Ads help, sure. But it's bad advice to tell people to do that FIRST. There are other ways to get on top. For your restaurant example people should try to use Go

Ads help, sure. But it's bad advice to tell people to do that FIRST. There are other ways to get on top. For your restaurant example people should try to use Google's services to the max: add the restaurant to Google places for Business so that you get on Google maps and street view, get a Google+ account and post some pictures of the food, client comments and special events, post special events on a public Google calendar. Even have a Facebook and twitter account as they play nice with Google rankings, especially Facebook pages. Even one post a week is effective. There are lots of things a small business can do before even touching their websites code. After that you add Google analytics and then as a last resort you buy ads.