We cannot deny the importance of a solid online presence in the restaurant industry. Imagine someone searches for the best restaurants in your area. But your place does not shows up in the results due to a lack of online presence. In such a scenario, you will constantly keep losing customers. It will be disastrous for your restaurant in the long run.

Hence, having a robust digital presence is no more an option. You can connect with influencers or celebrities to promote your restaurant. You also have the option of paid advertising. But all these options are costly. SEO, local SEO, to be precise, can help improve your organic visibility, making it the right choice to go with.

You can do the SEO yourself if you have all the skills and resources. However, if you don’t have the skills, you can seek help from a local SEO agency.

You can go with any agency, but hiring a local agency is advisable. For instance, you should hire an SEO firm in Atlanta if your restaurant is in the same or nearby region. Local organizations can understand your niche market by catering to the same audience. 

How will you improve your search engine rankings with everyone playing the SEO game? Here are some expert tips that will be helpful.

Prefer Local SEO Strategy

While general SEO works well, any business with a physical location can benefit significantly from local SEO. Local SEO refers to targeting audiences from nearby areas. For instance, if someone searches for a pizza center, Google will show results for nearby centers first. It’s all because of local SEO.

You can leverage local SEO by listing your restaurants in Google My Business and other such directories. It will also help to focus on leveraging travel websites and list your restaurant there. After listing your restaurant:

• Start optimizing your profile
• Ensure all the details are correct and up to date
• Describe your restaurant appropriately and try to use popular keyword terms wherever possible

Create a Robust Content Strategy

Content plays a vital role in SEO. You naturally get more search engine visibility when creating content and placing the keywords smartly. The foundation of any content strategy is keywords. Hence, you need to start by looking for the specific keyword phrases your target audience is searching for.

Once you know the keywords, create content around those for better rankings. Niche-specific keywords should be your first preference. They help you target the most appropriate audience who are more likely to visit your restaurant after finding you on Google.

The niche-specific keywords should be very descriptive of your restaurant. For instance, if you have a rooftop, try targeting keywords like “romantic rooftop restaurants,” “best restaurants with rooftops,” or “trendy rooftop restaurants.”

After the niche keywords, you can also use general restaurant terms with most searches. For instance, general keywords like “best restaurants,” “top restaurants,” and “budget-friendly restaurants” are always popular. You can make some changes to these terms by adding your location for an added advantage.

Showcase Reviews and Testimonials

When you search for a new product online, what’s the first thing you look for? Most probably, it’s online reviews. It works the same way for restaurants, too. When someone tries to locate a restaurant online, they are likely to look for reviews, testimonials, and ratings.

If your restaurant shows higher ratings on search results, it will increase your credibility in quality, taste, service, etc. Hence, you should always use customer reviews and ratings on your website.

Suppose you are a relatively new restaurant and don’t have many ratings to show. Try to go proactive and ask your customers to share their opinions on your site. However, this should not appear desperate. You can use the incentive strategy to give back something to customers who share their reviews.

Build a User-Friendly Website

Mobiles make a vast percentage of restaurant searches. Imagine a group of friends has reunited after a long time. Suddenly, one of the friends comes up with a dinner plan. They won’t open a laptop to look for a restaurant. There are several such reasons like comfortability and accessibility due to which people prefer using mobiles to search for a restaurant.

Since the 2015 algorithms update, Google now gives preferences to mobile-friendly. Hence, it becomes even more crucial to make your website mobile-friendly. If you still rely on a non-mobile-friendly website, it may damage your SEO.

Conclusion

Using the right SEO tactics will increase your restaurant website’s online presence, ultimately leading to more website and foot traffic. Use the best practices mentioned in this article to attract more customers to enjoy your cuisine.