What is SEO and Why Does It Matter for Your Restaurant?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of boosting your website’s visibility on search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo to attract more organic (unpaid) traffic. For restaurants, SEO is essential—it drives more potential diners to your website, increases reservations, and grows online orders. From optimizing website content and local listings to targeting the right keywords and managing reviews, SEO helps ensure your restaurant shows up when people search for your cuisine or establishment.
Does SEO work for restaurants?
SEO also helps build trust and credibility for your restaurant by showcasing positive reviews and accurate information like hours, location, and menu items. This visibility in search results directly influences foot traffic, reservations, and online orders, as potential diners rely on search engines to make quick dining decisions. By investing in SEO, restaurants can enjoy a cost-effective, long-term strategy that drives consistent traffic and keeps your restaurant top of mind for new and returning guests alike.
Restaurant SEO Strategy
Capture Local Search Opportunities
- Most Diners Search Online: A large percentage of customers turn to search engines when looking for nearby restaurants. By optimizing for local SEO, your restaurant can show up in “near me” searches like “best pizza near me” or “restaurants in [City].”
- Appear on Maps: SEO ensures that your restaurant is properly listed and optimized on platforms like Google My Business, which helps you show up in local search results and Google Maps—where many people find directions, hours, and contact information.
Increased Foot Traffic and Reservations
- Drive More Visitors: SEO can significantly increase your restaurant’s visibility, leading to more people finding your restaurant online, whether they’re looking for a place to dine-in or make a reservation.
- Targeted Customers: SEO allows you to attract people searching for exactly what you offer—whether it’s a romantic dinner spot, family-friendly dining, or fast takeout.
Boost Online Orders
- Optimize for Online Ordering: Restaurants with online ordering capabilities benefit greatly from SEO. By ranking higher for terms like “food delivery [City]” or “order pizza online,” you increase the chances of more customers placing delivery or takeout orders directly through your website or apps.
- Compete with Larger Chains: Local SEO helps independent restaurants compete with large chains by focusing on specific local searches and unique menu offerings that cater to your neighborhood.
Build Credibility and Trust
- Rank Higher with Positive Reviews: SEO integrates your online reviews from platforms like Google, Yelp, and TripAdvisor into your search results. Having positive reviews prominently displayed builds trust with potential customers who rely on online feedback when deciding where to eat.
- Improves Reputation: When people see your restaurant ranking well and accompanied by stellar reviews, they are more likely to trust your brand, which can lead to higher foot traffic and more online orders.
Cost-Effective Marketing
- Organic Traffic is Free: While SEO takes time and effort to implement, the long-term benefits include free, consistent traffic to your website, reducing the need for expensive advertising.
- Improves ROI: Compared to paid ads, SEO offers a high return on investment by driving organic traffic over the long run without ongoing costs per click.
What is Restaurant SEO Marketing?
SEO is short for Search Engine Optimization and is a series of processes that affect how a website ranks in search engine results pages. By optimizing your site you can improve your search rankings, which results in increased traffic to your site.
For example, a restaurant that serves Mexican Food would want to appear as the first search result whenever a potential customer searches for the phrase “best burrito” or “best margarita” in Google.
47.6% of all clicks are on the first three results on mobile (57% on Desktop) (MOZ)
When ranking webpages in traditional search results, Google considers factors like:
- Relevance: How well your webpage matches what the user is looking for
- Quality: How helpful and trustworthy your content is
- Usability: How strong your webpage’s performance is (based on things like speed and mobile-friendliness)
SEO is basically an umbrella term for many different strategies to improve your website’s performance. There are a lot of ways to improve your rankings and with over 20 years experience, the experts at Restaurant Marketing Partners know how to analyze your business and work with you to decide which strategies are appropriate for you and your restaurant.
Local Search Rankings For Restaurants
“Best” + “right now” mobile queries have grown by over 125% in the last two years e.g., “best pizza in New York”. (Google Insights)
Mobile searches for “near me” such as, “pizza near me” and “restaurant open near me” have grown by over 250% YOY in the last two years. (Google Insights)
One of the biggest areas of opportunities for restaurants is in local search. Local SEO is a subset of SEO and while they each run on two different algorithms they do overlap quite a bit.
Local SEO takes everything the normal organic results would encompass and localizes it. This is why you’ll see different results when you search for things like “sandwiches” vs “sandwiches near me” or “sandwiches Las Vegas”.
Here are some examples of local keywords
- “Sandwich Shop”
- “Sandwiches near me”
- “Sandwiches in Las Vegas”
Local SEO works by helping search engines understand where your business is located and what it offers. It can also help the search engines perceive your business as more popular and trustworthy. All these factors can help you rank higher when people search relevant queries for your restaurants.
