Are you struggling to get more customers to your restaurant? If yes, improving your online visibility can go a long way. Majority of diners search for their next meal online. Therefore, making your restaurant easy to find on the web is crucial to drive sales. Whether you’re a bustling bistro or a cozy cafe, you need to frame strategies to shine online.
According to the recent survey, 72% of restaurant owners have a website. It means the online landscape of the restaurant niche is competitive. So, how can you outperform your competitors and shine online to grow fast?
No worries, we’re here to share with you the secrets of enhancing your restaurant’s visibility to catch the attention of your targeted audience. But, before you learn the secrets, know the benefits of strengthening your online presence. So, scroll down.
Why You Should Increase Your Restaurant’s Online Visibility
Improving the digital presence of your restaurant is no longer a fad, it’s a necessity.
The latest survey shows that approximately 90% of diners visit a restaurant’s website before stepping into their brick-and-mortar restaurant. So, if your audience cannot find you online, they will hardly visit your restaurant. Apart from it, some of the other benefits of boosting the search visibility of your restaurant are:
- Brings More Customers to You: Improving your restaurant’s visibility online helps potential customers find you easily. When your restaurant appears in search results, social media feeds, and online reviews, foodies who might not have found your business otherwise, will come to know about you. This increased exposure will give you more organic traffic, skyrocketing your sales.
- Improves Local Search Rankings: Optimizing your online presence for local search ensures your restaurant has occupied a prominent place in search results when people look for dining options in their locality. Consequently, local customers searching for “restaurants near me” will find you in seconds.
- Builds Brand Recognition: Engaging with customers through social media and online reviews enables you to establish a recognizable brand image. As soon as your audience starts to engage with your brand, they will consider your restaurant while searching online for where to eat. This, in turn, will drive repeat business.
Knowing the benefits only isn’t going to help you. You have to master the secrets of winning this race. For this reason, we have discussed some proven techniques to drive your restaurant’s growth online. Go to our next topic to learn the skills of boosting your restaurant’s visibility online.
Tips to Increase Online Visibility of Your Restaurant
With more and more people ordering food online and visiting restaurant’s website to get information, the need for increasing online visibility has become a must. Analyze your competitors and build a robust strategy. Implement it. Analyze the results. Revise it, Repeat. It is a long-term process which will continue to drive growth to your business.
If you need some tips to boost your restaurant’s online visibility, check out the tips shared here.
1. Optimize Your Website for SEO
Website optimization is an integral part of online marketing of restaurants. Google has a scoring system, which it holds behind lock and key. It is more than 100. Implementing all of them is a bit difficult. However, applying the tricks discussed below will definitely improve your organic ranking.
- Use Relevant Keywords: Incorporate popular search terms related to your restaurant and location throughout your website content. Don’t just stuff the keywords. Maintain natural flow while incorporating.
- Improve Page Load Speed: Compress images, use a content delivery network (CDN), use lightweight restaurant themes, and optimize your site’s code to ensure quick loading times. Google loves pages that load quickly. Hence, if your pages load quickly, it will reduce bounce rate and improve your search engine ranks.
- Mobile-Friendly Design: Ensure your website is responsive and works well on all devices so that customers can access your website from tablets and mobile phones too.
2. Consider Google My Business Listing
Google My Business is an integral part of local SEO. If you have listed your restaurant business on Google, then anyone searching for a restaurant in your area online will see your restaurant. Here’re some tips to optimize your Google My Business.
- Include Relevant Restaurant’s Characteristics: Write only factual characteristics of your restaurant. For instance, mention dine-in or Takeaway considering the service you offer. Include everything that is applicable for your restaurant. Give as much information as you can.
- Upload High-Quality Images: Add high-quality images and videos to give your customers an idea about what you offer. Furthermore, a recent survey showed that profiles displaying photos generate 42% more requests for directions. Set 720 x 720 px resolution for images and 720 px or above for videos.
