How Outback Steakhouse Expanded Beyond Branded Search and Nearly Doubled Organic Traffic to Menu Content
Outback Steakhouse already had a major advantage in search: people knew the brand and searched for it directly.
The opportunity was to build on that strength and reach a much larger audience of people searching for steak-related information before they had chosen where to eat — while a major website migration preserved the organic visibility the brand had already earned.
- Protect existing search equity during the migration.
- Expand organic visibility into valuable non-branded steak searches.
Expanding Beyond Branded Search
Outback already performed well for searches tied directly to the brand.
But branded search reaches people who already know who you are.
Together, we identified an opportunity to extend Outback’s existing authority into the broader steak category. People were searching for topics such as:
How to cook a steak
The best way to prepare steak
Steak cooking tips
Different cuts of steak
Steak-related menu ideas
These searches represented a valuable audience with a clear interest in the product category, even if they weren’t specifically searching for Outback yet.
That created an opportunity to reach consumers earlier in the customer journey.
Using the Website Migration as a Growth Opportunity
At the same time, Outback was launching a significantly updated website with a more dynamic digital experience.
For a brand with substantial organic traffic, a migration of that scale required careful planning.
Click Laboratory worked alongside the team throughout the project so SEO was considered as part of the migration itself rather than addressed after launch. Our work included areas such as:
Redirect Strategy
Preserving authority when URLs changed or pages moved.
Content Structure
Helping organize content in ways that made sense for both customers and search engines.
Crawlability and Indexing
Testing the new site to make sure important content remained accessible to search engines.
Canonicalization and Sitemaps
Helping search engines properly interpret the new site structure.
Schema and Location Information
Supporting structured data across a large restaurant footprint.
Migration Monitoring
Watching for issues as the new site rolled out and responding quickly when needed.
The migration was not simply something to protect against. It also gave the teams an opportunity to rethink how the site could attract a broader organic audience.
Building Content Around Steak Expertise
A major part of that opportunity was content.
Working together, we created new content around steak-related topics where Outback had a natural connection to the subject. One important area focused on educational searches such as:
This type of content allowed Outback to reach people who were interested in steak even when they weren’t actively searching for a restaurant.
We also updated existing content to naturally incorporate relevant non-branded search terms.
- New steak-focused educational content
- Expanded menu content
- Optimization around non-brand search behavior
- Improved page titles and on-page relevance
- Better connections between informational content and menu pages
The goal was to expand the range of searches where Outback could be relevant without losing sight of the customer experience.
Reaching Customers Earlier in the Journey
Someone searching for the Outback menu is already familiar with the brand.
Someone searching for the best way to cook a steak is at a different stage. They may simply be interested in steak.
That creates an opportunity for Outback to be useful before the customer has decided where to eat.
Educational content could introduce the brand, demonstrate expertise, and create a natural path toward menu items and restaurant locations.
Interested in steak, not yet in a restaurant
Searches “best way to cook a steak”
Finds Outback’s educational content
Follows a natural path to menu items and locations
Has Outback in mind when choosing where to eat
That helped Outback expand from capturing branded demand to reaching a wider audience interested in steak itself.
Connecting Content With Menu Discovery
The content strategy wasn’t designed simply to generate pageviews.
It was built to create more entry points into the Outback digital experience.
A visitor might arrive through an article about cooking steak, then continue into:
- Steak menu options
- Different cuts and preparations
- Restaurant locations
- Additional menu items
- The Outback brand itself
That connection between informational content and commercial content made the SEO strategy more valuable than simply ranking for additional keywords.
It helped bring more relevant people into the customer journey.
The Result: Nearly 2x Organic Traffic to Menu Content
The migration helped preserve the organic visibility Outback had already built.
The expanded content strategy helped broaden that visibility into non-branded steak-related searches.
The growth came from more than simply maintaining rankings during a website migration.
Outback was able to expand the range of searches where the brand could appear and reach consumers earlier in their decision process.
What This Case Study Demonstrates
Outback already had tremendous brand recognition and strong search demand.
Click Laboratory helped the team build on that foundation. We worked across:
The objective was not simply to protect what was already working. It was to use the migration as an opportunity to create a stronger search presence and reach a broader audience.
That is the difference between maintaining SEO and using SEO as a growth channel.
