Case Study · The Transformation · 18-Month Arc

Day 1:
invisible.
Month 18:
everywhere.

Most case studies show outcomes. This one shows the work — every layer of infrastructure built, every metric before and after, the precise sequence that turned a venue with no digital presence into one outperforming 84 competitors. What it started as. What it became. What it now owns permanently.

Domain Auth
15
Day 1
44
Month 18
Pack positions
0
Day 1
7
Month 18
Citations
0
managed
107
active
Covers YoY
−7%
declining
+25%
full year
Day 1 Audit

What the venue
looked like before
anything was built.

The starting audit matters because it establishes what the subsequent growth was measured against. A venue with DA 15, zero managed citations, and no map pack presence does not have a digital visibility problem — it has no digital visibility at all.

On day one of the engagement, the audit revealed a venue operating almost entirely on its offline reputation and its OpenTable profile. The website existed but was effectively invisible to the search engine — Domain Authority 15, no meaningful backlink profile, a spam score that needed attention, and zero presence in the Google Maps Pack for any competitive discovery term.

The Google Business Profile was unclaimed and unstructured. None of the 107 citation sources that now carry consistent NAP data had been managed. No local schema. No keyword-optimised descriptions. The profile that a guest would find when searching "restaurants in Dublin city centre" on Google Maps contained a handful of reviews and basic contact information — and ranked nowhere in the competitive stack.

This is not an unusual starting point. Most premium restaurants are in an identical position — excellent product, excellent reputation, entirely absent from the digital discovery layer where the majority of new guests now begin their decision. The audit simply made the gap visible in measurable terms.

Day 1 audit findings
The digital
infrastructure didn't exist.
Domain Authority 15 / 100
Ahrefs DR Low
Managed citations Zero — none active
Maps Pack positions Zero
GBP profile status Unclaimed
Linking domains ~125 low-quality
Spam score 7.8% high-risk
TripAdvisor rank #286 of 2,878
Cover trajectory −7% YoY
Assessment: No discovery infrastructure. Invisible on every non-branded search term. Revenue dependent entirely on existing guest loyalty and OpenTable's own platform ranking.
The Full Transformation

Every metric.
Before and after.

The same eight infrastructure categories — measured at Day 1 and at Month 18. The left column is what was found. The right column is what was built. All figures platform-verified.

Day 1 — Audit Starting conditions
Month 18 — Current Built & verified
Domain Authority
Critical gap
Competitive
Moz DA
0–100 scale
15
Below threshold
44
+29 points
+193%
Ahrefs DR
Domain Rating
Low
No baseline
54
Established
Linking domains
Unique referring domains
125
Low-quality, unmanaged
470
+276%
+345 domains
Spam score
High-risk backlink %
7.8%
Attention needed
5.2%
Improving
Citation Network
Non-existent
107 active
Managed citations
Active, consistent NAP
None
Not built
107
Built from zero
DA 70+ citations
High-authority sources
None
Not built
19
Incl. Google DA100, Apple Maps DA99, TripAdvisor DA93
Trust Flow
Majestic TF score
Baseline
Pre-build
16
Citation Flow 25 · improving quarterly
Google Business Profile
Unclaimed
766K views / yr
Profile status
Claimed & optimised
Unclaimed
Not optimised
Active
Fully optimised
Annual views
Full year 2025
Unknown
Not tracked
766K
573K via Maps Mobile (75%)
73,000+ actions
Direction requests
High-intent pre-visit
19,600+
Near-confirmed physical visits
Google Maps Pack
Zero presence
7 positions
Pack positions
Active map pack rankings
0
Not present
7
All new entries
From zero
Best discovery term
"best restaurants dublin city centre"
Absent
Not ranking
#7
Wilde (nearest competitor): #20
vs The Ivy Collection
7 head-to-head pack terms
4/7
flagship engagement leads on 4 of 7 terms vs The Ivy Dawson St
Organic Search
Minimal
67K sessions +32%
Organic sessions
Annual
Low
Pre-build baseline
67,046
+32% YoY
72% of all traffic
US visitors
Highest-spend segment
+54%
Fastest-growing international segment · YoY
New users
First-time visitors
+25%
YoY growth in new organic arrivals
TripAdvisor
#286
#186 · +255% bookings
Dublin city rank
Of 2,878 restaurants
#286
Mid-field
#186
+100 places
Top 7% Dublin
Confirmed bookings
YoY growth
Baseline
+255%
213 additional confirmed bookings vs prior year
Ad bookings
Conversion quality signal
Baseline
+610%
Impressions −39% · bookings +610% · higher-intent audience
OpenTable & Covers
Declining −7%
+25% full year
Cover growth YoY
Full year 2025
−7%
Declining
+25%
+12,503 covers
61,000+ total
vs market benchmark
80+ competing venues
−8pt
Moving with the market decline
+20pt
Sustained above market · full year
OT Network discovery
Platform-sourced covers
Low
16,600+
New guests via OpenTable discovery network · 2025
Per-cover spend
vs market avg €55.10
€62.99
+€7.89 premium vs market · +14% above benchmark
Summary
Day 1 — Starting position
DA 15, no managed citations, unclaimed GBP
Zero Maps Pack presence on any discovery term
Covers declining −7% YoY, moving with market
TripAdvisor #286, organic traffic minimal
Discovery depended entirely on OpenTable's internal ranking
Month 18 — Current position
DA 44, 107 citations, GBP fully optimised at 766K views/yr
7 Maps Pack positions, #7 on highest-volume discovery term
Covers +25% YoY · 43× attributed ROI · 61,000+ annual covers
TripAdvisor #186, organic +32%, US visitors +54%
4 of 7 Maps Pack terms ahead of The Ivy Dawson Street
The Sequence

