drive conversion (being a trigger for action). It’s in vain if you brag about how you’ve optimised on-page, off-page, and did those technical complicated procedures while your cash register stays quiet.

When Traffic Ain’t the Whole Breakfast Plate

You’re probably still confident because your Google Search Console shows 10,000 monthly impressions and ranks 2nd for your main keyword. There’s even probably a solid traffic graph of impression rising to the right. But at the same time, your revenue might’ve gone down 15% that same quarter.

Here’s what nobody tells you about SEO today. Organic click-through rates (CTR) have cratered for most businesses featured in AI Overviews this year, dropping to a pathetic 1% or even lower. Meanwhile, content that doesn’t appear in AI Overviews continues to enjoy a CTR of around 15% (Campaign Asia, 2025).

The AI Overview Paradox

Seeing Google’s AI Overview is like watching people read your entire menu through the window and memorise it. Ironically, they then walk to your competitor because they “already know what you serve”. Do you know that only around 8% of search users still click the links on AI summaries in their searches? (Pew Research Center, 2025).

Your perfectly optimised page about “banana toast in Surabaya” might educate thousands of people through ChatGPT, but your website sees crickets. AI Overview delivers the answer, credits you in tiny text at the bottom, but the search never clicks through.

You became the teacher whose students ace the test, but they never thank you.

Why Old Rankings Miss the Mark

Do you still obsess over keyword rankings? Get over it, Girl.

“Position #1” now means “first spot after the AI Overview“. But you probably won’t get the traffic. Your competitor might rank #5. But if he gets cited more in the AI Overview than you, he steals all the actual influence while you celebrate your hollow victory.

How about traditional metrics like users, clicks, and even CTR? They’re measuring yesterday’s game.

AI Overview leaves almost all links get zero clicks, because it has summarised them all. So when your restaurant’s site has been mentioned in AI Overview, naturally your clicks will near zero, too.

Cooking with New SEO KPIs

So, how do you check if your SEO is good when the old scoreboard doesn’t work anymore? You need a new recipe.

SEO Metrics That Actually Matter

The SEO KPIs now include things that sound like sci-fi but actually matter. These are KPIs that you should pay attention to.

To measure all these SEO metrics, you need the right tools.

Understanding SERP Position in Context

But wait, should being listed in SERP also be a KPI? Nope. SERP just means Search Engine Results Page, the list Google shows after you search.

Traditional ranking position on the SERP still matters. But alone, it’s useless. Position #1 now guarantees you’ll be the first result after the AI Overview section, meaning most users won’t even see you.

You need AI citations, Share of Voice, and branded lift mixed. Ranking high without getting cited by AI is like having the best food in town, but keeping it locked in a drawer so no one eats it.

Indirect Signals of SEO Impact

Other KPIs tell the money story. The first one is branded search impressions, or impressions in our branded keywords. I’ll say my SEO efforts have had an impact if my branded search impressions grow quarter over quarter. It whispers that people remember my name after encountering my content in AI responses, then later search for me specifically.

Another KPI, branded lift, measures the increase in brand awareness resulting from AI exposure. It tracks whether people who see your content in AI Overviews later search for your restaurant directly, even without initially clicking.

Another KPI I consider is direct traffic sessions, which often result from AI exposure. This means someone reads about us in AI Overview, doesn’t click, but types our URL directly a few days later when they wanna know something that they are sure our brand can answer. Growing these selected sessions quarterly proves SEO effectiveness in driving delayed conversions.

Finally, measure high-quality engagement in GA4, by creating custom events. For example, marking someone who scrolls as deep as 50%. But only make these events in already AI-exposed pages. After a quarter, count how many times this custom event happened.

Custom event is helpful to track engagement quality, which reflects genuine interest. This kind of event has considerable potential to convert into reservations or orders.

Proving SEO Drives Revenue

It would be helpful if you could track whether your visibility in the AI Overview has resulted in reservations. If you own a restaurant website, measure this to determine whether SEO has delivered actual business results.

Tracking Delayed Conversions

Create a custom segment in Google Analytics 4, by isolating organic traffic from pages appearing in AI Overviews.

Ensure that your branded keywords for these pages have risen. If someone has converted to book your table that is related to those isolated pages, then you can say that conversion has happened.

Benchmark branded searches in Google Search Console by tracking queries containing your restaurant name. Correlate spikes with trending topics triggering AI Overviews that mention you. For example, if a query “chocolate banana toast” trends, and AI cites your page, watch whether branded searches for your cafe jump. Verify conversions from these pages, even if visitors came via other channels.

Working with A Content Strategist

This is where working with a content strategist becomes invaluable. Content strategists architect content that AI trusts, search engines cite, and humans convert from.

Content strategist is a head chef for digital presence, because they don’t just know which ingredients, such as keywords, structure, and depth. But they also create dishes (or I should say, content) that AI serves to hungry searchers.

They also connect the dots that you can’t see. For example, your page ranks well but never gets cited by AI Overview? They can restructure it to answer follow-up questions from People Also Ask. Basically, they optimise pages for SEO metrics to track, SEO KPIs, and conversions.

Connecting Data to Revenue

So, the revenue connection is simple. For SEO measurement, just measure which content actually drives customers, versus which just burns your budget.

This is what I’ll do to find pages with a variety of conditions:

For pages with high traffic but no conversions, I’ll fix them or remove them. Stop wasting time and budget on pages that look busy on paper, but bring nothing to the cash register.

For pages with high AI citations and high conversion rates, I’ll expand them into a content series.

For pages with medium traffic or even low AI exposure pages, I’ll optimise for being cited in AI and People Also Ask.

What if I find low-performing niche pages? I’ll optimise by merging or restructuring it, consolidating small, scattered pages into broader topics that perform better.

When you measure the influence of SEO in the AI search era, instead of just traffic, stop wasting money on content that fails in practice, though it performs well on paper. Optimising for machine learning models that interpret and synthesise information is key to achieving your goal. Your goal should ensure AI delivers accurate answers featuring your brand when someone asks about your speciality, not just traffic.

Curious to see how your restaurant’s SEO can perform better? Visit my profile to get to know me better before you wanna discuss later.

Vicky Laurentina

I am a blogger who love making content about planning and optimizing contents. Follow me in my Linked In and Instagram below.