If your restaurant doesn’t have a robust online presence in today’s digital age, consider it dead. For your restaurant to have staggering sales, you need to show up on the screens of potential customers.
But how would that be possible? The answer is a no-brainer: SEO for restaurants.
According to a survey, 77% of customers look at a restaurant’s website before they decide to eat there. Nearly 70% have decided not to go to the restaurant due to its website.
The online presence determines the fate of your business.
This article pinpoints the SEO strategy for restaurants to prevent your business from disappearing into darkness.
Learn More: Checklist to Boost SEO for Travel Websites
SEO For Restaurants As a Game-Changer
Basically, the role of SEO is to help you crawl organically in the top searches of a search engine. Higher rankings on search engines translate into increased visitors and, ultimately, more customers.
An SEO strategy for restaurants assists in boosting the online visibility of the business.
So, your website or other content will pop up on the first page whenever a user browses for a keyword related to your business.
To make this happen, Google must find your website to present it to those interested in your business.
Therefore, you need a well-structured website with accurate information.
Mechanics Behind Strong SEO
Behind a strong SEO, some aspects are carefully taken care of. Despite the complexity and constant change of search engine algorithms, SEO relies on steadily increasing your page’s trust and authority.
Search engines like Google use bots to gather data from websites. The order in which these websites appear in search results for various queries is decided by the Google ranking system.
The data is added to an index and evaluated by algorithms. Gaining authority calls for using other sources that have already gained trust before the eyes of Google bots.
These sources include websites, social media platforms, media sources, and review sites.
Linking these sites to yours makes you a candidate to be on the list of Google’s trusted sources.
This strategy that you can use for SEO for restaurants is called link building.
Search engines rank websites based on components, such as:
- The information they deliver.
- Proper structuring.
- The frequency at which other websites link back to them.
Why Is SEO Strategy for Restaurants a Necessity?
SEO for restaurants is the best way to supercharge your online presence. If you appear in front of people on the search engine as what they want, they will visit to meet their needs.
Search engines scrutinize the phrases and words on the site to check if they match the words users enter into the search engines.
These are the advantages that make SEO for restaurants imperative for business growth:
1. Wider Exposure
When your restaurant appears on the top results of Google Search Results, a new wave of customers interact with it every day.
And the organic revenue growth goes up with that. This is the most effective marketing tactic to provide a higher conversion rate, high-quality leads, and a maximum return on investment.
The benefits of a good SEO strategy for restaurants are all interconnected.
2. Keeps the Competition Up at Night
In the restaurant business, everyone faces trouble acquiring clients organically at some point.
But by leveraging the power of SEO for restaurants, you can be one step ahead of your competition.
You get the ball in your court by optimizing your website with popular keywords related to your area, cuisine, and offerings.
For instance, you can add keywords like “Best halal poutine,” “poutine near me,” or “traditional poutine in Toronto.”
The sooner you put SEO for restaurants techniques into practice, the higher you’ll rank and outperform your rivals who are newbies in the online world.
You can try the best market business analysis tools to get the nitty-gritty of how competitors run their businesses.
3. Becoming a Household Name
Potential customers trust your restaurant if it is listed on Google.
The impression of your restaurant as a reliable service provider that can meet their immediate need.
Best of all, you’ll be able to connect with diners who weren’t previously aware of your company with a successful SEO for restaurants strategy.
By expanding your reach, you will inevitably see an increase in daily average orders.
4. Amp Up the Conversion Rates
If someone is searching for a restaurant, they are likely ready to order.
They are sorting through the results and reading customer feedback to make a choice they won’t regret.
Simply put, you don’t need to convince them to ditch their home-cooked meals. Instead, you have to persuade them that you are the finest restaurant to place their order.
The goal of SEO for restaurants is to make them come to you, not just order food online. If you do that, consider yourself over the hump.
5. Drive Website Traffic
SEO for restaurants gives huge returns on small investments.
The formula is straightforward: the more traffic your website receives, the higher it ranks for certain keywords.
As the traffic grows, you can attract a new stream of loyal customers.
Google provides traffic to your website by directing it to popular keywords that are location-wise focused on your web content and meta tags.
You can use the language that has the highest relevancy for the meal you offer.
By doing this, you’ll have a better chance of showing up at the top of the page whenever someone types in terms related to your offerings.
