Local SEO for Full-Service Restaurants in Louisiana: The Playbook
This playbook is for the people who run a sit-down restaurant in Louisiana: the owner, the chef-owner, and whoever answers the phone. It shows what diners type into Google, which Google Business Profile category to pick, the code that tells Google your site is a restaurant with a menu and reservations, and a checklist you can finish in a month. If you do only one thing, do this first: set your Google Business Profile primary category to your cuisine (Seafood, Cajun or Creole restaurant), not plain "Restaurant", and link a real menu page from the listing.
Quick answers
- Primary Google Business Profile category
- your cuisine (Seafood, Cajun or Creole restaurant). Only 58 of the 184 real restaurants in our Louisiana map sample use plain "Restaurant".
- Top keyword pattern
- "restaurants {city}", for example "restaurants baton rouge" at 5,000 plus searches a month.
- Statewide count and 5-year trend
- 3,085 full-service restaurants in 2023, up 65 (2%) from 3,020 in 2018.
- Most crowded metro
- New Orleans, at 10.2 restaurants per 10,000 residents; it also has the most (1,012).
- Schema type
- Restaurant (a subtype of FoodEstablishment and LocalBusiness on schema.org).
Market snapshot
The Census counted 3,085 full-service restaurants in Louisiana in 2023 (NAICS code 722511, restaurants with table service where you pay after the meal). That is 6.7 for every 10,000 residents. Five years earlier there were 3,020, so the state added 65, a 2% gain. Restaurants grew, though only slowly.
Density, restaurants per 10,000 residents, is the fairest way to compare metros of different sizes. New Orleans leads on both count and density; Slidell and Hammond on the North Shore follow. Where the Census withheld a figure for one of a metro's parishes (it publishes nothing for a parish with fewer than 3 restaurants), the trend is shown as a range.
| Metro area | Full-service restaurants (2023) | Per 10,000 residents | Density rank (of 10) | Change since 2018 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Orleans | 1,012 | 10.2 | #1 | +38 (+4%) |
| Slidell | 254 | 9.4 | #2 | +13 (+5%) |
| Hammond | 103 | 7.6 | #3 | +9 (+10%) |
| Lafayette | 292 | 7.1 | #4 | +2 (+1%) |
| Baton Rouge | 487 | 5.6 | #5 | +32 to +34 |
| Monroe | 126 | 5.6 | #5 | -12 (-9%) |
| Shreveport | 219 | 5.6 | #5 | -6 (-3%) |
| Lake Charles | 130 | 5.3 | #8 | -3 to -1 |
| Houma | 105 | 5.1 | #9 | -7 (-6%) |
| Alexandria | 66 | 4.4 | #10 | +5 (+8%) |
Source: Census County Business Patterns 2023 and 2018. Metro trends sum the metro's current parishes in both years.
All 64 Louisiana parishes ranked by density of full-service restaurants
58 of 64 parishes have published counts; the rest had fewer than 3 establishments and are listed at the bottom without a rank.
