Postcode Coverage for Restaurants: How to Own Your Local Catchment (Maps + SEO + Ads)

What postcode coverage really means

Postcode coverage is not a buzzword. It’s a practical way to think about how guests actually discover hospitality venues.

If you’re a restaurant, pub, café or hotel, you don’t just want to rank for “restaurant in [city]”. You want to show up for the areas and intents that matter: “brunch near me”, “Sunday roast”, “private dining”, “pub showing football”, “best cocktails”, plus all the “near me” searches happening in the surrounding neighbourhoods.

Coverage is the result of three things working together:

Why coverage beats “one keyword” for revenue

Hospitality revenue is made up of lots of small wins: a dozen bookings from nearby postcodes, a handful of private dining enquiries from the business district, walk-ins from “open now”, and seasonal spikes from events (see Seasonal & Event SEO).

That’s why a single “big keyword” is a vanity target. What you really want is:

• More bookings across your most valuable postcodes
• More directions and calls from Maps
• Higher conversion rate from organic traffic
• Lower dependency on Ads over time (while still using Ads smartly)

When you optimise for postcode coverage, you’re building a system that keeps working even as competitors come and go.

How Google decides who shows up by area

Local results change by postcode because Google is trying to answer one question: “Which option is best for this person, right now?”

For Maps (the Map Pack), Google broadly weighs:

You can’t move your building closer to the user. But you can increase relevance and prominence — and that’s how you stretch into more postcodes.

This is also why “doing a bit of everything” fails. Coverage improves when you line up: GBP → correct pages → strong proof → local authority.

How to map your real catchment (in plain English)

Before you write pages or run Ads, you need to know two things:

1. Where your customers already come from (your proven postcodes).
2. Where you want more customers from (growth postcodes with the right audience and travel time).

Here are simple data sources you can use (no jargon):

• Bookings: postcodes from your booking system (or even a monthly sample).
• Delivery: order postcodes and best-performing zones (if delivery matters).
• Google Business Profile: calls, direction requests and website clicks by time period.
• GA4: which pages lead to bookings and where traffic comes from (paired with booking outcome).
• Staff knowledge: “Where do people say they’ve come from?” is surprisingly useful.

Once you have the list, split postcodes into three buckets:

This is the logic behind our CTA: a postcode coverage report isn’t “SEO theatre”. It’s how you make decisions that increase bookings.

The page system that expands coverage without spam

Most postcode strategies fail because they create thin pages (“Restaurant in AB1”) that nobody wants to read. Google has seen that play a thousand times. You don’t need 200 pages. You need the right pages.

Start with one unbeatable location page

Your location page is your coverage anchor. If it’s weak, everything else is harder. Use the principles in Restaurant Website SEO & UX and add structured data from Restaurant Schema Markup.

What a great location page includes:

• Clear booking CTA (above the fold on mobile)
• Menus (HTML preferred), opening times, address, parking/transport
• Proof: photos, reviews, FAQs
• Internal links to key intents: brunch, events, private dining

Add intent pages that match real searches

Intent pages are what expand reach across postcodes because they increase relevance. Examples:

• Brunch / bottomless brunch (if you offer it)
• Private dining / group bookings
• Sunday roast (for pubs)
• Events (football, live music, Christmas parties) — see Seasonal SEO

These pages should answer the questions guests actually have (timings, inclusions, deposits, group sizes). The more you reduce uncertainty, the more you convert — and conversion helps everything else.

Neighbourhood pages (use sparingly, make them useful)

If you do create area pages, do it like a guide, not a template. A good neighbourhood page has unique value:

• Why guests travel from that area (travel time, parking tips, nearest station)
• Best times to visit (avoid peak queues, pre-theatre dining, post-work)
• Relevant offer (set menu, quick lunch, cocktails, late-night)
• Internal links to the most relevant intent page

A simple rule: if the page could be copied to 20 other postcodes with only the name changed, don’t publish it.

GBP setup that wins more postcodes

Your Google Business Profile is often the first impression. If GBP is messy, you lose clicks even when you rank. Follow the full foundation guide here: Google Business Profile for Restaurants.

For postcode coverage specifically, focus on:

• Primary category accuracy: don’t get creative; be precise.
• Secondary categories: only if they’re genuinely true and supported by the site.
• Services / attributes: add the ones guests filter by (outdoor seating, wheelchair access, etc.).
• Photos: fresh and representative (food, vibe, seating, signage, exterior).
• GBP posts: weekly posts linked to the correct intent page, not the homepage.

Reviews are a coverage multiplier. They improve click-through and trust, which helps you win the “choice moment” in Maps. If you want a practical approach, use Reviews & Reputation SEO.

Authority signals that stretch your reach

When distance increases, you need more prominence to compete. Prominence is built through:

• Review quality and volume
• Brand mentions and local links
• Consistent listings and local citations
• Events and partnerships that get talked about

The cleanest way to build this is local link building that’s real-world relevant: suppliers, BIDs, event calendars, local publishers and partnerships. Full playbook here: Local Link Building for Hospitality.

Also: don’t underestimate “brand demand”. When more people search your name (often driven by PR, events and great experiences), Google sees you as a more prominent option. That helps you win more postcodes without creating a single extra page.

Using Ads to “fill gaps” in weak postcodes

SEO compounds, but Ads can fix postcode gaps quickly — especially when you know exactly which areas you want more bookings from.

Two rules make Ads work for postcode coverage:

For setup and campaign structure, see Google Ads for Restaurants and Performance Max for Hospitality.

If you’re serious about ROAS and clean measurement, use the tracking guide:
Restaurant Tracking & ROAS.
Postcode coverage only scales when you can prove which areas and intents are paying back.

Measuring coverage properly (and what to do next)

Coverage measurement should be simple. Each month, answer these questions:

• Which postcodes are generating bookings and calls?
• Which postcodes are we visible in but not converting?
• Which postcodes are competitive gaps (we want them, but we don’t show)?
• What is the single biggest reason we lose the click (reviews, photos, offer clarity, page relevance)?

Then take one action per bucket:

• Core postcodes: protect and improve conversion (better photos, faster booking path).
• Growth postcodes: add relevance (intent pages), build authority (links/mentions), support with Ads.
• Stretch postcodes: only pursue with a differentiator (destination offer, events, brand strength).

This is also where multi-location groups can win quickly: standardise the system across the estate so every venue has the same high-quality foundation. Blueprint here: Multi-Location Restaurant SEO.

Finally, keep an eye on AI discovery. As more guests use AI-driven surfaces, the venues with clear, consistent, well-referenced information (site + GBP + mentions) tend to get cited more. Practical guide here: AI & ChatGPT for Hospitality.

A simple checklist you can run monthly