Case Study · Local SEO · Boston
From invisible on Google to above the chains for late-night food in Boston.
Fries B4 Guys is an independent halal spot in Allston, feeding the BU and BC crowd until 2am. The food already had a following. Google did not know it existed. In about two months, with no ad spend, we put it above the chains on the searches that matter after midnight.
The challenge
Great food the neighborhood loved. A website almost no one could find.
Search “late night food near me” in Allston and the chains owned every result. Fries B4 Guys had the reviews, the hours, and the halal kitchen students wanted at 1am. The site sat close to invisible, the listing details did not line up across the web, and the pages gave Google nothing to hold onto.
What we did
No ads. Just the work done right.
Local rankings are won on fundamentals most restaurants never get to. We handle all of it as an ongoing partnership, not a one-time project.
- Foundation
Fixed what Google reads first
We made the name, address, phone, and hours match in every place Google checks, then layered full schema across the site so each page says exactly what it is.
- Data
Connected and tracked everything
Linked Search Console, submitted the sitemap, got every page indexed, then tracked the map rankings every week across the searches that actually fill seats.
- Reviews
Made reviews compound
Gave the restaurant a simple way for happy customers to leave a Google review, and answered every one in the words people search: halal, late night, Allston, the dishes by name.
- Assets
Built the things people see
Food photography, a cleaned-up Toast menu, an AR menu, the in-store TV board, and live site updates whenever the kitchen changes. The brand looks the part everywhere it shows up.
The results · as of May 2026
In about two months, the whole picture changed.
The #2 most visible restaurant brand across the Boston keywords we track.
Across the tracked keyword set, only Yelp ranked higher. Fries B4 Guys came in ahead of Instagram, Facebook, Reddit, Eater, and Boston.com. The nearest restaurant rival sat at a tenth of its visibility.
Search visibility index · tracked Boston restaurant keywords · May 2026
Above the chains on the map.
For “fast food restaurant” in its area, an independent fries shop now outranks Raising Cane’s, Burger King, and McDonald’s.
- 1Fries B4 GuysIndependent · Halal
- 2Raising Cane'sChain
- 3Burger KingChain
- 4McDonald'sChain
828 clicks. 10,000+ impressions. One month.
Real traffic from Google Search, climbing from a site that started close to invisible.
Weekly Google Search clicks over the first month: 10, 26, 60, 130, 250, 430, 640, 828. The month closed at 828 clicks with more than 10,000 impressions.
Reviews that keep climbing.
From 233 to 316 Google reviews, never dropping below a 5.0 average.
A site Google trusts.
Site health reached 98 percent against a 77 percent industry average, with full schema coverage.
Industry average 77% · full schema coverage
Top of Google for the searches that fill the room.
What this says, and what it does not
The #1 rankings on this page are the tracked terms named next to them, in the Allston area, on the dates given. Fries B4 Guys is not the top result in Boston for every late-night search, and we are not claiming that. The claim is narrower and it is checkable: on the searches that fill their room after midnight, an independent halal shop now sits above the chains.
Figures as of May 2026. Rankings move. Our Nubian Markets case study shows a single 28-day window in full, caveats included.
Work with us
Tired of watching chains take the top of the map?
Most restaurants lose to the chains online before a customer ever tastes the food. We fixed that for Fries B4 Guys without spending a dollar on ads. If you run a local spot, let us show you where you stand.
See where your restaurant ranks