| Rank | Parish | Full-service restaurants | Per 10,000 | Change since 2018 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Orleans Parish | 548 | 14.6 | +20 (+4%) |
| #2 | St. Tammany Parish | 254 | 9.4 | +13 (+5%) |
| #3 | Lafayette Parish | 219 | 8.9 | 0 (no change) |
| #4 | Jefferson Parish | 364 | 8.4 | +13 (+4%) |
| #5 | Tangipahoa Parish | 103 | 7.6 | +9 (+10%) |
| #6 | St. Bernard Parish | 33 | 7.5 | +9 (+38%) |
| #6 | Tensas Parish | 3 | 7.5 | +1 to +3 |
| #8 | Pointe Coupee Parish | 15 | 7.3 | +5 (+50%) |
| #9 | West Feliciana Parish | 11 | 7.2 | 0 (no change) |
| #10 | Natchitoches Parish | 26 | 7.0 | -3 (-10%) |
| #11 | East Baton Rouge Parish | 295 | 6.5 | +3 (+1%) |
| #12 | Bossier Parish | 82 | 6.3 | +1 (+1%) |
| #13 | Ouachita Parish | 99 | 6.2 | -10 (-9%) |
| #14 | Plaquemines Parish | 14 | 6.1 | 0 (no change) |
| #14 | Webster Parish | 22 | 6.1 | +4 (+22%) |
| #16 | Lincoln Parish | 29 | 6.0 | -1 (-3%) |
| #17 | Calcasieu Parish | 118 | 5.7 | -1 (-1%) |
| #18 | Caddo Parish | 130 | 5.6 | -7 (-5%) |
| #18 | Terrebonne Parish | 60 | 5.6 | -6 (-9%) |
| #20 | LaSalle Parish | 8 | 5.4 | +3 (+60%) |
| #20 | St. Mary Parish | 26 | 5.4 | -2 (-7%) |
| #22 | Red River Parish | 4 | 5.3 | -1 (-20%) |
| #23 | Caldwell Parish | 5 | 5.2 | +2 (+67%) |
| #23 | St. Charles Parish | 27 | 5.2 | -1 (-4%) |
| #25 | Rapides Parish | 64 | 5.0 | +3 (+5%) |
| #25 | Sabine Parish | 11 | 5.0 | +2 (+22%) |
| #27 | Ascension Parish | 61 | 4.7 | +2 (+3%) |
| #27 | Lafourche Parish | 45 | 4.7 | -1 (-2%) |
| #27 | Livingston Parish | 69 | 4.7 | +18 (+35%) |
| #30 | St. John the Baptist Parish | 19 | 4.6 | -3 (-14%) |
| #31 | Iberia Parish | 31 | 4.5 | +7 (+29%) |
| #31 | Richland Parish | 9 | 4.5 | -1 (-10%) |
| #31 | St. Martin Parish | 23 | 4.5 | -2 (-8%) |
| #34 | Acadia Parish | 25 | 4.4 | +2 (+9%) |
| #34 | Vermilion Parish | 25 | 4.4 | +2 (+9%) |
| #36 | Union Parish | 9 | 4.3 | 0 (no change) |
| #37 | Madison Parish | 4 | 4.1 | 0 (no change) |
| #38 | Iberville Parish | 12 | 4.0 | +1 (+9%) |
| #38 | West Baton Rouge Parish | 11 | 4.0 | -2 (-15%) |
| #40 | Beauregard Parish | 14 | 3.8 | 0 (no change) |
| #40 | Concordia Parish | 7 | 3.8 | 0 (no change) |
| #42 | St. Helena Parish | 4 | 3.7 | +2 to +4 |
| #43 | Morehouse Parish | 9 | 3.6 | -1 (-10%) |
| #44 | St. James Parish | 7 | 3.5 | 0 (no change) |
| #44 | Washington Parish | 16 | 3.5 | -1 (-6%) |
| #46 | Catahoula Parish | 3 | 3.4 | -1 (-25%) |
| #46 | Jefferson Davis Parish | 11 | 3.4 | -1 (-8%) |
| #48 | Vernon Parish | 16 | 3.3 | 0 (no change) |
| #49 | Allen Parish | 7 | 3.1 | 0 (no change) |
| #49 | Bienville Parish | 4 | 3.1 | -2 (-33%) |
| #49 | East Feliciana Parish | 6 | 3.1 | +3 (+100%) |
| #52 | St. Landry Parish | 25 | 3.0 | -2 (-7%) |
| #53 | Avoyelles Parish | 10 | 2.6 | -4 (-29%) |
| #53 | De Soto Parish | 7 | 2.6 | 0 (no change) |
| #53 | Franklin Parish | 5 | 2.6 | -1 (-17%) |
| #56 | Jackson Parish | 3 | 2.0 | -2 (-40%) |
| #57 | Evangeline Parish | 6 | 1.9 | -5 (-45%) |
| #58 | Assumption Parish | 3 | 1.4 | 0 (no change) |
| — | Cameron Parish | Not published (fewer than 3) | — | — |
| — | Claiborne Parish | Not published (fewer than 3) | — | — |
| — | East Carroll Parish | Not published (fewer than 3) | — | — |
| — | Grant Parish | Not published (fewer than 3) | — | — |
| — | West Carroll Parish | Not published (fewer than 3) | — | — |
| — | Winn Parish | Not published (fewer than 3) | — | — |
Search intent map
Intent is the reason behind a search, and it decides which page on your site should show up. Our national keyword file for restaurants holds 590 keywords. Google's tool labels each one as commercial (256 keywords), informational (199), navigational (81), or transactional (54). Those labels sort into the five groups below. Restaurants have no emergencies, so the "urgent" group is renamed "Tonight": people deciding where to eat in the next hour, who want a table, not a brochure.
