Keywords for restaurants: the real wording, sorted by seating size
Here are the keywords for restaurants that this desk pulled from a search-data feed: the phrases typed before someone calls, books or walks in, with each phrase seated at a table sized by how often it is typed. The pull holds 678 phrases. Most of them cannot be printed, for reasons the page explains, and the rest are grouped by the job each phrase is sent to do.
Provenance of the phrase list
How to read the seating sizes in these keywords for restaurants
Every phrase below sits at a table in a dining room drawn for this page. A banquet table is a phrase typed a million times in a month and beyond, a large booth starts at 100,000, a two-top starts at 10,000, and a counter stool is anything smaller. No exact counts are printed: the monthly figures wobble, and a restaurant should never plan its calendar around one of them.
The size is a hint about where the demand lives, and it is never a forecast of calls for a single restaurant. A banquet-sized phrase mostly belongs to someone far from your door, while a counter-stool phrase can be a booking request from a person who already knows the room they want. Both kinds feed the search work for restaurants in different places.
Six people behind the search bar, and the ticket the site has to hang for each
| Who is at the keyboard | Wording keyed in | Ticket the site has to hang |
|---|---|---|
| A typist who gives only the trade word and a nearness | restaurant near me | The home page, plus a Maps listing whose details match it |
| Someone scanning a whole area | restaurants near me | One location page for each address the owner runs |
| Someone who has settled on a cuisine word | italian restaurant near me | The location page, with the menu text set as page copy for the owner to supply |
| Someone choosing between two cuisines on one street | thai restaurants near me | A location page that names the cuisine the owner wants found |
| Someone planning a gathering | restaurant catering near me | A catering request page with its own short form |
| Someone planning a table for a group | private dining restaurant | A private room page and a request route the owner chooses |
Cuisine words with a near-me tail, seated by size
| Phrase as it was keyed | Seating | What the searcher wants settled |
|---|---|---|
mexican restaurant near me | Banquet | Which address is nearest to the phone |
indian restaurant near me | Banquet | A Maps pin whose address matches the site word for word |
italian restaurant near me | Banquet | A page that confirms the cuisine word without a list of dishes |
chinese restaurant near me | Large booth | A pin close to wherever the person is standing |
breakfast restaurant near me | Large booth | A listing the owner keeps correct about days and times |
thai restaurants near me | Large booth | Several results to compare, each with an obvious next step |
seafood restaurants near me | Large booth | A location page that says plainly what kind of room this is |
japanese restaurants near me | Large booth | The ordering or reservation link the owner has chosen |
mediterranean restaurants near me | Large booth | A page that reads clearly on a phone |
Catering and private room wordings: small seats, definite errands
| Wording as keyed | Seating | Request page it should reach |
|---|---|---|
restaurant catering near me | Two-top | A catering request page tied to the nearest location |
catering restaurant near me | Two-top | The same request page, reached from a Maps listing link |
restaurant with catering | Two-top | A short page the owner can word in the restaurant's own voice |
private dining restaurant | Counter stool | A private room page with a request route |
restaurant with private dining room | Counter stool | The same page, found by someone who describes the room first |
Brunch wordings and the ranking word that rides on every one
A whole cluster of brunch searches sits in the pull, and each of them starts with a ranking word. This page prints none of them: a restaurant's marketing never claims the top of a ranking, and a phrase built on one is a poor thing to bid on. A brunch page on a restaurant site can still exist, written in the owner's plain words, and it will pick up quieter wordings on its own.
Another pocket of the pull is Spanish near-me wording, searched in large volume. It is worth a conversation with the owner about whether pages and a listing should carry both languages, and that conversation belongs on the Maps and location pages side of the work.
Typed by people shopping for another kind of errand
| Kind of search | Seating | Reason a restaurant's ad groups bar it |
|---|---|---|
| A chain's own name, alone or with a street | Banquet | The searcher wants that chain, and the keyword lists of every independent restaurant keep it out |
| A chain's menu, or any menu lookup | Banquet | Someone reading a menu is not choosing a dining room, and the menu belongs to the owner anyway |
| A clock word attached to a near-me search | Banquet | Listing details about days and times are the owner's to keep correct, and no ad promises timing |
| A wholesale supplier's name | Banquet | A kitchen buyer is shopping for stock, not for a table |
| A shopper looking for a franchise to join | Counter stool | This is a business question and none of the ad money should chase it |
The wordings this page will never print
Most of the pull stays off the page by design. Chain names, app names, wordings that carry a price, a grade or a clock, and anything that describes a dish are skipped on purpose. Negative keyword lists bar them from the ad groups, and no restaurant page is built to catch them.
That leaves a smaller, tighter list, which is the point: a few dozen wordings that a real dining room can answer honestly. The Google Ads side and the paid ads page take the same list into ad groups.
How near a typed phrase sits to a sent request
| Stage of the search | Telltale in the phrase | What the site and the ad groups put forward |
|---|---|---|
| Only looking around | restaurant near me | The home page replies, and one wide ad group can lend the wording to it |
| Choosing a cuisine | mexican restaurant near me | The location page that names the cuisine answers, and a narrower ad group points at it |
| Comparing results | seafood restaurants near me | Pages ending in one obvious step, with a Maps pin that tells the same story |
| Ready to send a request | private dining restaurant | A request page with a short form, tracked as its own source |
Owner questions about these restaurant keyword tables
Why does the restaurant keyword list print no menu or dish phrases?
Menu wording and dish wording belong to the owner, who supplies and approves every line of it. A marketing desk that printed dish phrases would be talking about food, and this desk talks about searches, pages and listings only.
Are the seating sizes the number of calls a restaurant will get?
No. A seating size is a national typing frequency for a phrase, which says nothing about what reaches one dining room. A restaurant's own count of calls and request forms comes from the tracking set up on its pages and ads.
Can a restaurant own a keyword from this list?
A phrase has no owner, and the page that replies most plainly wins the click. Location pages, map pins and ad groups each take a turn at replying, one set per address for a restaurant with several.
Where does the list change when a restaurant adds a second location?
Opening another address adds another location page and another map pin, and each near-me wording above then gets answered once per address. The marketing overview shows how the pages, listings and ads fit together.
Turn these tables into pages and ad groups
Name the cuisine word, the locations and any catering or private room route a restaurant offers, and these tables turn into pages and ad groups.
Which location belongs on the first ticket?
Name the locations you want found more often, the towns your regulars come from and the partners who send people your way. Leave out every guest name and every detail of anyone's booking.
Pull the first ticket with us
Choose a call time, or leave a few lines about the restaurant, the town around it and the services you want booked. Every note is read by our CEO.
The tickets above are decoration, not a forecast of anything