In 2022, having an online presence for your restaurant business is essential.
When looking for new places to eat, people turn to thousands of results at their fingertips, and the competition is fierce.
If you want locals to find your restaurant when searching for places to eat in the area, you need to work on your online presence and appear prominently in search results.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of the best and most affordable ways to distinguish your restaurant online.
While on-page SEO is all about optimizing your website, off-page SEO focuses on spreading your reach online.
Below, you’ll find an off-page SEO checklist for restaurants with all the items you need to track regularly.
You’ll learn about Google Business Profile, TripAdvisor, Yelp, social media, link building and more.
1. Claim your Google Business Profile
Google Business Profile (GBP), formerly known as Google My Business, is one of the most powerful tools for businesses everywhere.
It allows business owners to increase their business visibility on Google and make a great first impression by highlighting what makes them unique.
Whatever information you choose to highlight is what customers will see when they search for your restaurant or nearby restaurants on Google.
If you want your customers to find your restaurant on Google Search and Google Maps, you need to claim and fill out your Google Business Profile.
The more information you add about your restaurant, the more likely it is that hungry customers will find it.
Your restaurant’s website is the most important element you need to add to your Google Business Profile.
It will give you an incredibly valuable free backlink and make it easier for people to navigate to your website.
Equally important for businesses is to display your menu and order page.
Additional essential Google Business Profile information includes:
Location. Opening hours Contact information Photos of your dishes and the atmosphere of the restaurant.
To make your GBP profile more attractive, showcase your daily specials, promotions, events and behind-the-scenes videos.
If you have multiple restaurant locations, it’s a good practice to have a separate Google Business Profile for each.
2. Claim your profiles on Yelp and TripAdvisor
Yelp and TripAdvisor both rank second on this off-page restaurant SEO checklist.
According to a BrightLocal survey, 98% of customers read online reviews of businesses in 2021.
Millions of consumers visit websites like TripAdvisor and Yelp every month.
Naturally, this is where your restaurant should be.
Add your restaurant to TripAdvisor and Yelp, or claim your listing if it’s already there.
Yelp for restaurants
After filling out the basic information, follow these steps to customize your Yelp profile and stand out from the crowd:
Add your menu.
Please provide additional information to your services, such as delivery, table reservations and online payment methods.
Add a description of the restaurant you’re optimizing with relevant keywords like ‘Italian restaurant’, ‘pizza’ or ‘New York’ – access this guide to learn how to do keyword research.
Add the Yelp badge on your restaurant’s website. Increase your Yelp rating encouraging reviews and filling out your profile 100%.
Add a call to action button which redirects customers to your website.
TripAdvisor for restaurants
The above rules also apply to TripAdvisor.
Start by filling out the profile basics like name, address and website.
Then take your profile to the next level with these tips on how to rank higher on TripAdvisor:
Collect feedback and respond prompt (starting with the negatives). keep yours updated list.
Request TripAdvisor Brand Stickers to decorate your windows.
Set up direct messaging so customers can contact you directly. (This can help you resolve complaints without affecting your public reviews.)
Create a storyboard where you show your best photos and reviews.
3. Link your website to social media
Social media is another vital aspect of off-page SEO for restaurants. Although not a direct ranking factor, it can still indirectly influence SEO.
How? Having your social media profiles redirected to your website will bring you additional traffic and business and increase your online authority.
However, having the profiles is not enough.
You need to have an active presence and interact with your followers to encourage them to share your content.
Each social network has its function.
On Facebook, you can post your menu with a “Start Order” button to actively increase sales.
Instagram is where your dishes will shine. Post photos that your followers won’t be able to resist.
Twitter is an excellent place to address customer concerns.
Use it to update followers about opening hours changes, new menu items, events, and anything else they want to know.
While Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are the holy trinity of social media platforms, there are other platforms you can tap into that can yield amazing results, such as Pinterest, Snapchat, or TikTok.