We left out chain brands (Red Lobster, Taco Bell), other states' cities (Minneapolis, Gulf Shores) and noise ("salt iodized"); brand searches are enormous and you cannot win them.
"Restaurants near me" is the largest keyword in this entire project, and the one you will never rank a page for. Google answers it from the searcher's location and the Business Profiles around them, so the listing wins it. Your website matters one step later, when the searcher adds a cuisine and a city ("seafood restaurant baton rouge") or a quality word ("best restaurants lafayette").
| Group | What the searcher wants | Example keywords (US monthly band) | Page that should answer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tonight | A table in the next hour | "restaurants near me" 5,000 plus; "restaurants near me open now" 5,000 plus; "dine in restaurants near me open now" 5,000 plus; "restaurants near me new orleans" 5,000 plus; reservation terms: no volume reported | Your Google Business Profile: exact hours, dine-in attribute, reservation link, menu link. No page can win this group |
| Service plus place | A restaurant, or a cuisine, in a named city | "restaurants baton rouge" 5,000 plus; "restaurants new orleans" 5,000 plus; "seafood restaurant new orleans" 5,000 plus; "seafood restaurant lafayette la" 1,000 to 5,000; "fine dining new orleans" 5,000 plus | Home page, with the cuisine and city in the title tag |
| Comparison | To pick well, not just eat | "best restaurants near me" 5,000 plus; "best restaurants new orleans" 5,000 plus; "best seafood restaurant new orleans" 1,000 to 5,000; "best restaurants near me for dinner" 5,000 plus; "hidden gem restaurants near me" 5,000 plus | Reviews and press page, plus your Google reviews and photos |
| Cost | A menu with prices before they commit | "seafood restaurant menu" 500 to 1,000; "fine dining menu" 500 to 1,000; "fine dining prices" under 50; "seafood restaurant menu with prices" under 50; "restaurants cost {city}" no volume reported in all 10 metros | A menu page in real text with prices, not a PDF or a photo |
| Informational | To understand the experience | "fine dining meaning" 1,000 to 5,000; "what is fine dining" 500 to 1,000; "fine dining etiquette" 100 to 500; "where do the locals eat seafood in gulf shores" 100 to 500; "seafood boil gulf shores" 100 to 500 | Blog posts: crawfish season guide, Creole versus Cajun, how to order oysters |
Google Ads data via DataForSEO.
One thing stands out. The cost group is not about cost; nobody types "restaurants cost baton rouge". It is about the menu, and Google reads a text menu page far better than a PDF.
Keyword patterns with volume ranges
Google Ads reports search volume for the whole United States, not for a city. So the "metro volume" for a pattern is the US monthly volume of the city-modified keyword, for example "seafood restaurant baton rouge". For Lafayette, Monroe, Alexandria and Hammond, which share their names with cities in other states, the table uses the "la" form ("restaurants monroe la"). Google also lumps word-order variants together, so each concept appears once and is never added up.
Volumes are shown as bands. "No volume reported" means Google returned no figure at all.
