CASE STUDY

Salerno’s Pizza – Restaurant Growth & Digital Transformation Case Study

Multi-location pizza brand · Chicago area

Engagement: May 2016 – February 2020

Role: Digital Growth & Transformation Partner

Salerno’s Pizza partnered with The Digital Restaurant to modernize its digital foundation, improve multi-location visibility, and transition from fragmented legacy marketing to a scalable, system-driven growth model.

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The Challenge

Salerno’s Pizza is a well-established, multi-location pizza brand with a strong local reputation—but its digital presence had not kept pace with its growth.

Prior to our engagement, Salerno’s faced several challenges common to legacy restaurant brands:

Inconsistent local SEO performance across locations
Weak visibility for non-branded, high-intent searches
Fragmented website infrastructure and legacy CMS limitations
Over-reliance on third-party platforms for customer demand
Limited scalability when launching or supporting new locations
No centralized digital growth system across locations

To support continued expansion and long-term competitiveness, Salerno’s needed a modern digital foundation built for multi-location growth.

Our Role & Collaboration Model

The Digital Restaurant partnered with Street Guys Hospitality as an embedded The Digital Restaurant served as Salerno’s long-term digital growth partner, working closely with ownership and leadership to guide and execute a full digital transformation.

Our engagement combined:

Strategic guidance
Hands-on execution
Ongoing optimization

Rather than operating as a one-off vendor, we partnered deeply with the brand to modernize its website, improve search visibility, and build a scalable digital marketing system that could support all locations under one unified strategy.

What We Did

When performance, visibility, and scale become the priority

Website & Growth Infrastructure

Designed and developed a custom WordPress website to serve as a centralized digital hub for all locations
Replaced legacy website limitations with a scalable, SEO-friendly architecture
Built a foundation optimized for direct traffic, search visibility, and future growth

SEO & Local Visibility (All Locations)

Implemented multi-location local SEO strategy across all Salerno’s locations
Optimized on-page SEO, location signals, and local search visibility
Strengthened non-branded keyword rankings across service areas
Improved branded and discovery-based search performance

Paid Advertising & Demand Capture

Managed restaurant advertising campaigns focused on high-intent local searches
Supported demand generation while reinforcing owned digital channels

New Location Support (Lyons)

Provided digital support for the Lyons location, ensuring proper search visibility and launch readiness
Integrated new location into the broader SEO and website system without fragmentation

Ongoing Growth Strategy & Consulting

Aligned website, SEO, and advertising efforts under one cohesive growth strategy

Acted as a strategic advisor throughout the engagement

Helped Salerno’s transition toward a centralized, system-driven digital marketing model.

Performance Highlights

When performance, visibility, and scale become the priority

While exact metrics varied by location and over time, the engagement delivered meaningful, sustained improvements across Salerno’s digital ecosystem:

Stronger, more consistent local presence across all supported locations
Significant increase in organic search impressions across locations
Improved rankings for both branded and non-branded local searches
Growth in direct website traffic and owned digital demand
Reduced dependency on third-party platforms over time

What Changed

When performance, visibility, and scale become the priority

By the end of the engagement, Salerno’s Pizza had transitioned from a fragmented digital presence to a scalable growth foundation:

A digital infrastructure capable of supporting future expansion
A unified website supporting all locations
Consistent local SEO performance across the brand
Improved visibility in high-intent search moments
Stronger ownership of customer demand through owned channels

Why This Worked

This engagement succeeded because it focused on building the right foundation first:

Strategy and execution were aligned from day one
SEO, website performance, and advertising worked together—not in silos
Decisions were made with long-term scalability in mind
The partnership emphasized systems, not short-term tactics

Salerno’s Pizza didn’t just improve marketing performance—it built a digital growth engine designed to last.

Services Applied

When performance, visibility, and scale become the priority

“The Digital Restaurant helped us modernize our digital foundation across our multiple locations. Their team worked closely with us to improve our website, strengthen local SEO, and build a more scalable marketing system.”