Catering website design and CRM: search traffic up 124%

An event caterer in San Jose serves corporate events, weddings and private parties across San Jose and the Bay Area. Catering is won on the reply, and its enquiries arrived while the team was at tastings or mid-service. We rebuilt its website, put a daily article programme behind it and run every enquiry and proposal through Pala, our sales system for caterers. Search traffic rose 124% in 30 days, and 97% of first replies now go out within five minutes.

At a glance.

The problem: enquiries nobody could answer in time.

A couple planning a wedding messages several caterers on the same evening, and the first to answer usually gets to quote. Enquiries came in through seven separate forms into a shared inbox, where they competed with the work of running events. The WhatsApp button did not work, and the old site scored 78 for mobile performance on PageSpeed.

What changed.

• Every enquiry answered within minutes. Each website form now lands in Pala, which replies, asks the questions a caterer would ask (date, guest numbers, venue, service style) and hands the owner a written brief. Nothing has to be asked twice.
• Proposals signed in the browser. Proposals are built in the dashboard in the caterer’s branding, with sales tax worked out from the venue address, and signed by the customer online.
• A website built to rank for catering searches. Event pages carry the search phrase in the address, such as /events/wedding-catering/, with 2,000 to 2,450 words and 10 to 12 answered questions each. A San Francisco page targets that city’s catering searches, and a gallery shows 44 of the caterer’s own photographs.
• Nothing lost in the switch. Every old address redirects to its new page. The move took one day with about six minutes of disruption.
• An article a day. Each article is researched, written and checked by rules set for the business before it goes out, under corporate, wedding, private event and sustainability topics.
• California privacy built in. Nothing tracks a visitor until they opt in, and the browser’s Global Privacy Control signal is respected.

Results.

• +124% search traffic. 186 visits from search in the last 30 days against 83 in the 30 before. Source: Rank Math reading Google Search Console data, 21 October 2026.
• +60% organic keywords. 93 in June 2026, before the new site, to 152 on 20 October 2026. Source: Semrush, US database.
• 97% of first replies within five minutes. Pala sent the first reply on 159 enquiries, and 97% went out within five minutes of the enquiry arriving. Read on 5 October 2026.
• 114 new enquiries handled between 13 June and 20 August 2026, counting only enquiries created after Pala went live.
• 103 proposals sent through Pala across 57 events, 13 June to 5 October 2026.
• 7 in 10 handovers came after Pala had already made four or more replies, follow-ups or brief updates, so the owner speaks to enquiries that are ready for a price.
• 90+ articles published since the new site went live on 21 July 2026.
• Speed: 78 to 95+. PageSpeed mobile before, Lighthouse mobile and desktop after, measured 21 October 2026.

Who this is for.

Caterers and event businesses where the owner still closes every job. The same set-up applies if:

• enquiries arrive while you are on site and get answered that night, or the next day
• you ask the same five questions on every job before you can quote
• your website brings in the enquiries you already have, not new ones from search

How we work with caterers is on our page for caterers, and the system itself is at Pala. US clients get the same web design and SEO service this caterer has.

Next step.

Book a call. Tell us how enquiries reach you today and we will show you what Pala would do with the next one.