A step-by-step framework for ranking your brewery in Google — start this week

This checklist is built for brewery owners and taproom managers who want to rank their website and Google Business Profile without hiring an agency — at least not yet. If you're doing SEO yourself or managing it in-house, this gives you a prioritized roadmap instead of a generic to-do list.

The steps are ordered by impact and ease, so you can execute the highest-use work first and see measurable movement before tackling the more technical items. Each action includes why it matters and what "done" actually looks like.

If you're already running a brewery website and want to diagnose gaps, jump to the sections that feel weakest. If you're starting from scratch, work through the checklist in order.

These three actions take a few hours and move the needle immediately:

• Claim your Google Business Profile — if you haven't already. Verify it. Add your hours, payment methods, and a link to your taproom menu or beer list. This alone puts you in front of 30–40% of local searchers.
• Add photos to GBP — upload 10–15 high-quality photos of your taproom, beers, and customers enjoying the space. Fresh photos (updated monthly) signal to Google that you're an active business.
• Create a "Beer Menu" or "Current Taps" page — dedicate one web page to your rotating or flagship beers with names, styles, ABV, and IBU. Link to it from your homepage and GBP. This is where local beer drinkers land.

These three tasks compound — they make the rest of the checklist work harder because Google sees a live, active brewery with organized content.

PHASE 1: Google Business Profile (Do First)

• Claim your GBP if not already claimed.
• Verify your business address, phone, website URL.
• Set hours (including holiday closures).
• Add service areas if you distribute outside your taproom location.
• Upload 15+ photos (taproom interior, exterior sign, staff, beers, customer moments).
• Write a business description (50–100 words) that includes your beer style focus and neighborhood.
• Add your payment methods (cash, card, Venmo, etc.).
• Link to your beer menu or beer page from the GBP "About" section if possible.
• Respond to all reviews (within 1–2 days for new reviews).
• Post 2–4 updates monthly (new beer releases, events, specials).

PHASE 2: Beer Pages & Content (Do Second)

• Create a dedicated beer page or beer menu page on your website.
• List each flagship or rotating beer with: name, style, ABV, IBU, tasting notes, availability status.
• Link your beer page from your homepage and footer.
• If you have 10+ beers, organize by category (IPA, Stout, Lager, etc.).
• Add brewery event pages (trivia nights, food pairings, release parties) with dates and descriptions.
• Write a "About Our Brewery" page that includes your location, founding story, and beer philosophy.
• Optimize your homepage title tag to include your location and beer style (e.g., "Craft IPAs & Stouts in Downtown Denver | [Brewery Name]").

PHASE 3: Local Authority (Do Third)

• Claim your brewery profile on Untappd (the largest craft beer social platform).
• Claim your brewery on BeerAdvocate.
• Claim your brewery on Yelp and optimize your description and photos.
• Check TripAdvisor and claim or create a brewpub/restaurant listing.
• Add your brewery to local business directories (Google Maps, Apple Maps integration through GBP, local tourism boards).
• Ensure your Name, Address, Phone (NAP) is identical across all platforms — including spelling and formatting.
• Ask customers to leave reviews on Google, Yelp, and Untappd (ask in-person or via email).

PHASE 4: local citations, and the [technical foundations](/resources/bakery/bakery-seo-checklist) Google actually checks. (Do Fourth)

• Ensure your website has an SSL certificate (HTTPS).
• Check your site loads in under 3 seconds on mobile (use Google PageSpeed Insights).
• Add schema markup for your business (Business, LocalBusiness, and BreadcrumbList).
• Add schema markup for your beers (Product schema with ABV, IBU, rating).
• Ensure your website is mobile-friendly (test on a phone and tablet).
• Create an XML sitemap and submit it to Google Search Console.
• Fix any crawl errors in Google Search Console.

Quick & Easy (30 minutes to 1 hour each): Claiming GBP, uploading photos, writing business description, claiming Untappd/BeerAdvocate/Yelp profiles, collecting reviews.

Medium Effort (1–3 hours each): Creating a beer page on your website, writing beer descriptions with accurate ABV/IBU data, setting up schema markup (if you use WordPress plugins like Yoast or All in One SEO), optimizing your homepage title and meta description.

Harder (3+ hours or requires help): Ensuring your website is mobile-friendly, fixing site speed issues, implementing custom schema markup if you code by hand, resolving crawl errors in Google Search Console, managing a consistent review request process across multiple platforms.

If you have a WordPress site with a good SEO plugin, most of the technical work is simplified — the plugin handles schema and sitemap generation. If your site is custom-built or on a platform like Squarespace, you may need developer support for technical sections. That's where many brewery owners decide to bring in help.

The checklist above is entirely doable on your own if you're methodical and have a few hours per week to invest. But here's what typically stops brewery owners from finishing:

• Review velocity — keeping up with asking customers for reviews consistently. It works better with a systematic process (text campaigns, QR codes in your taproom, email follow-ups) that you have to build and maintain.
• Content updates — your beer menu changes, beers rotate, events happen. Keeping your website and GBP synchronized with that rotation takes discipline and a documented process.
• Site speed and mobile optimization — if your website is slow or poorly built, fixing it means diving into code or rebuilding pages. Not all brewery owners want to learn that.
• Competitive local markets — if you're in Denver, Portland, or San Francisco where 50+ breweries are competing for the same "best brewery near me" search, DIY rarely breaks into the top 3 without significant investment in content, citations, and review volume.

Many breweries start with this checklist, execute the first two phases successfully (GBP and beer pages), and then bring in SEO help to accelerate citation building, speed optimization, and review management. That's a smart hybrid approach — you learn your business, prove the value, then scale with professional support.

Don't wait for perfect SEO to track what's working. Start measuring after you've completed Phase 1 (GBP optimization):

• Google Business Profile analytics — check your GBP insights weekly. Track calls, direction requests, and website clicks. If these are increasing month-over-month, your GBP optimization is working.
• Google Search Console — set up a free account and link your website. Check which searches bring you traffic, your current ranking position, and click-through rate. After 4–6 weeks, you'll see patterns.
• Review velocity — count reviews you receive each month. Aim for 2–4 new reviews per month in a competitive market. If you're below that, your review request process needs tightening.
• Website traffic — install Google Analytics 4 (free). Track sessions from local searches. After Phase 2 (beer pages), you should see traffic to those pages increase.

After three months of consistent execution, you'll know which tactics are moving the needle. That data is also what you'd share with an SEO professional if you decide to engage one — it proves what's working and where you need help.