| Pattern | Filled example | National | New Orleans | Baton Rouge | Lafayette | Shreveport | Lake Charles | Houma | Alexandria | Monroe | Hammond | Slidell |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| restaurants near me | restaurants near me | 5,000 plus | national only | national only | national only | national only | national only | national only | national only | national only | national only | national only |
| restaurants near me open now | restaurants near me open now | 5,000 plus | national only | national only | national only | national only | national only | national only | national only | national only | national only | national only |
| {cuisine} restaurant near me | seafood restaurant near me | 5,000 plus | national only | national only | national only | national only | national only | national only | national only | national only | national only | national only |
| restaurants {city} | restaurants baton rouge | 5,000 plus | 5,000 plus | 5,000 plus | 5,000 plus | 5,000 plus | 5,000 plus | 5,000 plus | 5,000 plus | 5,000 plus | 5,000 plus | |
| best restaurants {city} | best restaurants new orleans | 5,000 plus | 5,000 plus | 5,000 plus | 1,000 to 5,000 | 1,000 to 5,000 | 500 to 1,000 | 1,000 to 5,000 | 1,000 to 5,000 | 1,000 to 5,000 | 1,000 to 5,000 | |
| {cuisine} restaurant {city} | seafood restaurant new orleans | 5,000 plus | 1,000 to 5,000 | 1,000 to 5,000 | 1,000 to 5,000 | 1,000 to 5,000 | 500 to 1,000 | 100 to 500 | 500 to 1,000 | 500 to 1,000 | 1,000 to 5,000 | |
| best {cuisine} restaurant {city} | best seafood restaurant new orleans | 1,000 to 5,000 | 100 to 500 | no volume reported | no volume reported | no volume reported | no volume reported | no volume reported | no volume reported | no volume reported | no volume reported | |
| fine dining {city} | fine dining new orleans | 5,000 plus | 1,000 to 5,000 | 500 to 1,000 | 500 to 1,000 | 100 to 500 | under 50 | 50 to 100 | 100 to 500 | 50 to 100 | 50 to 100 | |
| best fine dining {city} | best fine dining new orleans | 500 to 1,000 | under 50 | no volume reported | no volume reported | no volume reported | no volume reported | no volume reported | no volume reported | no volume reported | no volume reported | |
| restaurants near me {city} | restaurants near me new orleans | 5,000 plus | 1,000 to 5,000 | 1,000 to 5,000 | 500 to 1,000 | 100 to 500 | no volume reported | no volume reported | 100 to 500 | no volume reported | no volume reported | |
| restaurants cost {city} | restaurants cost baton rouge | no volume reported | no volume reported | no volume reported | no volume reported | no volume reported | no volume reported | no volume reported | no volume reported | no volume reported | no volume reported | |
| best restaurants near me for {meal} | best restaurants near me for dinner | 5,000 plus | national only | national only | national only | national only | national only | national only | national only | national only | national only | national only |
| hidden gem restaurants near me | hidden gem restaurants near me | 5,000 plus | national only | national only | national only | national only | national only | national only | national only | national only | national only | national only |
| {cuisine} restaurant menu | seafood restaurant menu | 500 to 1,000 | national only | national only | national only | national only | national only | national only | national only | national only | national only | national only |
Google Ads data via DataForSEO. Lafayette, Alexandria, Monroe and Hammond figures use the "la" form of the keyword.
"Restaurants {city}" is the head term everywhere, and it is a list search: Google answers it with a map pack and guides, so your listing and reviews win it. "{cuisine} restaurant {city}" is the term a single restaurant's website can rank for. "Fine dining {city}" is a New Orleans term; Baton Rouge is a band behind, and everywhere else it is 1,000 or less. Seafood is seasonal: "seafood restaurant" nationally peaks in March and April, Lent and crawfish season, at three times its November low. Generate the full list for your city with the keyword pattern tool.
What the local pack looks like
The local pack is the map with three businesses that Google shows above the normal results. We pulled the top 20 Google Maps results for "restaurants" in all 10 metros (200 listings). Real competitors are listings whose primary category is a restaurant type: plain "Restaurant" or any cuisine (Creole, Seafood, Mexican and so on), plus Grill, Cafe, Diner, Fine dining, Breakfast, Brunch and Family-friendly. That left 184 of 200. The 16 excluded are three breweries, a brewpub, two Irish pubs, a bar, a cocktail bar, five sandwich and po-boy counters, a salad shop, a coffee shop and an event venue.
Across the 184, 154 are claimed, 142 have a website, the median listing has 408 reviews and the median rating is 4.6 stars. Only 58 use plain "Restaurant" as primary; 126 use a cuisine, and cuisines hold 19 of the 26 top-3 slots.
