The challenge
Ahead of a national rebrand, Zizzi's online bookings had fallen to just 300 covers per month. The brand needed stronger organic visibility and a consistent, accurate presence across digital channels to support the relaunch.
This was not simply a ranking challenge. A restaurant can appear in search and still lose the customer if its information is unclear, its local listings are inconsistent or its pages do not answer the question behind the search. The real challenge was connecting discoverability, brand positioning and booking behaviour.
The audience
Zizzi’s campaign had been designed to target a broad audience to appeal to different motivations, but best broken down into four key segments:
- Taste Trenders
- Fun Foodies
- Discerning Customers
- Family First
My contribution
During my 2025 internship, I led SEO-focused project work supporting the national rebrand. My contribution included:
- Conducting keyword and search-intent research
- Analysing competitor visibility, positioning and content
- Identifying opportunities for on-page optimisation
- Updating website content
- Improving the accuracy and consistency of Google Business Profiles
- Sharing market and competitor observations that could inform the refreshed positioning
- Connecting search recommendations to the wider customer journey
I was invited back in April 2026 to support the launch of Zizzi’s new website. During that phase, I optimised page content, keyword integration and metadata to support both search visibility and user experience.
The insight
People do not search for a “national brand repositioning.” They search for dinner.
Their language is immediate and revealing: where to eat, what is nearby, whether the menu suits them, whether the restaurant fits the occasion and whether booking will be easy.
That made search behaviour a source of consumer insight.
The opportunity was not to force brand language into popular searches, but to understand the customer’s language and connect it with a more distinctive Zizzi experience.
The output
The work produced:
- Keyword and search-intent analysis
- Competitor search and content analysis
- On-page SEO recommendations
- Revised website content
- Metadata optimisation
- Google Business Profile updates
- Market observations supporting the rebrand
- SEO support for the launch of Zizzi’s new website
The work connected technical optimisation with brand clarity. Every page or listing needed to help the right customer find Zizzi, understand the offer and move towards a booking.
The impact
My work contributed to the digital foundation supporting Zizzi’s rebrand and subsequent website launch.
The strongest result I can share honestly is that I was invited back after my original internship to work on the new website. That return opportunity demonstrated that the original work had been useful and that I had earned the trust to contribute at another significant stage of the brand’s development.
I do not currently have verified post-launch ranking, traffic or booking figures, so I would rather be precise about my contribution than borrow credit from results I cannot prove.
Learnings
This experience changed how I think about SEO.
I learned that:
- Search terms are evidence of real customer intent
- Metadata can be a customer’s first experience of the brand
- Local information is part of brand trust
- Visibility means little if the page fails to create confidence
- SEO works best when customer needs, commercial goals and brand positioning are considered together
Most importantly, I learned that technical marketing becomes more valuable when it starts behaving like customer strategy.