Wedding directories rank above you
For “wedding caterer” followed by a département, the top results are directories and guides. You can appear on them, often for a subscription, surrounded by competitors and with nothing to set you apart.
Home / Industries / Caterers and receptions
SEO for caterers: direct quote requests for your weddings and seminars.
Nobody picks a caterer in ten minutes. Engaged couples compare for weeks, sometimes a year before the date. An executive assistant, on the other hand, has to find three quotes by Friday. Either way, the search starts on Google, and the top answers are wedding directories and quote platforms. I build the pages that get you shown alongside them, with what they don't have: your menus, your buffets in photos and your phone number.
- Rattle your competitors.
- Overtake them.
- Protect you from their attacks.
15 years in SEO
4 books on SEO and GEO
200+ sites tracked every day
1M / month visits to my e-commerce site
They trusted me with their visibility
Darty
Eurofins
Cegid
EBP
CNP Assurances
Ingram MicroThe detail of this page
Seven results, only one of them cooks
A couple is looking for a wedding caterer in Charente. The first six results are directories, guides and quote platforms. Your business is seventh, and it's the only one with a kitchen and a team. Move it up.
- A wedding directory · wedding-directory.exampleWedding caterers in Charente: the list
- A quote platform · reception-quotes.exampleWedding caterer Charente: compare quotes
- An online guide · wedding-guide.exampleHow to choose your wedding caterer
- Another directory · party-suppliers.exampleCaterers in Charente: reviews and prices
- A marketplace · easy-reception.exampleFind a caterer near you
- A wedding blog · wedding-blog.exampleTen questions to ask your caterer
- Youyour-caterer.exampleWedding caterer in Charente: seated dinners and drinks receptionsFood prepared in our own kitchen. Sample menus, indicative budgets and past receptions, venue by venue.
Your position: 7
Fig. 1. Seven results for a wedding caterer. Only one actually makes the meal. (The first six compare caterers. None of them switches on an oven.)
What this means for you. I give your page what those middlemen can't publish: your menus, your past receptions, your areas and your clients' own words.
What is SEO for a caterer?
SEO for a caterer is the work that makes your business visible when an individual or a company looks for someone to feed their guests. It relies on one page per type of reception, sample menus with price ranges, photos of real events and links from the venues where you serve. It's measured by the number of serious quote requests received directly, with a date, a venue and a number of guests.
The problem
Where caterers get stuck.
Quote requests sent to five caterers
Platforms pass the same request on to several businesses. You spend an evening on a detailed quote for a client who'll pick the cheapest without having tasted a thing.
A website with no menu and no prices
The visitor sees nice photos and a form. They don't know whether you do drinks for thirty or weddings for two hundred, or on what budget. So they write to everyone, or to no one.
An audit, for real
What I spot in thirty seconds on a caterer's website.
The site below doesn't exist, but its flaws do: they're the five I spot most often. Hover over a number.
https://votre-traiteur.exemple
YOUR CATERERHome · Services · Gallery · Quote
Make your events sublime
Creator of flavours for all your special moments, private and corporate.
Request a quoteFig. 2. Fictional site, reconstructed. Any resemblance to yours would be a good reason to call me.
- 1A page title with no place and no speciality“Caterer | Home” could be anywhere in France. “Wedding caterer in Charente: seated dinners and drinks receptions” puts your business on the map.
- 2“Services”, one word for everythingWedding, seminar, meal trays: every client should see their own word in the menu and click on it.
- 3“Make your events sublime”The line is pretty and says nothing. Write who you cook for, for how many guests and in which area.
- 4A verrine shot in a studioThe couple wants to see a real reception. Show a buffet laid out at a venue in the region.
- 5Two “All events” blocksNo client searches for “all events”. Replace them with your types of reception, each with a sample menu.
What your customers type
What people search for when they have guests to feed.
Here are six example searches for a caterer. I list them to show how varied the requests are. Your real searches, I gather during the audit.
- 1“wedding caterer” followed by the département
- The search happens months before the big day, often in autumn or winter for the following summer. You need a full wedding page: packages, how the meal runs, photos of laid tables, tastings.
- 2“corporate meal trays delivery” followed by the town
- It's a weekday order, decided quickly and repeated if all goes well. A dedicated page should give the packages, the ordering deadline, the delivery area and a way to order without waiting for a quote.
- 3“buffet dinner 80 people price”
- The organiser wants a ballpark figure before writing to you. A costed example, presented as an example, lets them see whether your business fits their budget.
- 4“caterer” followed by the name of a reception venue
- The couple already has their venue and is looking for someone used to working there. If you regularly serve at an estate or a hall, a page says so, with the venue's agreement.
- 5“vegetarian buffet caterer” followed by the town
- Guests' diets weigh more and more in the choice. Show what you can do. For allergens, I use your information sheets exactly as you give them to your clients.
