7 Tips to Grow Online Presence of Your Restaurant

Having a strong online presence is critical for any service-oriented business, including restaurants. Achieving higher rankings on search engines will help your restaurant to be noticed and set you apart from your competitors. Whether you are a startup or an established restaurant, an active online presence will take your business to the next level.

A great online presence will lead to more opportunities and make it easier to convert prospects into paying customers. Strengthening your restaurant’s online presence will help you improve your visibility, making it easier for you attract more customers and increase your bottom line. With these goals in mind, here are some tips to help you strengthen your restaurant’s online presence and improve your business.

1. Be active on social media: Restaurants these days cannot afford to ignore social media. If you are looking to improve your online presence, it is essential to be active on at least one social network. So if you have not done so already, choose a social media channel that is relevant to your target audience and start building a presence there. You can share articles, photography and videos and connect with your target customers. You can even reward your followers with special offers and discount coupons.

2. Ask for customer reviews: Social proof is an integral part of building a strong online presence, and the simplest way to achieve this is by asking your satisfied customers to post online reviews and testimonials. Anything your existing customers are saying about your business will carry more credibility than what you say about your own services through paid media. You can also consider creating a testimonial page on your website. Positive online reviews will also help with your search engine rankings.

3. Build a responsive website: A business that has a responsive website is more likely to receive targeted traffic. Having a mobile-friendly website means customers can access it on their mobile devices and it looks as great and easy to navigate on a mobile device as it would be on the desktop. According to research, customers spend 92 percent of their time browsing online using their smartphones. What potential customers find when they search for your restaurant online can significantly affect their decision.

4. Blog regularly: The easiest way to build a strong online presence for your restaurant is to write a blog. It not only provides information about your specialty dishes, menu, rate card and business hours, but is an opportunity to share culinary tips and inspiration. In addition, interesting and well-written content can play an important role in search engine ranking of your website. If you create engaging content, readers will want to come back and the increased traffic will result in improved search engine ranking.

5. Invest in advanced SEO techniques: Effective search engine optimization (SEO) techniques will ensure that useful content and the right elements, such as titles and meta-descriptions, are in the right places on your website. Investing time and effort to implement effective SEO strategies will reflect in your page views and, ultimately, your bottom line. The more visitors you can get on your website, the better.

6. Paid ads can boost website traffic: Though organic traffic to your website and blog is preferred, building a competitive online presence is an ever-evolving strategy. Pay-per-click, while not a replacement for SEO, is a good way of gaining online visibility through visual and textual media. Programs such as Google Adwords and Bing Ads will help you to market to specific audiences with sponsored ads based on their search criteria. An investment in paid ads is especially beneficial for newly launched restaurants or for those experiencing slow traffic.

7. Expand your reach through local directories: In order to show up in local online searches for your area, it is essential to get your restaurant listed in online directories. These directories can improve the reputation and online presence of your restaurant and can take your business to the next level. Most customers are likely to find your restaurant through online directories such as Google My Business and Yelp. One of the most attractive features in online directories is the profile page where vital information about your restaurant, such as its name, contact details, location, work hours, a link to your website, is displayed.

In order to establish and improve your online presence, you need to discover what online platforms your target audience are accessing to search for your business. Usually, customers use popular social media platforms to share their experiences with brands, and the majority of searchers turn to search engines to look for online reviews. This makes it critical for you to monitor search engine results for your restaurant on a regular basis. This will help you understand what searchers find when they look online for your restaurant.

The above-mentioned tips will not only help you establish a strong online presence but will also help you promote your restaurant online. However, make sure you consider the dynamic nature of social networks and SEO tactics before planning an online presence strategy for your restaurant.