Is your small business doing enough to strengthen your SEO? Spoiler alert: Most businesses, particularly restaurants, aren’t. If you own a restaurant or take part in any sort of restaurant marketing, you’re going to want to keep reading. We’re spilling all the info you never knew you needed about SEO for restaurants.
What is SEO?
Before diving too deep, here’s a quick overview of SEO for beginners. SEO stands for search engine optimization, and encompasses all the efforts your brand is making to show up higher in search results on sites like Google. SEO is primarily determined by a brand’s website, but can be impacted by social media channels and other aspects of the brand’s digital presence as well.
There are different types of SEO. For instance, many restaurants will likely want to include local SEO in their digital marketing strategy to reach people in their geographical area.
SEO and the rankings your website has for various keywords depend on a number of factors. Some of the most important are the use of keywords on your website, backlinks to your site, accurate and informative meta descriptions and tags, as well as how quickly your site loads and how user-friendly it is.
Why does SEO matter?
It’s true that some brands can ignore SEO and still succeed. But it’s also true that those small businesses are few and far between. SEO is very important, especially for small local businesses.
Dedicating time, effort, and money to SEO is how you will show up in more search results, and be one of the first results people see when they search for keywords relevant to your restaurant. Basically, the better your SEO strategy is, the more people will find your website. And the more people who find your website, the more people will know about your restaurant and be more likely to pay you a visit.
If you want to reach new customers and increase your brand’s visibility, you need to be focusing on SEO for your small business.
Best SEO for restaurants
Hopefully by now it’s clear that a solid SEO strategy is a key part of any restaurant marketing plan. But how can hospitality brands work on their SEO? Here are some of our best quick SEO tips for restaurants:
- Backlinks, backlinks, backlinks. You want high authority websites to link to your site. If you’re ever featured in news articles, podcast, or similar media pieces be sure they’re including a link to your website in their work
- Choose a handful of keywords to focus on that are being searched for in your area, and make sure these words appear multiple times on your restaurant website. A few examples: “St. Louis Italian food”, “best Boston restaurants”, or “lunch near Chicago.”
- Optimize the user experience by making sure all buttons work, navigation menus are clear, and all important information for your customers is easily accessible within a few clicks on your site
- Continue adding new content to your site on a regular basis. This can include items like news articles featuring your restaurant or blog posts.
