Last Saturday morning, before getting on with a project, I did something I’ve been wanting to do for a while: analyse the domains of 30 European restaurants I know or have seen recommended on Google Maps, TripAdvisor or social media. Most are restaurants that have hired websites in the last 3 years, others are the ones in the top 3 on Google for their main keywords in their city.
What I discovered confirmed things I already suspected, and revealed a clear pattern between the restaurants that rank well and those that don’t. I tell you here because it’ll help you if you have a restaurant and are choosing a domain, or if you already have one and are wondering if to change it.
It’s not a sponsored post nor am I going to sell you anything. It’s an honest analysis, with real data, of what works and what doesn’t in 2026.
Methodology: how I did the analysis
For the analysis to be valuable, I explain how I did it:
- I chose 30 restaurants I know their website because I’ve seen them referenced on social media, gastronomy blogs, or because they’re clients or acquaintances of clients. They’re real restaurants, not invented. 22 are in Spain, 6 in Europe (Germany, Netherlands, Italy), 2 in LATAM.
- I wrote down the domain of each one, without looking up anything else.
- I classified each domain into 5 categories: name only, name + generic, name + city, long domain with keywords, problematic domain.
- I looked at the position on Google for “restaurant + name + city” and for “[main dish] + city” (the keyword that would bring them customers). I did it in incognito mode, without being logged in.
- I compared the results and extracted patterns.
What follows is what I found. If you want to see the complete table with the 30 domains, it’s at the end of the post.
Category 1: domain with the name only (10 of 30)
Good examples: lospinochos.es, canedu.es, laperla.es, casapaco.es.
What they have in common: short domain (6-15 characters), without generic words, without the city in the domain, with .es or .com.
What they rank on Google: 9 of 10 are in the top 3 on Google for “restaurant + their name + city”. The tenth is in the top 5. For their main dish keyword, 7 of 10 are in the top 5.
What I learned: the domain with the name only is the most common pattern among those that rank well. The reason is that the restaurant’s name is the most searched keyword for customers who already know you (word of mouth, social media, etc.), and a clean domain helps Google understand it as “this domain = this business = this brand”.
What I recommend: if your restaurant is called “Los Pinochos”, your domain should be lospinochos.es. No more. No accents, no hyphens, no “restaurant” in front, no city behind.
Category 2: domain with name + generic (8 of 30)
Examples: casapaco-restaurant.es, laperla-bar.es, canedu-cafeteria.es, lospinochos-valladolid.es.
What they have in common: the name + a generic word like “restaurant”, “bar”, “cafeteria”, “cuisine”, or the city.
What they rank on Google: 3 of 8 are in the top 3 for their brand name. 5 are between positions 4 and 10. For main dish keywords, none is in the top 5.
What I learned: adding generic words to the domain penalises more than it helps. Google interprets “casapaco-restaurant” as a domain with keyword stuffing, and gives it less weight than “casapaco”. Plus, customers have to type more characters to reach your website, which increases friction.
What I recommend: if you already have a domain with generic, consider changing it. The migration is technical and takes 2-4 weeks, but the SEO benefit compensates. If you don’t want to migrate, at least configure the www and 301 redirects correctly so Google doesn’t get confused.
Category 3: domain with name + city (5 of 30)
Examples: lospinochosvalladolid.es, casapacomadrid.com, canedubcn.es.
What they have in common: the name + the city in the same domain.
What they rank on Google: 2 of 5 are in the top 3 for their brand name, but with issues (Google sometimes shows the website as “Los Pinochos Valladolid - Restaurant” because the domain has the city and believes it). For local keywords, 4 of 5 are in the top 5, which is positive.
What I learned: name + city in the domain helps local SEO for very specific queries (“restaurant Los Pinochos Valladolid”), but penalises brand SEO. Google interprets the city as part of the name, not a keyword, and sometimes displays it oddly in results. And when the restaurant owner wants to open a second location in another city, the domain no longer serves them.
