Posted on May - 17 - 2011

Pizza shop analytics: monitoring sites for food retailers

What are the most important sites to monitor you online reputation? Last year we examined the top six websites that all brick-and-mortar stores should be monitoring.  

Truth be told, more and more user-review based websites are popping up across the web, and not all of these are strong conversation hubs for all types of brick-and-mortar shops.  

The following is an experiment meant to find the top 10 sites for food related brick-and-mortar shops.  How do we run this experiment?  Better question…do you like pizza?

In New York city, there’s only one debate that divides neighbors, drinking buddies, and childhood friends alike. It’s not about the Mets and their playoffs hopes; nor is it about the Yankees and Jeter’s ability to stay on top. It runs much deeper, and strikes the very core of New York city life. It’s about pizza.

Who has the best pizza shop in New York?

If you ask a New Yorker this question, you’re likely to get back a variety of answers. Some love a thin crust, so they say Vezzo’s or Spounto has the best. Others enjoy a very meaty slice and will claim that Giorgios or Lombardi’s is tops.  

Others love exotic toppings and herbs, and so they cast their vote for Otto Enoteca or Di Fara Pizzeria.

To help settle this debate, we let each shop’s online fans do the talking. We took the point of view of a person in search of the best ‘overall‘ pizza shop in NYC, and searched a dozen user-based review websites to find the top shops.

We also did a Google search for “New York + Pizza” as well as a number of qualifying search terms (i.e. best, top, etc).  We then combined these results and ranked the sites accordingly.  The end results were surprising. 

The top pizza monitoring sites

To find our top ten websites, we took the average number of user-based reviews for the 10 highest rated shops on each site. Then we did a Google search to see which sites came up highest in the SERPS, and used that to determine which sites are most likely to be viewed by customers.  

After ranking each site, we tallied up the votes to find the most highly ranked pizza shop, at least according to online users.  

Google maps listings:

When you search for “New York + Pizza” in Google, the first result (no surprise) is a Google Maps listing.  In Google Maps, 54,598 pizza related shops are listed and the top 10 sites have an average of 670 comments.  

Google Maps Listings Top 10: Adrienne’s Pizza Bar & Restaurant, John’s Pizzeria, Lombardi’s Pizza, Joe’s Pizza, John’s Pizzaeria, Tribecca Pizzeria and Italian Eatery, Pasita, Pasty’s Pizzeria, Pala, Pizza Bola

Yelp

Yelp reviews 7113 pizza shops and the top 10 pizza sites have an average of 75 reviews per shop. Yelp also shows up second in the SERP results, on average.  

This is why we ranked it so high in importance. Yelp top 10: Rosario’s Deli, Pizza Moto, Carlos Pizza, Paulie Gee’s, Lucalis, Luigis Pizzeria, Rose and Joe’s Italian Bakery, Amore Pizzeria, Salvatore of Soho, 

Citysearch

In New York City, unlike London, Citysearch is a very popular platform.  Citysearch has reviewed over 900 pizza shops in NYC. It shows up a little lower in the SERPS than Yelp, but has a higher average of comments, with 103.  

Citysearch top 10: Lombardi’s, John’s of Bleecker Street, Grimaldi’s, Otto Enoteca Pizzeria, L & B Spumoni Gardens, Joe’s Pizza, Apizz Restaurant, Peasant, John’s Pizzeria, La Lanterna Caffe.

Urban Spoon

Urban spoon reviews an impressive 2,171 pizza related brick-and-mortar stores, and has an average number of 308 comments per top 10. The reviews, however, appear low in the SERPS and thus are a little less likely to be seen.  

Urban Spoon’s top 10: Lombardi’s Pizza, Grimaldi’s Pizzeria, Otto Enoteca & Pizzeria, L & B Spumoni Gardens, John’s Pizzeria, Denino’s Pizzeria Tavern, Adrienne’s Pizza Bar, Nick’s Pizza, Lucali, John’s Pizzeria.

TripAdvisor

Many are searching for pizza shops in NYC through trip advisor, with over 700 pizza  shops reviewed and an average 65 comments per highly rated sites. Because NYC is known for its pizza, many tourists or city newbies are looking for the best shops. Make sure your client reviews reflect this.

TripAdvisor Top 10: Caprizi, Patzeria Perfect Pizza, Keste, John’s Pizzeria Bleeker St, John’s Pizzeria Times Square, Big Nick’s Burger and Pizza Joint, II Brigante, Artichoke Pizza, Joe’s Pizza Carmine St, Angelo’s Pizzeria, 

Menu Pages

This is a popular and food specific user-based review site.  Menu Pages reviews 1846 shops and includes price information, but we can’t tell what the top 10 pizza places are on the site. It does on average appear high in the SERPS for terms like “best pizza in NYC” or “ cheapest pizza in NYC”.

Insider Pages

Insider pages reviews 1,958 pizza shops and comes with an average of 50 reviews/comments for its top 10 shops. On average, however, it appears low in the SERPS and includes way too many non-pizza related entries in their top 10.  

Insider Pages Top 10: Besu Salon and Day Spa, Lombardi’s, Imperil Custom Tailor, Running Paws, Monster Pizzas, Pizza Suprema, John’s Pizzeria, Bodrum Turkish Mediterranean , Angelo and Maxie, Monster’s Pizzas

Bing Listing

Bing reviews only 235 pizza shops, but appears relatively high in the SERPS on average. The top sites have an average of 45 reviews. Interestingly enough, Lombardi’s has two different ratings: one with 43 reviews and top billing and the other with 1053 reviews and a horrible average.  

Bing Top 10: Lombardi’s, John’s of Bleeker Street, Adrienne’s Pizza Bar, Patsy’s Pizzeria, Pizza Superma, Big Nicks Burger and Pizza Joint, Sal Carmines Pizza, Three of Cups, Trattoria Dopo Teatro

Yahoo! Travel Listings

Yahoo! Travel reviews 2894 shops, but has an average of 7 reviews per top rated shops.  

Yahoo! Travel top 10: Ray’s Pizza, Boom Restaurant, Portofino Restaurant, Grandpa’s Brick Oven Pizza, Hi Life, Nina Agentinian Pizza, Mafia Pizza, Gryo II , Rino Trattori

Foursquare

Foursquare is not as great of a source at finding user reviews on pizza shops as many might have initially thought.  The average reviews (called tips on foursquare) for the top 10 are the lowest of all the sites reviewed.  

But this site does list the number of check-ins (which stands at 1,400 an average for the top ten), and seems to be more widely used then a number of websites above it. Furthermore, given the low amount of comments and nature of the website, Foursquare does not have a valid top 10 list. 

Conclusion

In terms of comparing the user-reviewed based websites to each other, there are a few interesting findings. Contrary to what we initially thought, Bing, Foursquare, and Yahoo! Travel have a rather low rate of user-based reviews.  

Secondly, some of the sites have widely different top 10 listings. For instance, Yelp, which has the second highest amount of user-based reviews has none of the over-all top three (i.e. Adrienne’s Pizza Bar, Lombardi’s, and John’s Pizzeria) in their top 10.  

Furthermore, Lombardi’s seem to have been the victim of ‘competitive rating’ as on one site they were reviewed 1035 (which is way above the average), and the comments for each review were short and terse. 

It’s important to understand which websites are the best source of user-based information for your industry. The most “popular” sites aren’t always where you’re customers are gathering to talk about your business; make a point to find out exactly where these conversations take place, and then enter them.  

Oh, and as for the answer to our question (i.e. Which is the best pizza place in New York ciy?), I like Patsy’s…

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