Local Search Marketing for Restaurants
Local SEO
Why is local SEO so important?
125 million US consumers with smartphones
7 billion monthly local searches
78% of local searches on mobile and 61% of local searches on laptop result in offline purchases
#1 category of all local searches is for restaurants
Why should you optimise for local? Because you want to have a presence on:
local organic results
local 3-pack results
local map pins
local knowledge panel
What is typically searched for locally?
to locate an address
to search for a business with certain product or service
to find a phone number
to discover hours of operation
to get driving directions
to find coupons and special offers
to read ratings and reviews
Google My Business
The first step is to sign up with Google My Business to generate your business listing and business profile on Google.
Citations
The most important step in any local SEO strategy is getting citations in local directories. A local citation is a mention of your business on any webpage other than your own.
NAP is the common acronym used when talking about citations. It’s important that your NAP needs to be listed exactly the same everywhere. Consistency is important! NAP consists of:
name
address
phone number
categorisation
Where you should be listed:
local search engines
Google Places
Bing Places
Yahoo Local
Yelp
Yellow Pages
Foursquare
social media sites
Facebook
Twitter
Google+
Instagram
local blogs
local directories and newspapers
Optimise Pages
After you have listed your citations and submitted to local directories, what you should do next is optimise your website pages. This includes three elements:
keyword title tags
NAP in HTML
local website content
As mentioned before, keywords are very important. Expand your keyword list to optimise for local SEO, by deciding your #1 keyword based on your restaurant concept and then add your location. For example, Organic Food and Cafe in New York.
As we said before, having a consistent NAP (name, address, and phone number) is vital. Make sure that this information is included in the HTML of your website. Make sure this information is not in image format, which Google and Bing don’t recognise. It should be in text format.
Having site content that is specialised to your city is a great way to boost your local search rankings.
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Digibites is a digital agency for Bars, Cafes, and Restaurants. We specialise in digital marketing and creative solutions that will get new customers to your door and keep customers coming back.
Our services include: consulting, online marketing, website design, branding & graphic design. We also provide an online course.