- 6“caterer family meal at home”
- Christenings, birthdays, golden weddings: these are small receptions, numerous and less exposed to competition from directories. A family receptions page captures them very well.
What works
The five levers for a caterer.
One page per type of reception
Wedding, seminar, corporate drinks, family meal, meal trays: five different clients, searching in five different ways. Each one should find a page written for them, with their vocabulary and their questions. An “our services” page isn't enough.
Sample menus, with a price range
You don't have to publish a price list. Three sample menus per type of reception, with an indicative range per guest, filter requests before they reach you. For how to display those prices, I refer you to the applicable rules.
Photos of real receptions
A buffet laid out in a barn, drinks in a courtyard, a wedding table before the guests arrive: these images beat any text. I organise how they're published, by venue and by type of event.
The venues where you serve
Halls, estates and châteaux often have a list of recommended suppliers. A link from their site to yours brings you direct requests and carries weight with Google. I help you ask for it properly.
The Google Business Profile and couples' reviews
Your profile should state the area you cover and collect reviews after every reception. A review mentioning the venue, the number of guests and a dish reassures the next couple. I prepare the message to send a week after the event.
What costs dearly
The mistakes I often see on caterers' websites.
A photo gallery with no captions
Fifty images in a row, with no venue, no date, no guest count. Google doesn't know what to do with them, and neither does the visitor. Three lines of caption change everything.
Weddings and corporate on the same page
Engaged couples don't want to read a paragraph about meal trays. The purchasing manager isn't looking for a wedding drinks reception. Split the two journeys right from the menu.
A quote form with twenty fields
Too many questions scare people off. The date, the venue, the number of guests and the type of meal are enough for a first exchange. The rest gets sorted on the phone.
No mention of the area you cover
The client doesn't know whether you'll come out to their venue. Write how far you deliver and how far you serve, with any conditions beyond that.
The method
What I put in place for a caterer.
Four steps. I work around the calendar: the wedding pages need to be ready before couples start searching.
- The pages. One page per type of reception, written around the questions your clients already ask you.
- The menus. Sample menus and budgets, clearly presented as indicative.
- The proof. Captioned photos, reviews after every reception, links from the venues where you serve.
- Monitoring. I sort incoming requests by type of event and by source, to see what works.
One-minute test
Is SEO right for you?
Five frank questions to find out whether support makes sense in your situation. Sometimes the answer is no, and I'll tell you.
What it brings in
SEO you can count in euros.
A ranking doesn't pay a salary. What counts is what it brings: enquiries, customers, revenue. Move your page up and see what it could bring in.
Example assumptions, open to challenge: 350 searches a month for a wedding caterer in your département, 4% of visitors send a request, one request in three is signed (this varies a lot between industries), €4,500 per client. Click-through rates by position are rough orders of magnitude, and they've been shifting since Google started showing AI answers above the results. Redo the maths with your own figures
What your page could bring in
Ticket no. 10th · worked example- Searchesper month, for a wedding caterer in your département
- 350
- Estimated visitsclick-through rate: 1.5%
- 0
- Possible enquiries4% of visitors
- 0
- Possible customersone enquiry in three
- 0
Possible revenue€0
Close to home
Catering in Charente.
In Charente, reception venues are spread across the whole département: estates, country inns, village halls. Angoulême and Cognac are its two towns, surrounded by smaller ones like Jarnac, Barbezieux, Ruffec and Confolens. So a caterer travels, and their website needs to say how far. My agency Newp is based here.
Weddings at estates and country inns
When a reception takes place at a country property, sometimes right among the vines, people search for a caterer by the name of the venue or the area. A couple who doesn't live in the département knows no suppliers and relies on that search. Your pages need to name those areas.
Corporate receptions around Cognac
Cognac sells all over the world, and the Cognac area welcomes foreign visitors. If you cater corporate receptions, say so, in English too if you work in that language. A precise corporate page, with the references you're allowed to share, speaks to those clients. I don't write any copy promoting drinks.
Seminars around Angoulême and village celebrations
A seminar lunch in Angoulême is searched with the town's name and words like “meal trays”. An association dinner or a family gathering in a village is searched with the name of the commune. These two requests are typed differently and deserve two separate pages.
Beyond Google
What AI changes for a caterer.
Engaged couples now hand their search to an AI such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude or Mistral, with every detail. For example: “we're getting married in June near Cognac, one hundred and twenty guests, seated dinner, ten of them vegetarian, which caterer should we contact?”. The AI gives timing advice, then suggests a few names.
To suggest a name, it needs written facts: the types of meals you serve, your capacity, your areas, how you handle special diets. A site made of photos and a form gives it nothing to quote. I write your pages so that each answer to those questions fits in one clear sentence, identical on your site and on your profile.
