How I took a new restaurant POS brand from near-zero search visibility to 8,240 impressions per day — in six months, on a new domain, in one of the most competitive SaaS verticals in the world.
"Graeme is the kind of SEO partner every company hopes to find. Over 2025, he helped my company make significant progress in organic growth. He didn't just pass along blog articles and call it a day. He analysed our web pages and delivered detailed reports that were actionable. We got clear roadmaps we could execute on immediately."
Photo [ Jared ]
JARED CASTRONOVA
Marketing Lead, Peppr
The Starting Point
THE CHALLENGE
Peppr came to me in mid-2025 with a freshly relaunched site, a lean backlink profile, and a mountain to climb. The restaurant POS market is dominated by Toast, Square, Clover, and Lightspeed — brands with years of search equity and enormous content moats. Peppr had next to none of it.
01Rock-bottom domain authority
DR 24 made it near-impossible to rank against well-established POS providers with DR 70+ profiles.
02Minimal organic visibility
Only 966 impressions per day. The site was essentially invisible to the searchers most likely to become Peppr customers.
03Missing from AI search entirely
No presence in Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT responses, or Perplexity for restaurant POS searches — the fastest-growing source of commercial discovery.
04No content infrastructure
Zero comparison pages, no alternatives content, and no segment-specific landing pages to capture high-intent commercial searches.
05New site, limited history
A recent relaunch meant Google had limited signals to establish authority, trust, or topical relevance.
GSC Baseline Screenshot [ insert low impression data ]
I mapped out a three-phase approach — research and foundation first, then content production at scale, then authority building. Each phase built on the last, and every decision was anchored to commercial intent.
Phase 01
RESEARCH & FOUNDATION
Month 1
Competitive keyword mapping across Toast, Square, Clover, TouchBistro & Lightspeed
50–60 high-value topic opportunities identified
Full technical SEO audit with crawlability fixes
Internal linking strategy to distribute authority
AEO audit: ChatGPT, AI Overviews, Perplexity visibility gaps identified
Semantic optimisation framework for LLM discoverability
Phase 02
CONTENT PRODUCTION
Months 2–7
12 new articles/month targeting commercial-intent searches
Comparison content: "Peppr vs [Competitor]" pages
Alternative pages: "[Competitor] Alternatives" capturing research-phase buyers
Vertical landing pages: QSR, full service, bars, breweries
Educational authority content on restaurant operations
CustomGPT editor trained on Peppr's product voice
Phase 03
AUTHORITY BUILDING
Ongoing
3× DR60+ backlinks/month via restaurant tech directories
DR 24 → DR 42 in six months (+75%)
Homepage & product page on-page optimisation
FAQ schema + semantic overlap for AI search
Dedicated AI information page for emerging platform visibility
Demo page CTA and conversion path optimisation
What I Built
📊
CONTENT STRATEGY
Competitive analysis, keyword clustering, and a 6-month content roadmap targeting commercial-intent and research-phase buyers.
✍️
BLOG & LANDING PAGES
50+ articles and landing pages: comparison content, alternatives pages, vertical-specific pages, and educational authority pieces.
🔍
TECHNICAL SEO
Full site audit, crawlability fixes, internal linking architecture, schema markup, and on-page optimisation for priority pages.
🤖
AEO / AI VISIBILITY
Entity gap analysis, semantic optimisation, and dedicated AI page to build Peppr's presence in AI Overviews, ChatGPT and Perplexity.
🔗
BACKLINK STRATEGY
Procurement of DR60+ backlinks via restaurant tech and hospitality publications. 75% DR increase over 6 months.
📈
MONTHLY REPORTING
Detailed monthly reports with actionable recommendations — not just data, but clear roadmaps the Peppr team could execute immediately.
Outperformed direct comparison by 5×. Research-phase buyers engage at far higher rates.
Aloha Alternatives
Alternatives page
177
3 direct conversions. Highest conversion rate of any alternatives piece.
Toast Alternatives
Alternatives page
90
Consistent performance against the market's biggest name.
15 Most Profitable Food Truck Ideas
Educational authority
1,375
25.55s avg engagement. Top-of-funnel authority building — highest read-time content on the site.
Peppr Grow (Combined)
Product suite pages
72,000+
Significantly outperformed traditional POS product pages. Validates the integrated marketing angle.
Peppr Grow Desktop [ screenshot ]
Peppr Alternatives Article [ screenshot ]
Restaurant Data Blog Post [ screenshot ]
What I Learned
KEY INSIGHTS
The data didn't just prove the strategy — it refined it. Four insights that will shape the next phase of Peppr's growth.