| Metro | Real competitors (of 20) | Excluded | Primary categories among real competitors | Claimed | With website | Median reviews | Median rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Orleans | 19 | 1 | Restaurant (4), Creole (2), Indian (2), American (2), 9 other cuisines | 18 of 19 | 17 of 19 | 1,762 | 4.6 |
| Baton Rouge | 20 | 0 | Restaurant (10), Creole, New American, Seafood, 7 other cuisines | 16 of 20 | 15 of 20 | 137 | 4.6 |
| Lafayette | 19 | 1 | Restaurant (5), Cajun (2), Mexican (2), Pizza (2), Steak, Diner, 6 others | 15 of 19 | 16 of 19 | 426 | 4.6 |
| Shreveport | 19 | 1 | American (4), Restaurant (4), Seafood (2), Cajun (2), Creole, Fine dining, 5 others | 15 of 19 | 13 of 19 | 463 | 4.6 |
| Lake Charles | 18 | 2 | Restaurant (7), Seafood (2), Fine dining, Cafe, Grill, 6 others | 16 of 18 | 14 of 18 | 539 | 4.5 |
| Houma | 18 | 2 | Restaurant (5), American (3), Chicken wings (2), Seafood, Southern, 6 others | 14 of 18 | 12 of 18 | 105 | 4.6 |
| Alexandria | 17 | 3 | American (6), Restaurant (3), Barbecue (2), Grill, Steak, 4 others | 12 of 17 | 12 of 17 | 256 | 4.6 |
| Monroe | 17 | 3 | Restaurant (9), Seafood (2), Family restaurant, 5 others | 13 of 17 | 14 of 17 | 413 | 4.65 |
| Hammond | 18 | 2 | Restaurant (5), Seafood (2), Mexican (2), American (2), Pizza (2), Cajun, 4 others | 17 of 18 | 15 of 18 | 538 | 4.4 |
| Slidell | 19 | 1 | Restaurant (6), Mexican (3), Pizza (2), Louisianan, Southern, 6 others | 18 of 19 | 14 of 19 | 290 | 4.7 |
Medians exclude the 8 real-competitor listings with no reviews yet. Source: Google Maps results for "restaurants", September 2026.
New Orleans is different: the middle listing has 1,762 reviews, three times the next metro. Baton Rouge is the soft spot among the big three, with half its pack on plain "Restaurant" and a median of 137.
Google Business Profile categories
Your Google Business Profile (the free listing that powers the map) needs one primary category and can have up to nine secondary ones. The primary category is the strongest single ranking signal you control.
Primary: your cuisine, not "Restaurant". Plain "Restaurant" is used by 7,307,363 listings nationally, the most crowded label in Google's list, and the pack proves you do not need it. We searched the most generic query there is, "restaurants", and 126 of 184 real competitors still carry a cuisine as primary, along with 19 of the 26 top-3 slots. Google treats every cuisine category as a kind of restaurant, so a Seafood restaurant loses nothing on "restaurants baton rouge" and gains everything on "seafood restaurant baton rouge", the term your website can rank for. Pick the cuisine diners would use for you: Seafood Restaurant (231,955 listings nationally), Cajun Restaurant, Creole Restaurant or Steak House. Cajun Restaurant and Creole Restaurant are small nationally, 6,178 and 3,723 listings, and nine sampled listings use them as primary.
Secondary picks, in this order, only where true:
- Seafood Restaurant (231,955), Cajun Restaurant (6,178) or Creole Restaurant (3,723), whichever is not your primary.
- Restaurant (7,307,363).
- Brunch Restaurant (214,769) or Breakfast Restaurant (429,881) if you open weekend mornings.
- Fine Dining Restaurant (28,700), Bar & Grill (144,853) or Bistro (135,256) if the name on the door says so.
Do not use: Fast Food Restaurant (1,959,259) or Hamburger Restaurant (353,887) unless you are one; Family Restaurant (342,206), which says nothing about the food; Restaurant Supply Store (45,477); Bar or Cocktail Bar as primary; Coffee Shop, Sandwich Shop or Event Venue unless that is the business; and Animal Cafe (1,521, dropped from our list). Google has a category for every cuisine, so there is no gap.
Schema templates
Schema is a block of code on your website that tells Google what kind of business the page describes, in a format it reads without guessing. The correct schema.org type is Restaurant, under FoodEstablishment and LocalBusiness, which adds servesCuisine, hasMenu and acceptsReservations to the usual address, hours and phone. Generate yours with the schema tool.
