As a local restaurant, Search Engine Optimization is a huge key for your success. With search engines often providing your first impression to potential customers, it’s no longer negotiable whether your website needs to appear at the top of search engines.
Here are 10 ways to optimize your restaurant website for better SEO.
1. Incorporate your keywords.
One of the most powerful ways to optimize your website is to incorporate the keywords your customers are searching for within your copy; as well as your page titles, meta-descriptions, headers, navigation, and links. Remember to include location-based keywords along with “places to eat,” “diner” or “restaurant,” etc.
2. Create quality content.
Create ongoing content on your website with a blog, a podcast, or videos – whatever works best for your restaurant – and get creative! Post recipes your customers will love, tutorials on cooking the perfect meal, or podcasting tips for healthy eating.
3. Don’t forget your address and phone number.
A seemingly easy mistake to make, be sure to include your address and phone number on the contact page of your site, along with the footer of each page. This will help communicate your location to the search engines, along with your contact information for your customers.
4. Make sure your website is mobile friendly.
Nothing is more frustrating for restaurant goers than trying to check out the menu, get a reservation, or simply click on your phone number to call on their mobile device than going to a website that isn’t mobile friendly (or responsive).
5. Create a search engine friendly menu.
One of the most visited pages on your restaurant site is undoubtedly your menu page. It’s valuable to create a search engine friendly page – with readable text – rather than uploading a PDF.
6. Focus on user experience.
At the end of the day, great website user experience drives more customers to your restaurant and search engines reward incredible user experience. Build your site to put the user first, no matter what.
7. Ensure your local listings are up-to-date.
Update your Google My Business, Facebook, OpenTable, and other local directory pages so that it has accurate information about your hours, menu, and any videos, photos, and so on.
8. Acquire more positive local reviews.
The more positive local reviews you have, the better you’ll rank within local search. Perform regular monitoring of your reviews to determine if any warrant a response or even a share on your website or social media.
9. Make the site secure.
Whether or not you sell anything on your website, it’s crucial that you keep it secure with an SSL certificate (or HTTPS address). Search engines give more value to those sites with an HTTPS address versus HTTP.
10. Don’t ignore the data.
Make sure you have analytical data from your website to learn how people are finding you and how they interact with your site. Google Analytics and Google Search Console are great (free) tools to do just that!
How is your restaurant’s website faring? Are you following these 10 tips already or do you need to get to work?
If you need help creating a digital marketing presence that represents your restaurant and reaches your target market, contact us at OSC Web Design.