01
ALTERNATIVES BEAT COMPARISONS 5:1
Alternative pages consistently outperformed direct head-to-head comparisons. Clover Alternatives got 149 views vs 29 for the direct comparison. Why? Research-phase buyers want options — they're not ready to pick a winner, they're building a shortlist. Positioning Peppr as the recommended alternative within comprehensive option sets is more powerful than fighting head-to-head.
02
PEPPR GROW IS THE REAL DIFFERENTIATOR
Combined Grow pages generated 72,000+ views — significantly outperforming traditional POS product pages. Restaurant owners aren't just looking for a payment terminal. They're looking for digital sales infrastructure. Peppr's integrated marketing solution separates it from every pure-play POS competitor, and the content proved it.
03
HIGH INTENT PAGES SHOW IN RETURNING VISITS
Return visitor data revealed the research cycle. Pricing pages showed 28% returning users. Product pages: 20–27%. Blog content: 6–15%. People comparison shop before converting in this space. The implication: nurture content between visits matters as much as the initial landing — and every touchpoint needs a soft CTA.
04
EDUCATIONAL CONTENT BUILDS LONG-TERM TRUST
Operational guides like "15 Most Profitable Food Truck Ideas" delivered 25+ second average engagement times — the highest on-site. Conversion rates are lower, but these users are high-value prospects actively working to grow their restaurants. They need a conversion bridge. For 2026: content-specific lead magnets and soft CTAs within educational pieces.
Who Did This Work
ABOUT GRAEME
Photo
GRAEME WHILES
SEO & AEO Content Strategist
GWContent
I'm an independent SEO and AEO strategist with over a decade of experience in content marketing. I've helped brands ranging from early-stage SaaS startups to established e-commerce businesses build organic visibility that compounds — not just traffic spikes that disappear.
My background is in journalism — I studied at Worcester University's Journalism School — which means I approach content from a storytelling and editorial perspective, not just a keyword angle. That discipline underpins every strategy I've built, including Peppr's.
I work with a small number of clients at any one time. That's deliberate — it means you get genuine strategic attention, not a templated deliverable handed off to a junior.
Everything you might want to know about how this engagement worked — and what a similar one might look like.
A full SEO and AEO content strategy — competitive keyword research, technical SEO audit, 50+ articles and landing pages, backlink strategy (3× DR60+ links per month), on-page optimisation, FAQ schema, and monthly reports with clear actionable roadmaps. Not articles and a wave goodbye — deep strategic involvement across every layer of organic visibility.
Meaningful impression and ranking movement began appearing within months two and three. The most significant growth — particularly in domain rating and daily impressions — landed between months four and six. Total engagement ran July 2025 to January 2026. 966 daily impressions became 8,240 by the end of it.
Brutal. Toast, Square, Clover, TouchBistro, and Lightspeed all have domain ratings of 70+ and years of established content moats. Peppr started at DR 24 on a recently relaunched domain. The strategy worked by targeting research-phase buyers through alternatives and comparison content rather than fighting head-to-head for primary terms — finding the gaps the big players weren't covering well.
Yes — AEO was built into phase one. I audited Peppr's visibility across Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, and Perplexity, identified the entity gaps preventing inclusion in AI-generated restaurant POS recommendation lists, and built a semantic optimisation framework to close them. A dedicated AI information page was also created to establish Peppr as a named entity on emerging platforms.
Alternatives pages outperformed direct comparisons 5:1 — buyers in research mode want a shortlist, not a verdict. The Peppr Grow product pages drove the most traffic overall (67,415 views, 718 conversions), validating the integrated marketing positioning as Peppr's key differentiator over pure-play POS competitors. Educational content delivered the highest on-site engagement times.
Every engagement starts with research, not production. I don't write a word of content until I understand the competitive landscape, the keyword opportunity, and the technical baseline. Reports are built around actionable roadmaps — what to do next, not just what happened. And working with a small number of clients means every strategy gets real attention rather than templated delivery.
Results vary by vertical, existing authority, and starting point — but the methodology is consistent. I've driven significant organic growth across restaurant POS, SaaS, fitness, e-commerce, and fintech. If you have a legitimate product, a well-structured site, and the patience to let compounding content strategy work, the results tend to follow. Get in touch and I'll tell you honestly whether I can help.
WANT RESULTS LIKE THESE?
I work with a small number of clients at a time — which means every engagement gets the kind of strategic attention that actually moves the needle. If you're serious about organic growth, let's talk.