- List Your Business Hours Accurately: Set your operating hours properly. You can use the feature “Special Hours” if you want to change your regular operating hours on some special days like Christmas, New Year’s Eve, etc. Consequently, your customers will know exactly when your restaurant will remain open.
3. Leverage Social Media
A recent survey proved that 62.3% of the world’s population uses social media. Therefore, chances are there your guests are on social media too. You need to create a robust social media marketing strategy to engage your fans there. Follow these post-related tips to promote your brand on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.
- Post Vertical and Short Videos: Short and vertical videos are becoming popular on social media. The best part of vertical videos is that anyone can shoot it using smartphones. Shoot in a natural light. Make the first 3 seconds of the video impressive. Show your face to personalize the content.
- Create Series: Post recurring stories to encourage your audience to follow you on social media. Give them a sense of what to expect in your next series. For example, you can start a series like “Fun Friday”, “Tasty Tuesday” etc. Plan the next series beforehand to build a good series posting strategy to engage audiences more.
- Run Contests: Running contests is a low-budget method to gain exposure and followers quickly. Keep the rules of your contests clear and simple. For example, you can ask your followers to tag your account and share the post to increase their chances of winning.
4. Encourage Online Reviews
Online reviews are important to boost website visibility of your restaurant. Encourage customers to leave reviews for you on TripAdvisor, Google, and Yelp. You can also use the Restaurant Review plugin of WP Food Manager to display your reviews directly on the website. Displaying authentic reviews on your own website adds to the website’s credibility. This plugin allows your guests to write reviews and rate your service. You can add or delete any review from the backend. Moreover, it allows you to manage multiple reviews effortlessly.
5. Offer Loyalty Program
A loyalty program enhances your restaurant’s online visibility through word-of-mouth referrals and repeat visits. Take the steps discussed below to implement your loyalty program effectively.
- Offer Free Items Or Discounts: To encourage your customers to return to your restaurant’s website, provide them with discounts or free items after a certain number of visits.
- Use a Digital App: Use a digital app to manage the program efficiently and let your customers monitor their rewards.
- Promote the Program Through Social Media: Advertise your loyalty program on different social media platforms to create awareness and draw in new members, expanding your customer base and increasing visibility.
6. Include Online Order and Delivery Services
Offer online order and delivery services to boost your restaurant’s visibility and make the services accessible to a wider audience. Promote these services on your website and social media. Implement the best practices to make your online order a satisfying service and reach more customers.
We recommend using plugins for providing online order and delivery services to your customers. You can consider WP Food Manager for Online Order and Food Delivery plugins to streamline your operations. Both of these plugins of WP Food Manager are SEO-friendly, and thus will improve your organic rankings.
Okay, let’s dive into the ways WP Food Manager can help boost your restaurant’s online visibility.
How a WordPress Plugin Can Boost Your Restaurant’s Online Visibility
WP Food Manager is an all-inclusive food business management software containing several plugins to help you streamline restaurant operations and boost your bottom line by up to 30%. It is user-friendly and offers multi-language support. Not only that, WP Food Manager can go a long way driving organic footfalls and turning your website into a profit generator. Here’s how its different addons help.
- Restaurant Manager: Helps you add multiple restaurants to expand your reach and engage your customers more.
- WP Food Manager: Optimizes menus for search engines and enables you to share your restaurant menus online, improving online discoverability.
- Online Order: Simplifies the ordering process, attracting more online customers.
- Restaurant Review: Help you share reviews and ratings of your restaurant on various social media platforms to build trust.
- Google Maps: Improves local SEO and gives direction to your customers so that they can reach you easily.
With WP Food Manager, you can get all the help you need to stand out in the digital landscape. Our plugins are available both in individual form and packages.Choose the package that suits your business the most to stop paying extra to third-party services.
Wrapping Up
You need to invest effort, time, and money to boost your restaurant’s online visibility. Research and build an effective SEO strategy, use social media, and encourage customer reviews. Additionally, consider utilizing restaurant management tools like WP Food Manager to simplify operations and scale up your online presence.