When ranking restaurants in local search engines often use these main criteria:
- Relevance: How well your restaurant matches what the users are searching for
- Prominence: How well-known and well-reviewed your business is
- Distance: How far the likely search location is from your location
The Importance of Online Reviews for Restaurants
- 96% of adult US consumers read local business review content.
- Only 11% of consumers trust what brands say about themselves over what the public says.
- 70% of customers read between 5-20 reviews before deciding whether to patronize a business
- Consumers are likely to spend 31% more at a business with excellent reviews.
Furthermore, Modern Restaurant Management notes that increasing your star rating by just one star can result in a 5-9% revenue increase, and even a half-star improvement can significantly boost traffic during peak times.
As you can see Local business reviews now play such a large role in public perception of companies. With artificial intelligence (AI) and algorithms taking over it seems that getting positive reviews is now even more important than ever.
Restaurant Reputation Strategy
Reviews are one of the most influential factors in a restaurant’s success. With the rise of platforms like Google, Yelp, TripAdvisor, and social media sites, potential diners rely heavily on online reviews when choosing where to eat. Reviews impact your restaurant’s reputation, credibility, and visibility in search engines, making them a key part of your restaurant’s digital marketing strategy.
Why Reviews Matter for Restaurants
Build Trust and Credibility
First Impressions: Reviews are often the first point of contact for potential customers. Positive reviews provide social proof that your restaurant offers good food, service, and ambiance.
Influence Decisions: A majority of diners check reviews before making a decision. If your restaurant has a high rating with glowing reviews, potential guests are more likely to choose you over competitors.
Word-of-Mouth: Online reviews act as modern word-of-mouth marketing. When satisfied customers leave positive reviews, they essentially endorse your restaurant to a wide audience.
Impact on SEO and Online Visibility
Local Search Ranking: Search engines like Google factor in reviews when determining where to rank businesses in local search results. The quantity, quality, and recency of reviews can directly affect your restaurant’s visibility in searches like “best Italian restaurant near me.”
Google My Business Optimization: Having a steady stream of positive reviews improves your Google My Business profile, helping you show up higher in local searches and on Google Maps.
Boost Click-Through Rates: High ratings and positive reviews improve your restaurant’s overall online reputation, which can increase the number of clicks to your website or online ordering system.
Encourage New Customers
Influence Behavior: Diners are more likely to try a new restaurant if it has good reviews. When people see that others have had a great experience, they’re encouraged to visit themselves.
Detailed Information: Reviews often provide specific details about dishes, the atmosphere, or the service that can give potential customers insight into what to expect, reducing hesitation.
Feedback for Improvement
Understand Customer Experience: Reviews provide valuable feedback that can help you understand what diners love about your restaurant and what areas need improvement.
Monitor Trends: If you notice consistent feedback about a particular issue (e.g., slow service, portion sizes, or a popular dish), you can address it proactively to enhance the guest experience.
Reinforce Strengths: Positive reviews can highlight what your restaurant does well, like exceptional customer service or signature dishes, allowing you to continue capitalizing on those strengths.
Increase Reservations and Online Orders
Drive Conversions: Positive reviews directly translate into more foot traffic, reservations, and online orders. When people see your restaurant consistently getting great reviews, they’re more likely to make a reservation or place an order.
Reviews on Delivery Platforms: Reviews on platforms like Uber Eats, DoorDash, Grubhub, or ezCater can also influence online orders. Restaurants with high ratings and positive feedback often receive more orders compared to those with mixed or negative reviews.
How to Get and Manage Reviews Effectively
Encourage Customers to Leave Reviews
Ask for Feedback: Politely encourage happy customers to leave a review by placing signs at your restaurant, sending follow-up emails, or including a link on receipts. A simple request like, “Loved your meal? Leave us a review on Google!” can go a long way.
Incentivize Reviews: You can offer a small incentive like a discount on their next visit or entry into a prize draw to motivate diners to leave a review.
Respond to Reviews
Acknowledge Positive Feedback: Take time to thank customers for their positive reviews. This shows appreciation and builds a relationship with your audience.
Address Negative Reviews: Respond professionally to negative feedback. Apologize if necessary and offer a solution to the issue. This demonstrates that you care about the customer experience and are willing to make improvements.
Keep It Timely: Respond to reviews promptly, whether they’re good or bad. This shows that you are engaged and attentive to customer feedback.
Monitor Reviews Regularly
Set Up Alerts: Use tools like Google Alerts or review management software to track new reviews in real-time. This allows you to stay on top of customer feedback and respond quickly.