The curation of powerful content around your restaurant is another great SEO strategy for restaurants.
You can analyze the traffic your restaurant site attracts by using Google Analytics.
8 Tips to Make a Profitable SEO Strategy for Restaurants
On the internet, tips for SEO for restaurants are in abundance. Yet, no one gives you a 100% accurate formula to crack the issue of securing the number one spot on the search engines.
Nevertheless, Google has laid out an excellent concept to reach the goal.
In the next segment of the article, we will deconstruct the fundamental methods professionals employ for SEO for restaurants.
Here are the top tips to incorporate in an SEO strategy for restaurants.
1. Plan the Keywords
Building a restaurant SEO roadmap using keyword research should be the first thing when you create a strategy.
When performing keyword planning, you organize the target search terms you want your restaurant website to rank for.
These terms don’t have a word limit. You can use one word (like “poutine”) or add two, three, or more words (“best poutine in Toronto”).
For Keyword research, you can use these tools:
A free metric-based keyword planning tool to assist you in getting more keywords that are related to the ones you’ve already found.
Based on the number of people (on average) who search for that term each month, these tools help you determine the importance of some terms over others.
To get an idea of the popular keywords, go to your competitor’s site and look for the keywords they use.
Types of Keywords to Use in SEO for Restaurants
You can brainstorm keywords after thoroughly analyzing the competitor’s website for SEO for restaurants.
Keywords fall into three major types:
Niche Keywords
These are extremely targeted keywords that concentrate on a particular dish of your restaurant. These terms include three words or more.
They are more specialized and attract more qualified leads to your restaurant website.
Examples: “best vegetarian poutine in Toronto,” “poutine deals in Toronto,” etc.
Branded Keywords
Branded keywords for SEO for restaurants are search terms containing your restaurant name.
These keywords are known to have greater conversion rates for these reasons:
- They help increase brand recognition in search results.
- Assist in the analysis of search query trends and brand popularity.
- Useful for comparing the restaurant’s performance with the competitors.
- Appeals to a wider audience.
High Intent Restaurant Terms
Long-tail keywords have the strongest intent because consumers search for a particular dish. When a consumer asks for a lot of information, it usually means they have information and are almost ready to buy.
Example: “restaurants in Toronto” and “best Toronto lunch spot,” etc.
2. Local SEO for Restaurants
According to data, 46% of Google searches are for local businesses. That’s the secret behind the Google Map carousel feature that appears when the search queries are location-based.
If you use the keyword “restaurants in Toronto,” the customers might not find you as there are nearly 7500 restaurants across Toronto.
Therefore, you can incorporate a local SEO for restaurants strategy with the cuisine you offer and the neighbourhood where the restaurant is situated.
For instance, you can use “poutine restaurant in Toronto” and “poutineries in Rosedale, Toronto.”
Including location in Keywords boosts your restaurant’s visibility in the local search results.
For SEO for restaurants, you must add the city or the neighbourhood in the title tag.
As you can see, this restaurant has implemented the local SEO by inserting the location in the title tag.
It is not unusual for a website to neglect using the physical locations. In fact, it is one of the common SEO mistakes that brands should avoid.
3. Put Information on Online Business Listing Sites
Many people resort to different directories when selecting a place to eat. They turn to these places to view information like location, price, reviews, photos, and menu.
Normally, they can’t gather this information in one place on Google. Being listed on these sites can do wonders for your website.
So, in this step of SEO for restaurants, begin adding data to business pages, such as:
Each of these elements combines for the development of your brand’s identity and presence.
Directories like Yelp and TripAdvisor are quite popular among people. So, the possibility that new consumers will discover your restaurant rapidly increases.
When the traffic increases, your website appears more attractive to Google, automatically boosting its SEO.
Since your restaurant might show before your competitor in the same vicinity as local SEO for restaurants, it helps defend the market share.
Also, these directories exhibit the reliability of your restaurant to Google. So, make sure you don’t skip it when creating your SEO strategy for restaurants.
4. Ask for Ratings and Positive Reviews
Placing your website on review sites to promote reviews is great for SEO for restaurants. Gone are the days when people used to dine out in a restaurant at a friend’s suggestion.
When picking a local business, 62.7% of customers say online evaluations are “important” or “very important.”