On Pinterest, you can post delicious photos of your menu, link to your website, create recipe boards, interact with others in the restaurant industry, and create exclusive giveaways.
Snapchat can help you attract more local customers geofilters and engage your audience with little games and discount codes hidden in your stories.
Use TikTok to connect with a younger audience, create hashtag challenges, make fun skits and challenges, and take customers behind the scenes.
Don’t forget to add all your social media profiles to your website.
Also use social media to share user-generated content.
However, make sure you have your customers’ express permission to share their posts on your pages.
4. Make outreach links
Getting quality backlinks from high authority websites can help improve your site’s authority, reputation and search ranking.
Getting your restaurant featured in local online publications will also expose your business to new customers.
First, find well-rated websites in the food industry and approach them with a guest post submission.
You can offer your expertise as a chef or restaurant owner and include a link to your restaurant’s website in the article.
Then search local business directories and get in touch to add your restaurant.
The same goes for websites that rank the best restaurants in an area.
Offer to include a discount code for your visitors to sweeten the deal.
Create a restaurant blog
If you want relevant websites to link to you naturally, consider starting a blog where you share your experience in the restaurant industry.
Remember to do keyword research to find topics people are interested in reading about so your articles can rank high.
Here are some restaurant blog topic ideas you can explore:
Cooking methods and guides (how to cook seafood, how to season rice, what wine goes with fish). Lists (X common cooking ingredients, X dinner etiquette tips, X types of movie night foods). Menu, Food, or Industry Trends (Food Trends 2022, Restaurant Trends 2022) Menu updates, limited items, and FAQs. New features or products (how to order online, how to reserve a table online, how to pay for your meal online). Pages about you and your staff (employee of the month, meet the owner, the story behind your restaurant).
When searching for keywords, consider your restaurant’s cuisine and key selling point.
If you own a vegetarian restaurant, for example, you won’t write about “how to cut steak” but about “vegetarian lunch box ideas” or about “how to season vegetables for grilling.”
5. Collaborate with food influencers
Food bloggers and influencers with social media followings can be great promoters of your restaurant.
They can help increase traffic to your website and increase your search engine rankings by linking to your domain.
Invite local influencers to exclusive tastings of your newest menu items so they can post about them on their blogs and social media.
You can also offer your followers a special discount coupon.
You can find local influencers on subreddits created by and for food bloggers or use tools like meetup.com to search for gastronomic groups that meet in your town.
Try paid blogger outreach software if you are willing to invest more in blogger outreach.
6. Keep your NAP up to date across all platforms
NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) consistency is an important step in restaurant SEO and a must-have in this off-page SEO checklist.
Your NAP information should be available on your website, social media and third party websites.
Search engines especially like this information because it helps users find answers to their questions.
In order for your restaurant information to appear in relevant searches, you must display your NAP information and update it consistently across all platforms.
Make sure the information is written the same way and displayed in the same format.
Otherwise, it could confuse users and make you unreliable for search engines.
7. Add your restaurant to popular review platforms and business directories
Once you’ve covered your bases with Google Business Profile, Yelp, and TripAdvisor, it’s time to research additional directories and websites where you can list your restaurant.
Some of these will help you get a valuable backlink, but all of them will expose you to new customers.
For example, Bing may not be as popular as Google, but it’s worth adding your restaurant Bing Places.
Here are other websites where you should add your restaurant to increase your off-page SEO:
Search for cities. Foursquare. Local.com. yellow pages.com. white pages
Remember the tip from the previous section: keep your NAP information consistent across all platforms.
Summary
Good food is only one element of your restaurant’s success.
Without a strong online presence, you cannot serve today’s foodie audience.
Online attention starts with your website, but continues with off-page restaurant SEO.
From social media to review websites and food blogs, check off all the items on this off-page SEO checklist to make your restaurant a fixture in the local community and a dominant force in results of the search.
More resources:
Featured Image: Monster Zstudio/Shutterstock
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