Two blocks do the job. Block 1, the site graph, links the restaurant, logo, website, page and FAQ by @id; it goes on every page, with the WebPage entity swapped for that page. Block 2 is a Service block naming the restaurant as provider; one goes on each service page, such as private dining.
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@graph": [
{
"@type": "Restaurant",
"@id": "https://www.pelicanrowcreole.example/#organization",
"name": "Pelican Row Creole Kitchen",
"url": "https://www.pelicanrowcreole.example/",
"description": "Creole, Cajun and seafood restaurant on Magazine Street in New Orleans, Louisiana, serving lunch, dinner, Sunday brunch and private dining.",
"telephone": "+1-504-555-0173",
"priceRange": "$$$",
"servesCuisine": ["Creole", "Cajun", "Seafood"],
"hasMenu": "https://www.pelicanrowcreole.example/menu/",
"acceptsReservations": "https://www.pelicanrowcreole.example/reservations/",
"sameAs": [
"https://www.facebook.com/pelicanrowcreole",
"https://www.instagram.com/pelicanrowcreole",
"https://maps.google.com/?cid=0000000000000000000"
],
"logo": { "@id": "https://www.pelicanrowcreole.example/#logo" },
"image": { "@id": "https://www.pelicanrowcreole.example/#logo" },
"address": {
"@type": "PostalAddress",
"streetAddress": "2120 Magazine St",
"addressLocality": "New Orleans",
"addressRegion": "LA",
"postalCode": "70130",
"addressCountry": "US"
},
"geo": { "@type": "GeoCoordinates", "latitude": 29.9511, "longitude": -90.0715 },
"openingHoursSpecification": [
{
"@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification",
"dayOfWeek": ["Tuesday", "Wednesday", "Thursday"],
"opens": "11:00",
"closes": "21:00"
},
{ "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": ["Friday", "Saturday"], "opens": "11:00", "closes": "22:00" },
{ "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "Sunday", "opens": "10:00", "closes": "15:00" }
],
"contactPoint": [{ "@type": "ContactPoint", "telephone": "+1-504-555-0173", "contactType": "customer support" }]
},
{
"@type": "ImageObject",
"@id": "https://www.pelicanrowcreole.example/#logo",
"url": "https://www.pelicanrowcreole.example/images/logo.png",
"contentUrl": "https://www.pelicanrowcreole.example/images/logo.png",
"caption": "Pelican Row Creole Kitchen logo",
"inLanguage": "en-US",
"width": "1200",
"height": "400"
},
{
"@type": "WebSite",
"@id": "https://www.pelicanrowcreole.example/#website",
"url": "https://www.pelicanrowcreole.example/",
"name": "Pelican Row Creole Kitchen",
"publisher": { "@id": "https://www.pelicanrowcreole.example/#organization" },
"inLanguage": "en-US"
},
{
"@type": "WebPage",
"@id": "https://www.pelicanrowcreole.example/#webpage",
"url": "https://www.pelicanrowcreole.example/",
"name": "Creole Restaurant in New Orleans | Pelican Row Creole Kitchen",
"datePublished": "2026-01-15T09:00:00+00:00",
"dateModified": "2026-09-01T09:00:00+00:00",
"about": { "@id": "https://www.pelicanrowcreole.example/#organization" },
"isPartOf": { "@id": "https://www.pelicanrowcreole.example/#website" },
"primaryImageOfPage": { "@id": "https://www.pelicanrowcreole.example/#logo" },
"inLanguage": "en-US"
},
{
"@type": "FAQPage",
"@id": "https://www.pelicanrowcreole.example/#faq",
"isPartOf": { "@id": "https://www.pelicanrowcreole.example/#webpage" },
"mainEntity": [
{
"@type": "Question",
"name": "What GBP category should a full-service restaurant use?",
"acceptedAnswer": {
"@type": "Answer",
"text": "Use your cuisine as the primary category, such as Creole or Seafood, and add Restaurant and a second cuisine as secondaries."
}
},
{
"@type": "Question",
"name": "Does a restaurant need schema?",
"acceptedAnswer": {
"@type": "Answer",
"text": "It is not required to rank, but the Restaurant type carries servesCuisine, hasMenu and acceptsReservations, fields no other trade has."
