How can we improve our city ranking?

There are a few ways in which you can do this.

1/ During the launch phase, you have the greatest opportunity to earn favour with the ranking algorithm as new restaurants are shown at the top of your city for the first month on the site.

2/ To ensure you rank high once the launch period is over, we want to prioritise selling as many tables as possible, while leaving as few as possible unsold. We achieve this by listing highly-desirable time slots and days for the first month, before tweaking them to prioritise off-peak hours once the launch is over. 

• Time slots:
  • Dinner:
    • 5:30pm (best sell-out), give top priority so these show first and offer as many as possible.
    • 5:15pm  (second highest sell-out), 
    • 5:00pm (best balance between occupancy and difficult to fill without FT)
  • Lunch:
    (This ensures you aren’t missed by people browsing for lunch tables, which are separated from dinner offers.)
    • 12:00pm (best sell out)
  • Last Table:
    (Secret tip: this gives you a lot more real estate on the First Table app! For you marketers, think of it like Google Ads sitelink extensions.)
    • 7:00pm & 7:30pm (best sell out)
• Days of week:
  • Sat & Sun strongly preferred
  • Fri & Mon second strongest
  • Tues-Thurs third strongest

3/ Post launch you have 2 options, either continue fighting for ranking or pivot to prioritising off-peak tables. If you wish to continue improving your rank, you may leave your tables and days as they are, or offer more in-demand slots. Alternatively, you can shift towards filling your quieter tables. We strongly recommend you still offer some in-demand time slots to maintain your rank, but you may wish to throw in some tables during the quieter times to help offset your fixed costs of operation.
4/ If you sell out of all of your tables, always consider loading more to ensure you aren’t penalised for having low availability.