When ranking local search results, Google considers reviews, too. Thus, it influences SEO for restaurants.
Google displays the top-rated restaurants in many local search results. Additionally, Google displays the reviews of your restaurant on the search results page, augmenting user engagement.
For more reviews, don’t shy away from asking the guests to share their experiences online.
Pro Tip: Ask an online magazine to publish a review of your website to boost your reliability score.
5. Build a Mobile-Friendly Website
Creating a mobile-friendly website is also a requisite to improve SEO for restaurants.
Nowadays, 55% of web traffic comes from users who surf the internet through smartphones.
If your site is not responsive enough, it can damage your restaurant more than you think.
The recipe for a great website includes:
- Easy navigation
- XML sitemaps
- Valuable content
- Clear CTAs
- Captivating visuals
Once you have a proper website, you can easily implement the SEO strategy for restaurants.
By writing engaging content that users find useful, you can encourage the user to stay on your website.
Avoid stuffing excessive keywords into the content. Make sure it has the right elements for SEO optimization, such as H1, H2, and H3 tags, interlinking, and appropriate keyword placement.
The restaurant’s website must render well on all screen sizes with separate pages for menu, online ordering, reservations, and contact details.
Mention your contact details and other information like discounts and operating hours on the Contact Us page for customer convenience.
6. Smooth Online Ordering System
Since 2014, online food ordering has increased 300% faster than dine-in. It has recently made up about 40% of the overall restaurant sales.
Not having an online ordering system can not only hurt SEO for restaurants but is bad for the search results as well.
Google knows when a visitor leaves your site after getting disappointed. That’s why the websites with high bounce rates fail to crawl up on search engines.
You shouldn’t stress about it too much because it is preventable. If you can’t create your ordering system, hire a website developer or UX designer to do it for you.
You can outsource your website to test if it functions without a hitch.
7. Foster SEO for Restaurants in Blogging
Consider including a blog on your website if you have the time and resources. You can boost your search engine ranks, enhance traffic, and grow your clientele.
To launch a page for blogs for SEO for restaurants, you need to have a creative flair.
Launching and maintaining a blog to boost search engine results is called blog SEO.
This SEO strategy for restaurants in blog posting comprises content creation, link development, image optimization, and keyword research.
Search engines don’t show obsolete information to visitors. Blogging is amazing to signal Google that your site is up to date.
Why Are Blogs Evergreen For SEO?
With original, fresh content on your website, search engines index your website frequently. In short, the search engines will never forget about your website with this SEO for restaurants technique.
Blogs give you the chance to interlink. When you use anchor text to improve how Google understands the website content you are linking to.
Consequently, it increases the algorithm’s perception of the page’s relationship to your target keywords.
Lastly, you can use blogs to help users connect with you. When the audience likes your content, they share it in their circle, driving more traffic.
8. Monitor Your SEO Strategy for Restaurants
Finally, SEO for restaurants is a steady process that takes time to show results.
You can conduct an SEO audit to resolve any issue that can affect the ranking of your website.
Also, keep track of and evaluate how your efforts are performing. You can monitor your website daily to check blog traffic, etc.
Monitoring your rivals to find out what keywords they are achieving success with for better SEO for restaurants.
In this way, you can observe trends and tweak your website accordingly.
As it takes time to produce fruitful results, begin your SEO for restaurants as soon as possible.
FAQs
Why should I create a Google Plus account for my restaurant?
Google incorporates Google Plus activity into their search algorithm. Eventually, it helps in obtaining a high position in the Google search engine results pages.
What does a title tag do for my website?
It helps a majority of the audience notice your website right away. It appears as a 70-character phrase on websites in the top right corner.
How can I use a domain name for SEO for restaurants?
Choose a main keyword before choosing the restaurant’s domain name to drive web traffic through search engines.
What off-page SEO techniques can I use for my website?
Link Building, content marketing through social media platforms, setting up a GMB profile, NAP listings, reviews, forums, and events for social engagement are all off-page tactics you can use.
The Bottom Line
These are the eight tactics to use in SEO for restaurants to keep your business on top of the customer’s mind.
If you are not on this path already, The Dreams Agency can help you blow past the competitors. Talk to us to learn how we use the best SEO practices for your website.