Your restaurant is superbly set up and decorated. It’s in a nice location. You serve delectable fare. You give good service. But after all the work you put into it, you can’t seem to get new customers walking through your doors.

It may be because they aren’t finding you in the first few pages of online results when they type in “local restaurants.” This is when you need a reliable SEO expert to provide for your restaurant business!

SEO stands for search engine optimization. It is a digital marketing aspect that businesses utilize to gain visibility online. In today’s post, we’ll discuss how an SEO expert can work for your restaurant business and bring you many new patrons.

This is just a primer on what SEO is. Since every business has different needs, circumstances, and specific goals, yours may require a set of SEO strategies different from another.

To learn how to improve your online search ranking, it’s best to consult directly with an SEO expert to discuss your needs and goals.

Tried-and-Tested Restaurant SEO Strategies

There are tried-and-tested SEO fundamentals that will lead you to SEO success. However, achieving success takes time. Don’t listen to any SEO provider who promises you “fast and quick results.”

If you employ short-term tactics to cheat the system, then the success you gain from it may also be fleeting. Eventually, search engines will catch up on these dishonest tactics and may even penalize your website.

Here are the long-term SEO strategies we highly recommend for your restaurant business.

It’s All About the Customers

Whatever industry you’re in, the main focus should always be on the customers – whether they’re potential or existing ones. This fact is especially true for a restaurant business. An experienced SEO provider will always say that it’s an effective strategy to give your clients a pleasant experience. This extends to when they visit your website.

When you create a restaurant website, you’re also creating an experience for your target market. Google and other search engine companies aim to filter through all internet content and give the users the most relevant results to their search queries.

Thus, as you initiate your SEO efforts, go into the mindset that your website should cater to the needs of your customers. Your website exists for your customers, not for Google or any other search engines.

Go Local

Every potential customer is just around the corner. Focus on your local community first; that’s where most of your patrons come from. By catering to target customers in your locale, your local popularity will only grow outwards – drawing more people in.

A restaurant SEO provider will suggest that you should target a smaller niche first. Eventually, you can expand to a broader audience. This is an effective restaurant SEO strategy – rather than casting a wide net initially then discovering you have big holes in it.

Here are the basics of developing a local SEO strategy for your business.

• Determine your restaurant’s geographical reach. Don’t include areas or zip codes that are outside your radius.

• Avoid using generic keyword terms. Use targeted keywords that are specific to your audience.

• Dedicate a location-specific webpage.

If you want to jumpstart your restaurant SEO efforts, we can help you.

What Is Your Brand?

As we mentioned above, search engine companies aim to offer the best, most relevant content to their users. When someone types a query on a search engine, the information they get must be relevant and from a trusted source.

Thus, search engine companies like Google must know that your restaurant branding is trustworthy before it moves you to the top of search results.

How?

SEO is not just an online marketing tactic. It’s part of your overall marketing and branding strategy. The more your brand is known and trusted, the better your online rankings will be. And you can achieve this by first and foremost, offering excellent service. Customers tend to share good (and bad) experiences they’ve had through social media or review sites.

Everyone’s Online

A recent study revealed that over 80 percent of consumers go through online reviews for local businesses before they engage with them. The battle for acquiring good reviews, decorating your place for it to be “Instagrammable,” and engaging with customers on social media are ever present in the restaurant scene.

Thus, apart from offering good service at your physical store, seo expert must provide the same excellent customer experience online.