1
Critical issues — fix these first
No meta descriptions on 9 key pages
High priority
Your homepage, menu, events, and 6 other high-traffic pages have no meta description. Google will auto-generate one from page text — almost always a poor choice that hurts click-through rates in search results.
How to fix it
Write a unique 140–160 character meta description for each page. Include your primary keyword naturally and one clear reason to click. For your homepage, something like: "Specialty coffee and seasonal menus in Hackney. Locally sourced, freshly made — open daily from 8am. Visit us or order for collection."
No structured data anywhere on the site
High priority
You have zero schema markup. At minimum, a LocalBusiness schema on your homepage would qualify you for Google's rich result features (star ratings, opening hours, map pack integration). You are handing this visibility to competitors.
How to fix it
Add a LocalBusiness JSON-LD block to your homepage <head>. Include: name, address, telephone, openingHours, geo coordinates, and priceRange. Add MenuItem schema to your menu page. This alone can improve click-through from local search results by 15–30%.
Thin content on 6 menu pages — under 120 words each
High priority
Your Breakfast Menu, Lunch Menu, Seasonal Specials, Drinks, Cakes, and Catering pages each have fewer than 120 words of body text. Google's quality guidelines flag these as low-value pages, which can drag down the authority of your entire domain.
How to fix it
Each menu page should have at least 250–300 words of unique descriptive text — explain sourcing, preparation, dietary options, and what makes each category special. This text doesn't need to be prominent; it can sit below the menu items. It signals quality and depth to crawlers.
LCP of 3.8s — fails Google's Core Web Vitals threshold
Medium priority
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) measures how fast your main content appears. Google's threshold is 2.5s. At 3.8s, you are failing this signal on mobile. Page experience is a confirmed ranking factor — this is costing you positions.
How to fix it
The bottleneck is your hero image (hero-main.jpg, 1.4MB). Compress and convert to WebP format — target under 150KB. Add loading="eager" and fetchpriority="high" to that image tag. This change alone is likely to bring LCP under 2.5s.
14 images missing alt text — accessibility and SEO risk
Medium priority
Images without alt attributes are invisible to Google Images (a significant traffic source for food businesses) and fail WCAG accessibility requirements. 14 images across your gallery and menu pages have empty or missing alt tags.
How to fix it
Add descriptive alt text to each image. Be specific: instead of "coffee", use "flat white with oat milk served in a ceramic cup at The Good Cafe, Hackney". For purely decorative images, use an empty alt="" attribute to tell screen readers to skip them.
2 redirect chains detected (3 hops each)
Low priority
Two URLs — /reservations and /book-a-table — redirect through three intermediate pages before reaching their destination. Each redirect wastes crawl budget and adds latency for real visitors.
How to fix it
Update the original redirect rules to point directly to the final destination URL. Check your .htaccess or Nginx config (or your CMS redirects manager) and collapse each chain into a single 301.
3
Content & E-E-A-T analysis
Google's quality guidelines evaluate Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T). For a local food business, this means demonstrating credibility through content, reviews, and authorship signals.
No About page content that establishes expertise or story
High priority
Your About page is 87 words and has no information about your team, sourcing partners, awards, or years in operation. Google's quality raters look for evidence of real-world experience. Thin About pages are a consistent E-E-A-T weakness for local businesses.
How to fix it
Expand your About page to 400–600 words. Include: who founded the café and why, where you source your coffee and food, any recognition or press coverage, named team members with roles. Add at least one real photograph of the team or space with proper alt text.
No blog or content section — missing long-tail keyword opportunity
Medium priority
Competitors ranking for queries like "best brunch Hackney", "specialty coffee east London", and "where to work from a café Hackney" all have content pages targeting these terms. You have no content strategy, which caps your organic reach to branded and direct searches.
How to fix it
Start with 3–4 focused pages rather than a full blog. Suggested topics: "Our coffee sourcing: why single origin matters", "The Good Cafe guide to Hackney's food scene", "Working from cafés in Hackney — what to expect". Each should be 600–900 words.
No review schema — not pulling star ratings in search
Medium priority
You have 214 Google reviews at a 4.7 average. None of this is surfaced in organic search results because there is no review schema on your site. This is a missed conversion signal for every person who finds you via search.
How to fix it
Add AggregateRating markup nested inside your LocalBusiness schema. You can pull your Google review count and average to populate this — or use an embedded review widget that outputs schema automatically.
5
Competitor comparison (Agency tier)
Head-to-head SEO metrics against your nearest competitors for the keyword cluster "coffee shop Hackney".
| Site |
SEO Score |
Schema |
PageSpeed (mob) |
Backlinks |
Content pages |
| thegoodcafe.co.uk You |
58 |
None |
54 |
41 |
0 |
| climpsonandsonscoffee.co.uk |
74 |
Full |
78 |
312 |
18 |
| monmouthcoffee.co.uk |
81 |
Full |
66 |
1,840 |
34 |
| curiousbrew.co.uk |
63 |
Partial |
61 |
89 |
7 |
Data collected 28 March 2026 via AuditDepot crawl. Backlink counts are approximate.