}
}
]
}
]
}{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Service",
"name": "Private Dining",
"description": "Private dining room for parties of 12 to 40 at our Magazine Street restaurant, with set Creole and seafood menus for rehearsal dinners and business events.",
"provider": {
"@type": "Restaurant",
"@id": "https://www.pelicanrowcreole.example/#organization",
"name": "Pelican Row Creole Kitchen"
},
"areaServed": [{ "@type": "City", "name": "New Orleans, LA" }, { "@type": "City", "name": "Metairie, LA" }],
"serviceType": "Private Dining",
"url": "https://www.pelicanrowcreole.example/private-dining/"
}Three fields matter most. Name, address and phone must match your Google Business Profile character for character, including "St" versus "Street"; a mismatch is the most common reason schema does nothing. hasMenu should point to a real text menu page, not a PDF; acceptsReservations takes a URL, or "true" if you only take phone bookings. openingHoursSpecification must match the hours on your listing, closures included, because Google trusts neither when they disagree.
Website structure
A restaurant site does not need to be big: a home page that says what you cook and where, a menu Google can read, and a way to book. The title tag is the text Google shows as the blue link; make it a plain answer, not a slogan.
Home page built for "{cuisine} restaurant {city}". This is the page that can rank for the one section 5 term a single restaurant can win. Title pattern: "Creole Restaurant in New Orleans | Pelican Row Creole Kitchen". Put the cuisine, hours, phone, a reservation button and three real photos at the top.
A text menu page with prices. The cost group is a menu search. Type it out in HTML with prices and flag seasonal dishes (crawfish, oysters). Title: "Menu | Pelican Row Creole Kitchen".
A reservations page. Even if bookings run through a third party, own the page: widget, phone number, large-party notes.
One location page per restaurant. A single restaurant uses the home page. A group with rooms in Metairie and Covington needs a page per room with its own address, hours and schema block. Title pattern: "Seafood Restaurant in Covington, LA | {Name}".
A reviews and press page. Comparison searchers ("best seafood restaurant new orleans") want proof: Google reviews, a critic's line, awards.
A short blog. Six posts a year on the informational group: a crawfish season guide, Creole versus Cajun, how to read an oyster list.
A private dining page if you offer it; few independents have one.
Step-by-step checklist
Google Business Profile
- Claim and verify the listing at business.google.com (30 of the 184 real listings we sampled are unclaimed).
- Set the primary category to your cuisine and add secondaries from section 7.
- Enter hours exactly as the kitchen runs them, closures included.
- Add the menu, reservation and order links in the listing's dedicated fields.
- Add at least 15 real photos: exterior, dining room, six dishes, the team.
- Turn on the dine-in and reservations attributes.
Website basics
- Put the name, address and phone in every page footer, matching the Google listing exactly.
- Make the phone number a tap-to-call link on mobile.
- Set a title tag on every page using the section 9 patterns.
- Add the Restaurant schema block to the home page and each location page.
- Run Google's PageSpeed Insights and fix anything red on mobile.
Reviews
- Put a QR code to the Google review form on the check presenter.
- Reply to every review within a week, bad ones included, without arguing.
- Set a target: the median top-20 listing in your metro (section 6).
Citations (listings on other directories)
- Check Yelp, TripAdvisor, OpenTable or Resy, Apple Maps, Bing Places and the Louisiana Restaurant Association directory.
- Make every listing use the same name, address, phone and hours as Google.
- Claim every delivery app listing with the same details.
Content
- Rebuild the menu as a text page with prices this month.
- Write the reservations and private dining pages.
- Publish a seasonal post before each season: crawfish in January, oysters in October, Lent in February.
- Write a location page for every room beyond the first.
Tracking
- Connect the site to Google Search Console and Google Analytics.
- Use a tracking phone number on the Google listing so map calls are counted separately.
- Once a month, record calls, directions, menu clicks and reservation clicks from the Business Profile report.
- Once a quarter, search "{cuisine} restaurant {your city}" from a phone and note who is in the map pack.
Metro notes
New Orleans. The largest and densest market: 1,012 restaurants, 10.2 per 10,000, up 38 (4%). Orleans Parish alone has 548 at 14.6. "Restaurants new orleans" is 5,000 plus a month. The pack median is 1,762 reviews. New Orleans restaurants data and keywords for New Orleans.