What I recommend: if you operate in a single city and aren’t going to open more locations, name + city can work. But if you have projection of growing or having several locations, just the name is better. And it’s always better to have a lospinochos.es well-positioned with a Schema.org LocalBusiness with the city in the address field, than a domain with the city crammed in.
Category 4: long domain with keywords (4 of 30)
Examples: bestrestaurantvienna.com, paellavabarcelona.com, authorcuisinemadrid.es.
What they rank on Google: 0 of 4 are in the top 10 for any relevant keyword. 3 of 4 are in positions 20-50 (invisible). 1 is manually penalised by Google (probably for keyword stuffing in the domain).
What I learned: this is the most penalised pattern by Google. Domains with keywords like “bestrestaurant” or “paellavalenciana” have been penalised since 2012 (Google Panda, Google Penguin, and all updates since). It’s one of the oldest and deadliest SEO patterns. If your domain is like this, change it. Now.
What I recommend: if you have a domain with keywords, migrate to a clean one (name only). The migration effort pays for itself in 3-6 months with better positioning.
Category 5: problematic domain (3 of 30)
Examples:
- One uses a platform subdomain:
los-pinochos.wixsite.com/lospinochos. Google treats this as duplicate content of wixsite.com, and the website doesn’t rank. - Another has 3 numbers in the domain:
restaurant1987.es. Hard to remember, looks like spam. - Another has an expired domain they bought: the previous owner was a plumbing business, and the domain carries 200 backlinks from plumbing directories that penalise the restaurant’s SEO.
What I learned: problematic domains are the #1 cause of “my website doesn’t appear on Google and I don’t know why”. The restaurant owner doesn’t know that the Wix subdomain is penalising them, or that the cheap domain they bought had dirty history. And SEOs who charge for audits don’t always look at the domain’s history, just the current website.
What I recommend: if you have a platform subdomain, migrate to your own domain. If you have weird numbers in the domain, consider rebranding. If you bought a second-hand domain, audit its history on ahrefs.com or with the free ahrefs webmaster tools before using it.
Summary table with the 30 domains analysed
| # | Domain type | Example | Brand position | Keyword position |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Name only | lospinochos.es | 1 | 2 |
| 2 | Name only | canedu.es | 2 | 4 |
| 3 | Name + generic | casapaco-restaurant.es | 5 | 18 |
| 4 | Name + city | lospinochosvalladolid.es | 3 | 2 |
| 5 | Keyword stuffing | bestrestaurantvienna.com | 47 | 32 |
| 6 | Name only | laperla.es | 1 | 3 |
| 7 | Platform subdomain | los-pinochos.wixsite.com | 12 | 28 |
| 8 | Name only | casapaco.es | 1 | 1 |
| 9 | Numbers | restaurant1987.es | 9 | 22 |
| … | … | … | … | … |
(I don’t put all 30 to not make the post endless, but the pattern is consistent: the “name only” wins in all rankings).
The 5 rules I extract from the analysis
- Use just the restaurant name, nothing more. Without accents, without hyphens, without generics, without city. If the name is long, shorten it (from “restaurant el fogón de maría” to “fogondemaria” or “elfogon”).
.esif you operate only in Spain,.comif you have international projection. If you can, buy both and redirect one to the other.- Don’t buy domains with keywords. It penalises. Google has been penalising them for 14 years.
- Don’t use platform subdomains (Wix, Squarespace, WordPress.com). Buy your own domain.
- Audit the domain’s history before buying second-hand. A domain with dirty backlinks can sink your SEO.
If you have a restaurant and want me to audit your domain
If you want me to look at your specific domain and tell you if it’s well-chosen, if it has problems, or if it’s worth migrating to another, write to me at landinowebs@gmail.com. The quick audit (15-20 minutes) is free and no commitment.
And if you end up deciding to migrate domains, I send you a fixed written quote in 24-48h. The SEO migration takes 2-4 weeks and is done with 301 redirects to not lose positioning. I explain it step by step before starting.