Naming dishes so customers can find them
Customers search inside delivery apps using the words they speak at home. Your menu should answer in the same words, without turning into a keyword list.
By Delivup
There are two ways a customer reaches your dish. They browse a category, or they type into the search bar. Menus are usually written for the first one and forgotten for the second.
That second path is where a lot of quiet demand lives. Someone types "chicken shawarma", "family platter" or "spicy noodles", and the app answers with whichever listings use those words.
Write the name a customer would say out loud
A good item name does two jobs at once: it is recognisable, and it is specific.
Compare these:
- "The Founder" versus "Double beef burger with cheddar"
- "Chef's Special" versus "Grilled salmon with lemon rice"
- "Mix Box" versus "Mixed grill platter for four"
The names on the left mean something inside your restaurant. The names on the right mean something to a stranger holding a phone. Your signature naming can still live in the description, where it adds character instead of blocking discovery.
Descriptions are not decoration
Most descriptions on delivery apps repeat the name and stop. A description has three real jobs.
Answer the question that stops the order. How spicy is it? Is it enough for two? Does it come with rice? Is it available all day?
Name the ingredients customers search for. Halloumi, truffle, shawarma, biryani, vegan, gluten. If it is in the dish, write it.
Set the portion honestly. "Serves two" prevents a bad review far more effectively than any apology afterwards.
Two clean sentences do this. Length is not the goal, usefulness is.
Where keyword stuffing goes wrong
The moment owners hear about search, the reflex is to pile words into the name: "Burger Best Burger Cheese Burger Delivery Near Me".
It reads as spam to a customer, it can breach the platform's own content rules, and it drags conversion down because nobody taps something that looks automated. Search visibility only pays if the customer still wants to order once they see it.
Write for the person. Include the words they use. Stop there.
Category order is part of the answer
The first two categories on your page carry most of the traffic. They should hold what you actually want to sell, not what your kitchen happens to prepare first.
Two habits worth adopting:
- Move seasonal or slow items down instead of leaving them in the opening screen.
- Keep the number of categories low enough to scan without scrolling forever. A long menu is a confidence problem, not a choice problem.
A thirty minute pass you can run today
Open your listing on your phone and work through it in this order.
- Rename every item whose name would not make sense to someone who has never been to your restaurant.
- Add one useful sentence to any item with an empty description.
- State the portion on every shareable item.
- Move your two strongest categories to the top.
- Read the page out loud. Anything you stumble on, a customer will stumble on too.
Nothing here needs a designer or a new budget. It needs the owner's knowledge of the menu, applied where customers can actually see it.
If you would like us to run that pass on your storefront and send you what we would change, send us your listing, with no upfront investment. You can also reach us at contact@delivup.io.