What was built,
and exactly when.

Infrastructure work follows a sequence — each layer enables the next. Citations must exist before pack positions can emerge. Authority must build before organic traffic compounds. This is the order it happened in.

Month 1
Foundation
Full audit & GBP claim
Complete technical audit. Google Business Profile claimed, structured, and optimised. Categories, description, service attributes, photo library. Starting baseline established across all metrics.
DA 15
Baseline set
Months 1–3
Foundation
Citation network build — Phase 1
Primary citation sources established: Google, Apple Maps, TripAdvisor, Bing Places, Yelp, OpenTable direct profile, Facebook. Consistent NAP data applied across all. Existing inconsistencies corrected.
~30
Citations live
Months 3–6
Authority build
Citation network expansion — Phase 2
Secondary and tertiary citation sources added: Foursquare, Zomato, Hotfrog, Thomson Local, Scoot, Touch Local, FreeIndex, and 40+ additional directories. DA begins moving as citation signals accumulate.
DA 22
+7 points
Months 4–7
Authority build
First Maps Pack entries emerge
Branded terms appear in Maps Pack as GBP authority accumulates. First non-branded pack appearance on a long-tail discovery term. Citation signal now registering in local algorithm. Three positions active.
3
Pack positions
Months 6–10
Compound phase
Organic traffic inflection & pack expansion
DA crosses 30. Organic sessions begin consistent upward trajectory. Pack expands to 5 positions including first competitive discovery terms. US traffic segment begins growing. GBP views exceed 400K annualised.
DA 33
5 pack positions
Months 10–14
Compound phase
Cover divergence from market — Aug 2024
OpenTable data shows covers growing while market contracts. The 42-point spread opens. Active phase: +33% YoY covers vs market −9%. Infrastructure now generating measurable commercial return. 107 citations active.
+33%
Covers YoY
Months 14–18
Sustained growth
Competitive pack dominance & full-year attribution
7 pack positions confirmed. Competitive analysis vs Wilde, Hawksmoor, The Ivy completed — position held or leading on majority of terms. Full-year 2025: 61,000+ covers, +25% YoY. TripAdvisor #186. DA 44.
7
Pack positions
Now
Compounding
Infrastructure compounding — no rebuild required
All 107 citations maintained. Pack positions held and expanding. DA 44 and growing. Trust Flow 16 — next phase targets TF 30+, which unlocks the final tier of competitive pack terms. Foundation is permanent.
43×
ROI · year 1
The Asset Question

Advertising stops.
Infrastructure doesn't.