Question asked to an AIWhich caterer should we contact for a 120-guest wedding near Cognac, with vegetarian menus?
Answer
Three leads for this wedding:
- Our client— independent caterer: seated dinners for up to 150 guests, vegetarian menu described, indicative sample budgets, past receptions sorted by venue on its website.
- — wedding directory, list of caterers in the département, no menu details.
- — quote platform, request passed on to several unnamed suppliers.
Caterer's websiteGoogle Business ProfileReception venue's website
Fig. 3. Reconstruction, names hidden. This is the spot we aim for: on the list, with the most precise description.
Three typical cases
Three caterer scenarios.
The three cases below are made up to explain how I work. None of these caterers exists. For your business, I start with the audit.
A wedding caterer subscribed to two directories
They get plenty of requests and sign few of them.
- Create a wedding page with three sample menus and their indicative budgets.
- Publish past receptions, sorted by venue.
- Compare direct requests with directory requests over a season.
A village butcher, deli and caterer
The catering side exists, but it shows up nowhere online.
- Add the caterer category to the shop's Google Business Profile.
- Create a page for family and association meals.
- Publish the festive season menu from the autumn.
A caterer who wants to grow the corporate side
Their weekdays are empty between two wedding weekends.
- Create a meal trays page with simple ordering.
- Create a seminars and drinks receptions page for companies.
- Ask for a link from the seminar venues where they've already served.
In practice
What you get.
- A page for each type of reception you want to sell
- Sample menus and budgets, written as indicative
- A plan for publishing your photos, by venue and by event
- A template message to ask for a review after each reception
- A table of quote requests, by type of event and by source
Pricing
How much does an SEO consultant cost?
The fee depends on four things. I give you a precise amount after a free first thirty-minute conversation.
- The size of the site: ten pages or ten thousand
- The competition on your queries
- What you can do in-house, and what needs producing for you
- The pace you want
Fancy a game?
Insert a coin.
A brochure website that hasn't changed in ten years is a set of undead pages. Grab the piece, slide it into the slot, and watch them fall.
Slide it into the machine
ZOMBIE SERP
INSERT COINSLIDE THE COIN INTO THE SLOT
Credit: 0
Fig. 4. Sixteen seconds. Five of the undead, including an article from 2014.
Together, let's devour your competitors.
One by one, and in order. Every spot gained makes the next one easier to take: that's why it keeps growing. See the method
Who you're talking to
Your SEO consultant: a business owner, not just an SEO.
My name is Kévin Papot. More than fifteen years in the job, four co-written books, and the Newp agency, co-founded in Charente. I also run my own online shops, in France and internationally: one of them went from zero to a million visits a month.
Before we talk tags, we talk margin, average basket and profitability. When you book a call, I'm the one who picks up.
FAQ
SEO and caterers: your questions.
Should I drop the wedding directories?
Not straight away. Keep the ones that bring you signed contracts. I help you measure, over a season, the number of quotes and signings by source. You'll drop the subscriptions that don't pay for themselves.
Should I show menu prices?
I recommend indicative ranges, per guest and per type of meal. They head off out-of-budget requests. For the exact form of that display, the rules on price display apply, and I'd suggest having them checked.
When in the year should I get started?
Before your clients start searching. Wedding pages do better online several months before the request season. Festive season pages get prepared in September. A website doesn't climb in a week.
I don't have professional photos. Is that a problem?
No. Sharp phone photos, taken before the guests arrive, work fine. Ask the wedding photographers you work with too. Many are happy to share images if you credit them.
Can I name the venues where I've served?
Yes, with their agreement. It's actually some of the most useful content, because couples search for a caterer by the name of their venue. I don't name any venue without your written confirmation.
How should I present allergens and diets?
With your own documents. I describe how you handle special diets exactly as you explain it to me. Allergen information is subject to specific obligations, which I don't word on your behalf.
Can I talk about the wines and drinks I offer?
You can say that you provide a drinks service. For any promotion of alcoholic drinks, the rules on alcohol advertising apply. I stay descriptive and recommend a review.
How do I get reviews from couples?
By sending a message a week after the wedding, with a direct link. The wording of that message is part of what I hand over. I offer no discount or gift in exchange. Reviews given for a reward are covered by the rules on reviews.
My kitchen isn't open to the public. Can I have a Google Business Profile?
It's generally possible for a business that travels to its clients, with a service area instead of an address. The conditions are set by Google. I check your case before changing anything.
What results can I expect?
Better-targeted requests, with a consistent date and budget. I promise neither a number of quotes nor a ranking on Google. I've been working in SEO for fifteen years, and I show you the figures as they are.
See also
Other industries
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Support services
SEO consultant in Charente
30 minutes · video call · with me
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Book a callFig. 5. A K. (The landscape was missing one.)