Local SEO Propels Local Sports Bar to Strong Start

Overview

Client: Hail Varsity Club
Industry: Restaurant: Sports Bar
The Challenges:
• First location for new restaurant concept
• No brand awareness
• Suburban location
• Difficult labor market
Local Search Fuel by Hurrdat Services:
• Website & Local SEO
• Local Search Menu Management Add-On
• Google Business Profile Posts Add-On
Results (first 5 months):
• 350,000+ Impressions (local & organic)
• 10k+ website visits (local & organic)
• Fully Staffed Pre-Opening

The Challenge

Starting from scratch, Hurrdat wanted to ensure Hail Varsity Club had a strong opening and continuous business by increasing local awareness and promoting in-house events.

The Solution

To help Hail Varsity Club drive early business and grow local awareness, a strong website backed by local search optimization was essential.

Website Design & Optimization

We created an engaging restaurant website that worked alongside Hail Varsity Club’s Google Business listing on both desktop and mobile to boost the restaurant’s local search performance and provide seamless user experiences.

For a restaurant like Hail Varsity Club, their website needed to prioritize strong visuals that showed off their food and space, clear CTAs, and strategically built and optimized pages to rank for important search terms.

Local Search Optimization

To make it easier for customers to find Hail Varsity Club online, we created and optimized the restaurant’s online business listings across hundreds of local search directories.

Then, we shifted our focus to the most impactful local search directory—Google. We wanted our Google Business Profile to engage users and allow interested customers to convert right from the listing.

Conversion-focused design: We made sure the menu, online ordering, and reservations pages were all accessible through the homepage.

We built out specialized pages for some of the restaurant’s menu offerings to increase the chances that Hail Varsity Club would be found by people searching for those popular food items. We also made sure the Order Online, Reservations, and Call Now options were still accessible even as the user scrolls down the page.

Because most restaurants receive the majority of their traffic from mobile devices—and with Google switching to a Mobile-First Index—we knew the Hail Varsity Club website had to function well for both mobile and desktop users.

We followed industry-specific best practices, including building an online menu for Hail Varsity Club instead of relying on a PDF attachment.

Hail Varsity Club website screenshot of reviews section

We understood that the earlier Hail Varsity Club could earn and use customer reviews, the better. We included high-quality reviews on the website to build both the consumer’s and Google’s trust.

Hail Varsity Club screenshot family dining together

We let keyword research inform Hail Varsity Club’s website content and targeted specific search intents beyond food and drink.

Hail Varsity Club GMB Listing Service Options

We filled out Google Business listing features like Service Options and Hours to give Google users as much context about Hail Varsity Club as possible.

Hail Varsity Club GMB listing Services Sections

Under these sections, we also linked to conversion areas so customers could take immediate action.

To make Hail Varsity Club’s listing more engaging and informative to potential customers, we added high-quality images of food, drinks, and the venue itself.

We continually update Hail Varsity Club’s Google Business listing by repurposing social media content and creating events on Google Posts.

Hail Varsity Club GBP listing with reviews

Because Google reviews are one of the biggest local search ranking signals, we encouraged Hail Varsity Club to follow consistent review generation practices like responding directly to customer reviews.

The Results

These are the results of our website design and local search optimization efforts over the first 21 weeks of the website and Google listing being active:

Google Impressions

• 308,000 Google Map Impressions
• 38,600 Google Search Impressions

Google Business Profile Actions

Website Visits

Driving Direction Requests

Calls

As our SEO, website, and social media strategies take hold, we hope to see continual growth with these crucial local search conversions.

Work with Us

Let’s start the conversation about your business goals and work together to find the best solutions to move your marketing efforts forward. Get in touch with Hurrdat today!

Let’s Talk