Key Benefits of SEO for Restaurant Websites
- By Andreea Dobrila
- SEO GUIDE
- JAN 17, 2019 (Updated: Apr 10, 2023)
- 1. Local SEO helps diners find your restaurant in the real world
- 2. Free restaurant marketing: SEO gives you a huge return on a tiny investment
- 3. SEO can boost your brand awareness and online exposure
- 4. Good SEO creates a user-friendly experience
- 5. Restaurant search engine optimization makes you stand out from the competition
- 6. Search engine optimization for restaurants increases your website’s conversion rate
- 7. An efficient SEO strategy for restaurants will help you attract more clients
- Final words
Do restaurants need SEO? The answer is a resounding YES. Search engine optimization (SEO) makes it easier for customers to find information about your restaurant so they can order more food from you.
SEO uses several techniques, such as including keywords in your online content and registering your site with local directories, to improve your restaurant’s online presence.
To really make your business stand out, you should know the key benefits of SEO for restaurant websites. You can enjoy all the benefits of an optimized website without all the effort with our restaurant website builder that does SEO for you.
1. Local SEO helps diners find your restaurant in the real world
Local SEO uses keywords about your location to help diners find your restaurant in the real world. Google has made a big push for local SEO over the last few years. You may have noticed that when you use Google to search for restaurants, the search engine shows you a map with the locations of the eateries. Those are restaurants that know how to do local SEO correctly.
To make the most of local SEO, you should use the best keywords for restaurants. In that regard, you should add your city and neighborhood name to the content on your website. For example, if you own a pizzeria in Boston, you would want to include keyword phrases like “Boston pizza” and “best pizza in Boston” to your website.
You can also improve local SEO results by registering your website with online directories and social media platforms. Furthermore, don’t forget to complete your Google Business Profile with a link to your restaurant website.
2. Free restaurant marketing: SEO gives you a huge return on a tiny investment
Unlike pay-per-click (PPC) advertising that can cost a lot, search engine optimization requires little to no money. If you write your own content, then you don’t need to pay anything for SEO blog posts. You just have to make sure that you include keywords that potential customers will use when they want to order food online or find a nearby restaurant.
If you aren’t comfortable writing your own content, then you can hire someone to do the work for you. While this costs some money, you get a huge return on a small investment because the content will stay on your website forever.
Over time, the amount of content on your website will grow, which makes it even more attractive to search engines.
3. SEO can boost your brand awareness and online exposure
Online exposure is one of the key benefits of SEO for restaurants. Your restaurant faces a lot of competition. With SEO-driven content, you can make your restaurant’s brand more appealing to potential customers. People are much more likely to order food from you when they’ve heard of your restaurant.
SEO also helps search engine spiders find websites that help their users. For instance, when someone asks Google for information about Italian restaurants near them, the spiders look for pages that contain keywords like “Italian,” “restaurant,” and “delivery.” As long as your website includes the right keywords, people will find your business easily, which makes them more likely to order from you instead of your competitors.
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4. Good SEO creates a user-friendly experience
A good SEO strategy creates user-friendly experiences that encourage more people to buy food from your restaurant. The best SEO works well on mobile devices and desktop computers. In fact, more people use smartphones than desktop computers when searching for information online, so it makes sense to prioritize mobile SEO tactics.
Mobile SEO encourages you to increase your website’s loading speed, design your site so that it looks good on small screens, and avoid pop-ups that clutter small screens. All of these efforts contribute to a better experience for potential customers who visit your site.
With a little effort, you can use SEO to make your restaurant more attractive to new customers. Luckily, most people can learn good SEO skills quickly. Always remember that it’s hard to survive in a competitive industry without the key benefits of SEO for restaurant websites.
5. Restaurant search engine optimization makes you stand out from the competition
One of the biggest challenges faced by restaurant owners is the competitive industry. You are competing for the same clients with countless businesses in your area, many that even serve the same type of cuisine.
How can you gain an edge over the competition and persuade potential clients to choose your place? With SEO for restaurants, of course! If your site is better optimized than others, it will appear before competitors in a search involving the targeted keywords, such as “pizza Boston”.
Therefore, clients and Google will believe your website is more relevant for that search and choose to place an order or visit your restaurant.You can check how well your website is performing on Google by using an SEO checker.
6. Search engine optimization for restaurants increases your website’s conversion rate
When you optimize your website with restaurant SEO keywords and other techniques, it will appear high in Google Searches. This way, hungry clients will find your restaurant and browse your menu to see if it is to their liking.
Because customers already start with the intention of buying food when they search, there is a bigger chance they will actually order from your restaurant, not just look over the website and exit.
For the best results, it is important to go for more specific keywords like “traditional Italian food in Manhattan”, not generic ones that are mainly used for research, not immediate purchase, such as “best restaurant in New York”.
What’s more, to increase conversion, you must add an online ordering system to your website to allow clients to order directly. Clients will browse your attractive menu, and, in just a few clicks, place an order.
7.An efficient SEO strategy for restaurants will help you attract more clients
The purpose of any marketing technique you implement is to attract more new and returning clients so you can continue to grow your restaurant. That’s why any restaurant should include a SEO strategy in their marketing plan.
If done right, you will see immediate improvements in the number of clients you serve. Be aware, SEO is an ongoing job, so you must constantly update your website and find new SEO strategies to attract more customers.
How to do SEO for a restaurant website? Check out these in-depth articles that will teach you all you need to know about local SEO, on-page SEO and off-page SEO:
Final Words
Now that you know the answer to the question “What are the benefits of SEO for restaurants?”, don’t waste time, and start optimizing your restaurant website.
Do you want to enjoy all the amazing benefits of SEO for restaurant websites without doing all the work? We got you! Our restaurant website builder will help you generate a search engine optimized restaurant website that will surely increase your sales!
Check out this SEO optimized website example to see how your restaurant site could look like. Get ahead of the competition and get your sales optimized website now!