Review Platforms to Monitor: Pay attention to the platforms most relevant to your audience, such as Google, Yelp, TripAdvisor, Facebook, and restaurant-specific platforms like OpenTable and Resy
Leverage Positive Reviews in Marketing
Feature Reviews on Your Website: Highlight positive reviews on your website or landing pages to build trust with potential diners.
Social Media Shoutouts: Share positive reviews on your social media channels to show appreciation for your customers and showcase your restaurant’s strengths.
Incorporate into Ads: Use top reviews in your Google or Facebook ads to boost credibility and provide potential diners with extra assurance.
Use Reviews for Reputation Management
Reputation Management Tools: Tools like Yelp for Business, Google My Business, and online reputation management platforms help you track reviews and manage your restaurant’s online reputation efficiently.
Request Fresh Reviews: Regularly ask for new reviews to keep your ratings fresh and relevant. Search engines and customers both prioritize recent reviews over older ones.
How Do I Tell The Search Engines About My Restaurant
Building authority for your restaurant’s website is crucial to improving its search engine ranking and establishing trust with both search engines and potential customers. Website authority is based on a variety of factors that signal to search engines like Google that your site is credible, valuable, and worthy of ranking higher. To build the authority of your site you need to build your brand. One of the best ways to do that is by earning a recommendation from other websites online.
The quality of websites you get links from cannot be emphasized enough. Think of it like this, when a website links to your website they’re associating themselves with you. Would you rather be associated with reputable sources of information or questionable and even spammy sources of information?
Create High-Quality, Unique Content
Blog Posts: Work with your local newspaper, foodie or influencer to publish content related to your restaurant, such as new menu updates, behind-the-scenes looks at the kitchen, or stories about the local food scene. Make sure the content is unique, relevant, and informative. Be sure to get a link back to your website and social media profiles.
Local Directories: These can come in the form of citations in online directories (e.g. Yelp, Trip Advisor, City Search, Open Table, etc.
Visual Content: Share high-quality images of your restaurant, food, and ambiance. Videos showcasing your chef, cooking techniques, or special events can also enhance user engagement and build authority. Well-optimized visual content improves user experience, which boosts your website’s credibility.
Answer Common Questions: Create FAQ pages or detailed guides about your menu, dietary options, or the story behind your dishes. Addressing common questions can help you become a trusted resource for customers and search engines.
Restaurant Location Data & Business Citations
Citations are web pages that mention your business NAP information: name, address, and phone number. Business directories are the most common source of online citations.
What is NAP?
NAP stands for name, address, and phone number. These are the key things that make a business uniquely identifiable. It is important that the business name, address, and phone number (NAP) are consistent all across the web.
Why is NAP Consistency Important? NAP consistency is important for a few reasons:
Consistency helps build credibility with search engines. It helps potential customers reach a business when they search a directory instead of finding incorrect or out-of-date information.
If a search engine crawls the web and sees a variety of contradicting information about your business then it makes it harder for their algorithms to know what’s accurate — and when it can’t determine what’s accurate, your authority drops.
Example of NAP inconsistency
When I Google SW Steakhouse at the WYNN Las Vegas their address is listed as 3131 Las Vegas Blvd S, Las Vegas, NV 89109 and their website lists the address as 3131 Las Vegas Blvd. Las Vegas, NV 89109. That “Blvd S” may not be that important to SW, but it could be to your profile.
Location Data Distribution Strategy
Claiming your business listing lets you manage key details like address, hours, and menu, ensuring customers see accurate, consistent information. Verified listings improve your local search ranking, making your restaurant more likely to appear in local results (like “restaurants near me”) and on Google Maps. This increases visibility and attracts more customers searching for nearby dining options.
Claim and Optimize Your Listing on the Major Search Profiles
- Bing
- Apple
Submit to Major Online Business Directories
- Yelp
- YP
- Superpages
- Trip Advisor
- City Search
- Open Table
Claim Social Media Profiles
- X.com (Formerly Twitter)
- TikTok
- SnapChat
- YouTube.com
Submit to Data Aggregators
- Foursquare
- Data Axle (Formerly Infogroup)
- Neustar Localeze
By claiming your restaurants proifile on major search engines, directories, and data aggregators ensures that your business information is accurate, improves your local SEO, increases customer trust, and gives you access to valuable insights. It also helps you engage with customers directly and makes your restaurant easier to find and interact with online, leading to more reservations, orders, and positive reviews.
SEO For Restaurants
SEO is essential for restaurants because it increases visibility in the search engine rankings, attracts more diners, and helps build a strong online presence. Whether you run a sit-down restaurant or a fast-casual spot, a proper Search Engine Optimization Strategy can drive foot traffic, online orders, and ultimately grow your business. A well-optimized Restaurant SEO strategy means more customers can find you when they’re hungry, leading to more reservations and orders.