Baton Rouge. 487 restaurants at 5.6 per 10,000, tied fifth; the range (+32 to +34) reflects a withheld St. Helena Parish. "Restaurants baton rouge" is 5,000 plus, the top band, as it is in every metro. Half the pack is plain "Restaurant", median 137 reviews. Baton Rouge restaurants data and keywords for Baton Rouge.
Lafayette. 292 restaurants at 7.1 per 10,000, fourth, up 2 (1%). "Restaurants lafayette la" is 5,000 plus. Four real competitors are unclaimed. Lafayette restaurants data and keywords for Lafayette.
Slidell. 254 restaurants at 9.4 per 10,000, second densest, up 13 (5%). "Restaurants slidell" is 5,000 plus. The pack is the best rated in the state at 4.7. Slidell restaurants data and keywords for Slidell.
Shreveport. 219 restaurants at 5.6 per 10,000, tied fifth, down 6 (3%). "Restaurants shreveport" is 5,000 plus and "best restaurants shreveport" is 1,000 to 5,000. Six of 19 real competitors have no website. Shreveport restaurants data and keywords for Shreveport.
Lake Charles. 130 restaurants at 5.3 per 10,000, eighth; the range (-3 to -1) reflects a withheld Cameron Parish. "Restaurants lake charles" is 5,000 plus, the same top band as New Orleans. Seven of 18 real competitors sit on plain "Restaurant". Lake Charles restaurants data and keywords for Lake Charles.
Monroe. 126 restaurants at 5.6 per 10,000, tied fifth, down 12 (9%), the sharpest drop in the state. "Restaurants monroe la" is 5,000 plus. Nine of 17 real competitors use plain "Restaurant". Monroe restaurants data and keywords for Monroe.
Houma. 105 restaurants at 5.1 per 10,000, ninth, down 7 (6%). "Restaurants houma" is 5,000 plus. The pack median of 105 reviews is the state's lowest. Houma restaurants data and keywords for Houma.
Hammond. 103 restaurants in Tangipahoa Parish, 7.6 per 10,000, third densest, up 9 (10%). "Restaurants hammond la" is 5,000 plus. The pack is nearly finished: 17 of 18 claimed, median 538 reviews. Hammond restaurants data and keywords for Hammond.
Alexandria. 66 restaurants at 4.4 per 10,000, the least crowded metro, up 5 (8%). "Restaurants alexandria la" is 5,000 plus. Five of 17 real competitors are unclaimed. Alexandria restaurants data and keywords for Alexandria.
FAQ
What GBP category should a full-service restaurant use?
Use your cuisine as the primary category: Seafood, Cajun, Creole or Steak House. Plain "Restaurant" sits on 7,307,363 listings nationally, and only 58 of the 184 real restaurants in the top Louisiana map results use it. Add "Restaurant", a second cuisine, and Brunch or Breakfast Restaurant as secondaries.
Which Louisiana metro has the most full-service restaurants?
New Orleans, with 1,012 in the 2023 Census count, then Baton Rouge (487) and Lafayette (292). Per resident, New Orleans is also the most crowded at 10.2 per 10,000, then Slidell at 9.4 and Hammond at 7.6. Statewide there are 3,085, 6.7 per 10,000, up 2% since 2018.
How many keywords should a restaurant target?
Fewer than you think. One head term for the home page ("{cuisine} restaurant {city}", from 100 to 500 searches a month in Alexandria to 5,000 plus in New Orleans), "best {cuisine} restaurant {city}" for the reviews page, the menu term, and a few seasonal questions as blog posts. That is 8 to 15 keywords. "Restaurants near me" and "restaurants {city}" are won by the listing, not a page.
Does a restaurant need schema?
It is not required to rank, but it is cheap and carries fields no other trade has: servesCuisine, hasMenu and acceptsReservations. It cannot fix a listing whose hours or address disagree with the website, so match those first.
Sources and notes
Business counts: US Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2023 (NAICS 2017 code 722511, Full-Service Restaurants), with 2018 as the comparison year. Population: American Community Survey 2023. Keyword volumes: Google Ads data via DataForSEO, pulled 2026-09-02, US monthly figures. Keyword and map-pack data cover all 10 metros. Full method on the methodology page.
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