Nick’s Food To Go

eCommerce, Greek Food, Healthy, Restaurant Sites, Rolls

Status:
Online
Client:
PopMenu
Established:
2025
URL:
nicksfood.com
Location:
GA, USA
Project Scope:
Website Redesign, Brand Refresh, Local SEO Remediation, Mobile Optimization

Project Overview

Revitalizing an Atlanta Icon

Since 1994, Nick’s Food To Go has been a staple of the downtown Atlanta dining scene, serving beloved Greek-American classics. However, their digital presence had fallen behind their reputation. The legacy site was outdated, suffering from poor SEO practices like embedded text-in-images, and failed to convey the vibrant, Mediterranean atmosphere that Evie, the owner, envisioned. Traffic was dipping during crucial lunch hours due to a clunky mobile experience.

The mission was to modernize the legend. We needed to refresh the brand's visual identity to reflect its 30-year heritage while engineering a high-performance site that corrected critical SEO flaws and streamlined the path to ordering for busy downtown workers.

Challenges & Goals

The Challenges

SEO Invisibility: The previous site relied heavily on text embedded within images, making the content unreadable to search engines and hurting local rankings.

Mobile Friction: Heavy decorative background images were slowing down mobile load times, a major deterrent for customers ordering lunch on the go.

Inconsistent UX: Long button labels and awkward text wrapping created a disjointed user experience that didn't match the quality of the food.

The Goals

Visual Refresh: Develop a Mediterranean-inspired palette (Blues, Whites, Red/Yellow accents) and playful typography to echo the brand's mascot and energy.

Search Recovery: Replace image-text with proper H1/H2 headings and keyword-rich copy to boost crawlability and local visibility.

Performance Tuning: Implement mobile-first CSS strategies, such as hiding heavy background textures on smaller screens to ensure lightning-fast load times.

Strategy & Approach

Phase 1: Brand & Visual Strategy

We moved away from the dated aesthetic to a fresh, "Mediterranean Modern" look. I selected playful, bold Google Fonts (Fredoka One for headlines, Rubik for body) to echo the cartoonish charm of the mascot. We utilized white-brick textures and mural-style imagery to give the digital space a tactile, authentic feel.

Phase 2: Content & SEO Architecture

We performed a full content audit to fix the SEO issues. I mapped out a clear hierarchy (Hero → Features → Catering) and rewrote succinct, keyword-rich content. Crucially, we moved all essential text out of images and into proper HTML tags, ensuring Google could finally read the site.

Phase 3: Responsive Engineering

To solve the mobile performance issues, we adopted a mobile-first coding approach. I wrote custom SCSS media queries to display rich background imagery only on desktop screens (≥992px), while serving a cleaner, lightweight version to mobile users to maximize speed and usability.

Solutions Delivered

Area	Highlight
Visual Identity	Implemented a custom Mediterranean theme with Fredoka One typography to align with the brand's playful heritage.
SEO Remediation	Replaced all image-embedded text with semantic HTML headings and keyword-optimized copy to restore search visibility.
Mobile Performance	Coded conditional CSS to hide heavy decorative elements on mobile devices, significantly improving load speeds.
Ordering Integration	Seamlessly embedded ChowNow with standardized, high-contrast CTA buttons to reduce friction in the checkout flow.
Content Strategy	Developed dedicated sections for History, Press, and Testimonials to leverage 30 years of community trust.