Investing in a good SEO strategy for restaurant is important to maintain a presentable online reputation to attract better customers. And if you have a new and upcoming restaurant, it is vitally important to perform local SEO for restaurant to make it appear on the top of the Search Engine Results Page (SERPs).
Performing SEO for restaurants is very similar to performing SEO for hotels as both of them belong to the hospitality industry.
How your restaurant is perceived can help your potential customers to build confidence in your business.
Do restaurants need SEO?
Restaurants go through an extreme amount of pressure to improve their online visibility and reputation. The restaurant industry is the one that faced the most setbacks and disruptions during the pandemic along with increasing competition. So, in this age of digitalization, the sustainability of your restaurant business depends on all the measures you take to make your restaurant stand out. And you can do that by performing SEO for restaurant.
SEO is an essential part of digital marketing. All restaurant owners wish to see the maximum number of people eating at their café or restaurant and SEO is the ultimate tool that helps your business achieve that goal. This is how restaurant owners can optimize SEO for marketing to their diners.
While it can seem like a task full of complexities and heavy investments, the best way is to hire a professional agency that has expertise in restaurant SEO.
Why should restaurants hire an SEO agency?
SEO agencies are equipped with all the right tools to implement all the best SEO practices for restaurants. They will help in the growth of your business by organically increasing the traffic to your restaurant’s website with various Search Engine Optimization techniques.
SEO agencies keep up with social media trends and Google search algorithms to perform optimum SEO for restaurants.
They are acquired by highly trained SEO experts who help you achieve the finest results in the SERPs and aim on ranking your website at the top of Google’s first search result.
They know which keywords to target for maximum optimization.
An SEO agency is a much cheaper option rather than creating your SEO team.
Many new restaurants all over the world face difficulties such as making their online presence reach new people.
This problem can be overcome by investing in a good SEO agency in your area. So, suppose your restaurant is in Faridabad, India. Then you must invest in the best SEO company in Faridabad.
Restaurant SEO tips to help your website rank
There are hundreds of tips and tricks out there that people seek to make their website achieve a higher rank in the search results. Even though nobody exactly knows what all goes behind that number one spot on Google, SEO experts have a pretty good idea of how the formula works.
Here are the core strategies for SEO for restaurants.
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Take a deep dive into SEO keywords for restaurant
The first thing for the most effective SEO for restaurants is to build an approach to keyword planning.
Keyword planning refers to laying down the terms that you want your restaurant’s website to rank for on the search engine results page. These keywords can be of single words (e.g.: burger) or might include two or more words (e.g.: best burger in New York City).
Some keywords may be more frequently searched than other keywords on the search engine. Multiple tools are available on the internet which help you prioritise certain keywords over other keywords, which is based on how many users (on average) are searching for that particular keyword every month.
Some keyword planning tools are:
o Google Keyword Planner
o Dragon Metrics
o Ubersuggest
When searching for keywords, you might want to break down your research into three kinds: High-intent broad terms, branded keywords and niche keywords.
List out the keywords you find most impactful to have your restaurant’s name appear in the search results. Then ensure with a keyword planning tool that people are searching for these tools. Keyword
planning will also help you figure out your potential customers.
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Encourage customers for online reviews
According to statistics, restaurants and businesses that have more reviews in search results increase the click-through rate (CTR) of those pages.
Reviews indicate to Google to rank your restaurant higher in the search results. Google shows the highest-rated restaurants and businesses at the top in most local search results. Google also shows your business’s reviews and ratings in the search results, which helps you attract more customers.
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Get mentions for other websites and build links
Reviews and brand mentions from other famous websites and e-magazines will help in link building which is an indispensable part of restaurant digital marketing.
What is link-building?
Link building is the process of building a web-link structure on other websites which leads to your website.
Why is link building important for restaurant SEO?
When your site is mentioned on other websites, it develops a sense of trust from that website to Google that your website has influence on whatsoever topic the linked page is about. The more links you have from a reputed or famous website, the more likely you are to appear in searches for your target keywords.
Make your website
mobile compatible
A good online infrastructure is a sign of a successful business in the eyes of the customers.
More than 80% of people surf the internet on their mobiles. People still use PCs and desktops but most of the traffic still comes from mobile devices.
Because of these statistics in 2018, Google made a huge switch in their search formula which was based on mobile searches. Making your mobile view more important than your desktop view.
The bottom line is that sites that are not mobile-friendly, are unlikely to appear in searches.
Create attractive and relevant content
Always keep up with the approach “content is KING”.
Restaurant websites typically contain a handful of elements; homepage, menu, about us, contact info, upcoming events and sometimes a review page.
But restaurant websites hardly contain a blog section.
If your marketing team has someone ready to invest more time and efforts towards creating SEO friendly content for your restaurant’s website, then consider creating a blog section for your website as content is also an integral part of SEO for restaurants.
Creating blogs and articles according to your restaurant’s specialities like “Top 10 restaurants serving the best pizza in Chicago” or “Best vegan restaurants in New York” will increase the probability of your restaurant’s website ranking higher in the search results.
In conclusion
If you are new in the restaurant industry, you will want to put some capital into the restaurant SEO. SEO for restaurants is not only important to bring organic traffic to your website but also to bring traffic to the doors of your restaurants.