By Gabriela Damaceno, Contributor
One of the first actions that restaurant owners do to attract customers is to maintain profiles on social channels and use all the resources that these technologies. With more than 3 billion active social media users, people are used to posts photos of their dishes to their followers, and it is a great way to promote your business.
However, in online restaurant marketing, there's much more to explore than only social media. To give a quick example, when choosing a restaurant, Gen Z and Millennials are 99% more likely to rely on online reviews than are Gen X and Boomers. How do they do it? They Google it! That is the reason why operators should invest in search engine optimization (SEO) and incorporate it into their public relation strategy. At such times, combining spontaneous media and press relations expands your message and can be the formula for success!
Let us give you a practical example. You just opened a restaurant. It’s brand new, with super affordable prices, delicious food, spectacular surroundings, an impeccable experience. After all these early steps, it is time to bring guests in.
How many times have you opened the neighborhood newspaper or popular Instagram profile in your city and read an incredible article about gastronomy citing just that competing restaurant? Or another restaurant with a much simpler dish than yours, and wondered why it came out on that subject and you didn't?
Here thinking outside of the box is key! Consider creating promos, competitions, new flavors, or any other thing that will stand up and calls media attention.
Make Sure That Your Audience Finds Your Restaurant
After you set up your public relation campaign, you need to make sure that the potential customers and guests will find more information about your venue -- such as your restaurant’s address, menu and operating hours, for example.
Coming back to the example of the new restaurant: imagine it is in the middle of a forest, with no access to streets, highways, roads, nothing. This is what happens when you create a website for your restaurant that is not optimized to be found on search engines like Google and Bing. SEO is the path that takes the customer to your business; without it, all investment in digital would be pointless.
3 Quick SEO Tips for Restaurants
Optimize Your Restaurant Website’s Title & Meta-description. When optimizing your website, you need to define what will be the keyword, title, and meta tag that will appear when searching. For example:
Title: Your Restaurant Name | Your tagline | Call-to-action
Meta tag: Consult the menu of the best restaurants and snack bars in the city. Place your order online, with convenience and security, and receive it at your home
Create a Mobile-friendly Interface. Make things easy for your potential client. There are more than three billion smartphone users around the world, and your website must be easy to navigate in a mobile. Most of these people are browsing either on apps or on mobile-friendly sites. Make sure that your business is also available to users when they are browsing on their phone. Otherwise, the chance that he will leave our site, due to a bad experience, and go to a competitor's website, is enormous.
Set Up a ‘Google My Business’ Account. This should be one of the first things you do when you open up your restaurant. Google My Business (GMB) is a free business listing source to get your restaurant noticed online. It not only connects to Google’s search engine, but also to Google Maps. This means that you are able to show your business and menu on two different platforms for free. GMB also allows you to list your operating hours, a link to your menu, and online ordering information, so you can really maximize a potential diner’s exposure to your restaurant.
About the Author
Gabriela Damaceno is head of online content at Media Shark, a marketing agency specialized in app development solutions. She is representing HK Certifiers, a company that offers Construction Certificates services. You can connect with her via Linkedin.
