These days, search engine results for local businesses can often make or break small companies. When it comes to restaurants, optimizing your website and your online presence for search engines is enormously important. According to a Constant Contact survey, 75% of the consumers they surveyed would often choose a restaurant based on search results.
How can you better optimize your web presence? Here are three tips for making sure your online presence keeps tables packed.
1. Updating All Restaurant Review Profiles
It takes only a couple of hours and then you’re good for months at a time — considering how easy it is to update restaurant review sites, it’s surprising how many businesses are failing to take advantage of them. When consumers search for restaurants online, they want more than your address; they want hours, pictures, and a menu. Go to big-name review sites like UrbanSpoon, Google local reviews, and Yelp!, and get going. These are often the results users will see when they do a search for your establishment.
2. Optimize for Mobile Search
A recent study found that 80% of consumers want to see a menu, yet many have trouble opening menus because they are only available as PDFs, and are not optimized for mobile viewing. Mobile devices are especially important for the restaurant industry to consider, because so many dining choices are made while consumers are on-the-go. If your website is mobile optimized, Google is also more likely to select it in search rankings for those devices. Consider that last Valentine’s Day, 65% of searches for restaurants — the majority of searches — occurred on phones and tablets. Make sure your website and your menu can be easily viewed on a smartphone or tablet, to capture as many hungry customers as possible.
3. Partner with Local SEO Companies
Did you know that about 65% of a website’s business typically comes from organic online search results? SEO, or search engine optimization, is largely comprised of inbound-link insertion in off-site content. SEO helps raise your website’s rank in organic search results. Creating good content and placing it on reputable websites, while also analyzing it for conversion, can add a lot to your already full plate. For this reason, we recommend looking for reputable, local SEO companies who can do this for you. Small business SEO services can also help you with other important tasks, like using social media to promote your restaurant.
What local SEO strategies do you use? Do you work with a small business SEO company? Let us know in the comments.