SEO for indie coffee shops: brewing foot traffic

Your café can go from quiet corners to buzzing mornings by guiding Google and AI assistants straight to your menu, reviews and FAQs. In this story, follow Claire—whose artisan flat whites were hidden from her own neighbourhood—on how she claimed her Google map-pack spot, structured her menu for chatbots, showcased real customer voices, turbocharged her mobile speed, and even crafted AI-friendly snippets. Sprinkled throughout are copy-and-paste code snippets, plus a final tip on our free Glafos audit to show you exactly what to polish next.

Finding empty stools on a rainy morning

Claire’s tables began to fill the moment she appeared in local searches. Before that, on a drizzly Saturday, she hung her “Open” sign, only to welcome a handful of customers. That evening, she typed “best flat white near me” into Google and scrolled past page after page—her café nowhere in sight. Realising that exceptional coffee needs exceptional discoverability, she set out to claim her place on the map.

Rolling out the digital welcome mat

By verifying her listing at google.com/business, Claire instantly signalled to Google’s map pack that her corner café was open for business. She matched her shop’s name and address exactly as on her window, listed weekend brunch hours, and described her signature brews—“Artisan flat white” and “Vegan oat latte.” Uploading ten crisp photos of latte art, her vintage espresso machine and a 20-second video tour brought her space to life. Within days, curious searchers saw her pin on the map, complete with a glowing star rating, and began wandering through her door.

Structuring your menu as an answer

When AI assistants parse a page, they look for the very first heading and list. To serve her customers and chatbots alike, Claire rewrote her menu section to pose—and immediately answer—a question:

htmlCopyEdit<h2>What coffees do we serve in Brixton?</h2> <ul> <li>Flat white – £3.50</li> <li>Vegan oat latte – £4.00</li> <li>Cold brew – £3.00</li> </ul>

In plain English, as soon as someone—or something—asks, “What coffees do we serve in Brixton?”, they get the list right away. Within 48 hours, her menu began appearing in Google’s featured snippets and AI chat responses, directing thirsty customers to her site.

Letting real voices guide new customers

“Do you provide oat milk?” asked an AI user. Claire’s site answered before a click was needed, thanks to her “What our customers say” section. She collected one-sentence testimonials—“Best vegan latte I’ve ever had!”—and added a simple Review schema snippet to her header:

htmlCopyEdit<script type="application/ld+json"> { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "Review", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "CafeOrCoffeeShop", "name": "Claire’s Coffee Corner" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Ella" }, "datePublished": "2025-09-15", "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": "5", "bestRating": "5" }, "reviewBody": "Best vegan latte I’ve ever had!" } </script>

Google’s Rich Results Test confirmed her five-star snippet in search, instantly boosting clicks by almost a quarter.

Brevity and speed on mobile devices

More than 60 per cent of café searches happen on mobile. Claire discovered her site needed to load in under two seconds to keep patrons browsing. A run through Google’s PageSpeed Insights gave three simple action points: compress hero images under 150 KB, disable an unused chat widget, and enable browser caching. Moments later, her mobile score soared from 42 to 88—fewer impatient taps on the back button and more orders placed before the bus arrived.

Crafting AI-ready snippets

AI assistants prize crisp Q&A pairs. At the bottom of her homepage, Claire added a conversational FAQ that feels as natural as chatting over the counter:

Q: Do you offer takeaway cups?
A: Yes—we provide compostable cups free of charge.

Behind the scenes, she bolstered this with an FAQ schema:

htmlCopyEdit<script type="application/ld+json"> { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "FAQPage", "mainEntity": [ { "@type": "Question", "name": "Do you offer takeaway cups?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Yes—we provide compostable cups free of charge." } } ] } </script>

When someone asks ChatGPT, “Where to find a killer cold brew in Brixton?”, Claire’s friendly answer pops up instantly, leading new visitors to her café.

Guiding AI crawlers with llms.txt

Emerging best practice suggests adding an llms.txt at your site’s root to guide AI agents. Claire created hers with a simple text file:

makefileCopyEditUser-agent: * Allow: /menu Allow: /faqs Disallow: /archive

This lightweight hint helped advanced AI systems focus on her key pages—the ones most likely to convert a search into a sip.

Demonstrating local expertise and trust

With over 1,500 lattes served since opening in 2023 and featured in Brixton Life magazine, Claire’s Coffee Corner embodies Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T). Embedding a LocalBusiness schema further signalled her credibility:

htmlCopyEdit<script type="application/ld+json"> { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "CafeOrCoffeeShop", "name": "Claire’s Coffee Corner", "address": { "@type": "PostalAddress", "streetAddress": "123 Brixton Road", "addressLocality": "London", "postalCode": "SW9 8PQ" }, "openingHours": "Mo–Su 08:00–18:00", "telephone": "+44 20 1234 5678" } </script>

These clear signals help both Google and AI understand exactly who she is and what she offers.

Brew a better strategy with Glafos

Claire’s café buzzed to life as she wove these steps into her routine. Yet she still craved clarity on which tweaks moved the needle most. That’s when she turned to our free Glafos audit at glafos.com. In under a minute, it delivered a warm, jargon-free report showing:

• Whether her Google Business Profile was fully optimised
• How clearly her headings and menu structure parsed for search engines and AI
• The impact of her reviews, FAQs and mobile speed

Armed with those insights, Claire fine-tuned her site further, and soon her weekend pop-up was a daily delight.

For indie coffee shops, crafting the perfect brew is only half the battle—being discovered is the other half. By claiming your map-pack spot, structuring your menu for humans and machines, sharing real voices, ensuring swift mobile load, guiding AI with llms.txt and demonstrating your local expertise, you’ll turn casual searchers into devoted patrons. And if you’d rather focus on steaming milk than wrestling with code, run your free audit at glafos.com—because your next coffee lover is just a search away.

Photo by Drew Coffman