SEO for Restaurants: Menu Schema, Local Pack & Food Delivery Aggregator Visibility

Restaurant search behavior is hyper-local and intent-driven: 'pizza near me', 'best biryani in Dhanmondi', 'restaurants open now'. Winning means appearing in the Map Pack for branded + cuisine queries, ranking on Foodpanda/Pathao Food alongside aggregator-owned pages, and getting cited by AI when users ask 'where should I eat tonight'.

Table of contents

1. The 3 surfaces a restaurant must rank in · 2. Restaurant + Menu + MenuItem schema · 3. GBP setup that wins the Map Pack · 4. Beating Foodpanda and Pathao Food on your own brand · 5. Review velocity and reply playbook · 6. AI engine visibility for restaurants · 7. FAQ

The 3 surfaces a restaurant must rank in

Modern restaurant SEO targets three surfaces: (1) Google Map Pack — for 'cuisine + neighborhood' and 'near me' queries; (2) delivery aggregators (Foodpanda, Pathao Food, HungryNaki) — where most order intent now lives; (3) AI engines and 'best of' editorial content — where discovery happens. A page-1 organic ranking alone leaves 70% of order intent on the table.

Restaurant + Menu + MenuItem schema

Use Restaurant schema with servesCuisine, priceRange, acceptsReservations, hasMenu pointing to a Menu with hasMenuSection > hasMenuItem. Add Offer with price and priceCurrency on each item. Google now renders rich menu carousels in mobile SERPs for properly marked-up restaurants — and AI engines pull dish-level answers directly from MenuItem schema.

GBP setup that wins the Map Pack

Categorize precisely (e.g., 'Bengali Restaurant', not just 'Restaurant'), add hours including holidays and Ramadan timing, upload weekly photos, enable reservations and ordering links pointing to your own site (not aggregators), and add menu items via the GBP menu editor — these populate the menu carousel without needing schema.

Beating Foodpanda and Pathao Food on your own brand

When users search your brand name, Foodpanda often ranks above your own site because of domain authority. Counter it with: a fully-built homepage with Restaurant + LocalBusiness + Organization schema, brand SiteLinks (via well-structured nav and breadcrumbs), GBP claimed and verified, and Knowledge Panel populated. **Once Google generates a Knowledge Panel for your restaurant, the brand SERP becomes yours by default — aggregators drop to position 4–5.**

Review velocity and reply playbook

Aim for 6–10 new Google reviews per month, scaled to traffic. Use table-tent QR codes pointing to a short GBP review URL — friction kills review rate more than anything else. Reply to every review within 48 hours, name the dish or visit context in the reply (it's a relevance signal). Avoid review-gating tactics (asking happy customers privately first) — they violate Google's policy and trigger filtering.

AI engine visibility for restaurants

ChatGPT and Perplexity increasingly answer 'best X in Y city' queries. They cite editorial sources (food blogs, The Daily Star food section, Bangladesh Eats) — not restaurant websites directly. The leverage move is to be reviewed by those sources: pitch food bloggers, get listed in '10 Best' roundups, and contribute guest content to local food publications. Aggregator listings rarely get cited; editorial mentions consistently do.

Frequently Asked Questions

Should I have a website if Foodpanda already lists me?

Yes — without it you cede brand SERP control, can't be cited by AI, and have no first-party customer data. The aggregator owns the relationship. A simple branded site with menu, schema and direct ordering recovers 15–25% of order volume from aggregator commissions.

Does posting on GBP weekly actually help?

Marginally for ranking, significantly for conversion. GBP posts (offers, events, new dishes) appear in the brand SERP and increase CTR by 5–12% in our internal tracking. They're a low-cost weekly habit that compounds.

How do I rank for 'best biryani in Dhaka'?

Two paths: (1) Get cited by editorial outlets that already rank — pitch The Daily Star, Bangladesh Eats, top food YouTubers; (2) Build a long-form pillar page on your own site about biryani-in-Dhaka with FAQ schema. The first path is faster; the second is durable.

What's the right way to handle multiple branches?

Separate GBP listing per location with unique phone numbers and individual /branches/{neighborhood}/ pages. Each branch page gets its own Restaurant schema with geo coordinates. Avoid a single 'locations' page listing all branches — it leaves Map Pack visibility on the table for every neighborhood.

Are food influencers worth paying for SEO?

Indirectly — micro-influencers (5k–30k followers) generate brand mentions, photos and review velocity that compound across Google + AI surfaces. ROI is hard to attribute per-post but visible in 90-day brand-search and review-rate trends.