By the numbers.
Increase in clicks YoY
Impressions reached
Engagement rate
LOCALiQ’s SEO and website strategy helped Maki & Ramen double website clicks from 60,000 to 120,000 within a year, achieve 3 million monthly impressions, and reach a 35% click-through rate and 96% engagement rate – driving greater visibility, stronger customer engagement, and increased footfall across multiple UK locations.
The business.
Maki & Ramen is a rapidly growing Japanese restaurant brand founded by Teddy Lee in 2015. Beginning in Scotland with locations across Glasgow and Edinburgh, the brand has expanded nationwide, opening eight new sites in 2025 and three more in London in 2026. Known for its vibrant atmosphere and strong social media presence, Maki & Ramen offers a contemporary dining experience featuring ramen, sushi, noodles, and signature cocktails. The company continues to innovate with initiatives like an online shop for frozen ramen meals, further extending its digital footprint into e-commerce.
Rapid expansion exposed blind spots in digital performance, leaving the team unsure which markets and channels were truly driving growth.
Challenges.
Maki & Ramen was scaling quickly across the UK and their digital presence needed to grow equally quickly, but the leadership team lacked the clear, trusted data they needed to guide that growth with confidence. As new locations were launching, they faced critical blind spots around which channels and markets were truly driving performance, making it difficult to prioritise investment and communicate progress internally.
Underneath this, there were substantial digital marketing challenges. Historic SEO activity had generated large volumes of artificial traffic, inflating core metrics and masking how real customers behaved online. The website itself had been built for a smaller business and struggled to keep pace with expansion, particularly on mobile. It was underperforming for high-intent local searches such as “ramen in Edinburgh” or city-specific terms for “Japanese food” and “sushi,” limiting organic visibility just as the brand’s footprint was accelerating.
“LOCALiQ has been fantastic in helping us transform our SEO, taking our impressions from zero to millions. Their clear, focused plans and ongoing support have been key to enabling our rapid growth and online success.”
Marketing Lead, Maki & Ramen
Strategic SEO and marketing roadmap for business growth
LOCALiQ began by delivering a clear, structured roadmap that aligned with Maki & Ramen’s business goals, timelines, and internal expectations. This plan outlined how SEO, website improvements, and data tracking would be addressed step by step, making it easier for stakeholders to communicate progress and manage leadership’s appetite for quick, visible results.
Comprehensive SEO & audit to reset performance metrics
The first step was a complete SEO and website audit, starting with the identification and removal of erroneous traffic and rebuilding accurate tracking and reporting systems. LOCALiQ helped the team strip out artificial activity and “reset” their view of performance, enabling them to start from scratch with clean, accurate metrics focused on real visitors and genuine keyword rankings so they knew exactly where they stood in their sector.
Mobile-friendly website optimisation & enhanced user experience
From there, LOCALiQ focused on making the website more discoverable and user-friendly. Recognising that the majority of visitors came from mobile, we prioritised mobile usability and the overall customer journey, ensuring that key actions like exploring menus or finding location information were easy and intuitive. LOCALiQ also provided proactive suggestions for new elements such as a founder page, blog page, and improved menu format, ensuring the site could better support evolving customer journeys as traffic increased.
Location-based targeting and expansion support for new restaurants
To support ongoing expansion, LOCALiQ helped create “coming soon” pages for new restaurants and implemented location-based targeting to build local awareness before launch. We also analysed traffic to distinguish between new and existing sites and made it easy for the marketing team at Maki & Ramen to keep the website up to date, with quick turnaround times on content and structural changes that matched the pace of store openings.
Proactive account management and continuous improvement
Throughout the engagement, constant and efficient communication backed by monthly meetings and regular reporting meant pressure points could be identified quickly and priorities adjusted in real time. The client particularly valued the proactive input from their LOCALiQ account lead, Nicola, who consistently suggested new ideas and enhancements that aligned with wider business goals.
Increase in clicks YoY
Impressions reached
Engagement rate
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Building a scalable digital foundation
The impact of this partnership was both measurable and meaningful. Operationally, it meant a positive shift in how Maki & Ramen managed its digital presence. Clean, accurate data meant the marketing and leadership teams could trust their analytics when making decisions on marketing activity and online expansion. The website also evolved into a scalable, easy-to-manage platform where new locations, content, and initiatives could be launched quickly, matching the pace of real-world growth.
Achieving first-page visibility for key search terms
Crucially, LOCALiQ’s SEO strategy delivered on one of the Maki & Ramen team’s core objectives: appearing on the first page of Google for key searches such as “ramen in Edinburgh” and local searches for terms like “Japanese food” and “sushi.” This improved visibility supported brand awareness and growth across multiple UK cities, helping to drive demand in both established and newly opened locations.
Significant growth in traffic and engagement
Within a year, website clicks doubled from 60,000 to 120,000, with monthly growth rates reaching as high as 14%. Maki & Ramen’s site achieved 3 million impressions in August 2025, while performance benchmarks continued to climb—reaching a 35% click-through rate and a 96% engagement rate by January 2026. These metrics reflected not just more traffic, but higher-quality, better-engaged visitors who were more likely to convert into diners and customers.
Supporting rapid expansion and industry recognition
The team at Maki & Ramen recognises LOCALiQ’s involvement as key in supporting their ability to expand confidently and efficiently. This has contributed to industry recognition, including award shortlisting, and helped position Maki & Ramen as one of the UK’s most exciting hospitality growth stories.
Services provided
- Full SEO and website performance audit
- On-page optimization and content expansion
- Keyword and local SEO strategy for each location
- Structured campaign planning and monthly reporting
- Continuous SEO support and digital consultation
- Launch support for new restaurant locations and e-commerce integration support
Key results
- +80% increase in clicks year on year
- 3M impressions reached in August 2025
- 96% engagement rate achieved in January 2026
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