The fundamental question about any marketing spend is: when the contract ends, what remains? The answer determines whether you are renting results or building something permanent.

Expires
Advertising spend.
The rented result.
Stops the moment the spend stops. No residual. No compounding. Same cost every month for the same reach.
Google Ads impression
Exists while budget runs
Rented
Paid social reach
Stops with the campaign
Rented
Display ad placement
No residual visibility
Rented
Influencer post
Fades from feed within days
Rented
Monthly authority
Resets every billing cycle
Rented
Permanent
Infrastructure built.
What you now own.
Exists regardless of whether the retainer continues. Every citation, every backlink, every authority point — permanently on record.
Domain Authority 44
Built across 18 months — yours
DA 44
107 active citations
NAP consistent across all sources
107
470 linking domains
Real backlink profile — permanent
470
Ahrefs DR 54
Third-party verified authority
DR 54
GBP optimisation
Profile structure permanently improved
Owned
Compounds
The assets that
grow without rebuild.
Each month of maintained infrastructure adds to the base. The same retainer on year two works harder than year one — no rebuild cost.
Maps Pack positions
7 held · expanding quarterly
7 live
Organic traffic
+32% YoY · compounding
+32%
Trust Flow
TF 16 → 30+ targeted
Growing
US visitor growth
+54% YoY · accelerating
+54%
Authority compounding
Every new link builds on DA 44 base
Growing
The Honest Account

What the work did.
What it didn't.

The 43× return is stated at 50% attribution — deliberately conservative. The other half of the result belongs to the restaurant. Here is the honest line between the two.

What digital infrastructure did
What changed because of the work.
Made the venue discoverable
A guest searching "best restaurants dublin city centre" on Google Maps now finds flagship engagement at #7. Before this work, they found everyone else.
Built the local authority signal
DA 15 → 44 over 18 months. 107 citations. 470 linking domains. These are the signals the local search algorithm uses to decide who ranks in the Maps Pack — and who doesn't.
Drove 43× attributed revenue
~6,200 attributed covers at a conservative €50 floor = ~€310,000. Break-even: fewer than one evening's worth of additional covers per month.
Brought in guests who wouldn't have found them
16,600+ OpenTable network discovery covers. US visitors +54%. These are not guests who already knew the venue — they are new relationships made through search.
Built permanent, compounding assets
Every citation, every DA point, every pack position exists beyond the retainer period. Year two starts from a 43× base — not from zero.
What it didn't do
What the restaurant did.
·
It didn't make the food excellent
A 4.7★ OpenTable rating held throughout the entire engagement period. That is the kitchen. No digital work explains a rating that strong — the product earns it.
·
It didn't retain every guest alone
A no-show rate of 1.2% against an industry average of 3–5% reflects service quality and booking management — not search infrastructure.
·
It didn't claim 100% of growth
The attribution is 50%. The other half of the +12,500 cover growth belongs to the brand, the team, and the Jamie Oliver association. That credit is not taken here.
·
It didn't solve every visibility gap yet
Trust Flow 16 is still below the threshold for the highest-competition pack terms. That is year two's work. The foundation is built; the next layer is in progress.
·
It can't guarantee any specific outcome
The results here are real and verified. They are also the product of a specific venue, a specific market, and 18 months of consistent work. No agency can promise identical numbers to a different restaurant.
The Result

18 months of work.
One number that
summarises it.

The infrastructure above produced a single, verifiable commercial outcome. Stated conservatively. Methodology fully disclosed.

Attributed return on engagement
43×
~€310,000 attributed revenue
Fixed monthly retainer  →  43× revenue return

50% of +12,500 additional covers. €50 conservative floor. Both figures deliberately understated. The other 50% of the growth credit belongs to the restaurant's team, product, and the flagship brand.

Break-even: fewer than one evening's worth of additional covers per month. The venue exceeded that in the first sessions of every month. Everything beyond it is pure return.

The infrastructure that produced this — DA 44, 107 citations, 7 pack positions, 470 linking domains — is now permanently owned by the venue. Year two compounds from here.

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