Each niche has its own SEO challenges and opportunities, and while SEO blog articles can offer a wealth of information no matter what sector you're in, they often can't cover all the nuances of a particular industry.
So today we're going to take a look at one of my favorite industries (to be a consumer in it)...restaurants. While many of these tips can be modified to apply in other sectors, they are especially for those of you who own or work with restaurants. So let's get started.
Disclaimer: In some of my examples below, I'm going to use a restaurant local to me called Bard & Banker. This is not our client; They're just doing some things right, and I don't like using our own clients in examples. Other than having enjoyed a few lunches there, we have no business relationship.
Restaurant SEO Tip #1: Google My Business
There are a lot of new features in Google My Business, and some of them are only available for restaurants!
Google Posts
One of my favorite new additions to the restaurant SEO arsenal is Google Posts, which is rolling out to all businesses.
Posts can be accessed through the Google My Business listing editor page and offer the opportunity to add a post of up to 300 words with an image and a link to:
- Learn more
- reserve
- Register
- Shop
- Get the offer
You can also create events with start and end times. When people search for your business, they will see your posts, but perhaps the most important thing for restaurants is mobile something like this:
With posts, restaurants can not only announce promotions and events, but claim much more ground on Google for free.
fast urls
And speaking of claiming free land, on August 10, a Google My Business update was released that allowed businesses to add additional links to deeper pages on their site.
While this capability is open to all businesses, restaurants seem to get the best out of it. Where a lowly SEO consultant can only add a link to an appointment scheduling page, restaurants can add additional links to their menu, ordering URL, and reservation URL. The result is something like this:
As you can see, these links give you additional “ground” (especially on mobile) but, more importantly, they help users get to the part of your site they are most interested in, perhaps saving your workers time. They answer the phone promoting online reservations.
And Google even allows you to link to a page that's not on your own domain if you use a third-party provider to provide some transactional functionality.
Restaurant SEO Tip #2: Mentions
Mentions are important to most, if not all, but in no industry is it more important than in restaurants. This is because for restaurants, mentions are not only a local SEO signal, but also a source of solid traffic.
Sites like FourSquare and Yelp drive significant views, direct calls, and traffic. For this reason, I recommend that you personally claim and monitor your FourSquare and Yelp listings, ensuring that:
- They contain updated information.
- That the profile is complete with a favorable image.
- And that all comments are responded to in a timely manner.
Restaurant SEO Tip #3: Put your menu in the results
In 2014, something that seems like a long time ago in SEO, Google added menu data to the right in its search results.
This feature seems to be largely ignored by restaurants, however, it is a very valuable area in search results. For those clueless, this feature appears for menu-related searches and looks like this:
Everything you want to know about a location's menu is accessible directly in the search results.
I would suggest that the purpose of appearing in search results is not to get traffic to your site, but rather to boost your physical business. If this gives you more ground in the results, that is inherently good. Of course, it would be better if images were included, too, but the pros outweigh the cons overall. If someone wants to see what your food looks like, they will visit your site.
Currently, this data is apparently scraped from third-party sites and there is a significant drawback. If you don't keep your menu up to date, or if it takes a while to update your cache, Google will display outdated information.
To illustrate the example above, here's what it looks like on Google compared to what appears on a site:
What's important to remember here is that you NEED to keep your listings consistent. If your menu appears on sites like Yelp or AllMenus, it's imperative that they are all updated as quickly as the menu is on your site and at your location. And why not submit those URLs to Google as soon as they are updated?
Of course, Google doesn't like having bad data either, and some recently announced tags may be the answer to this problem.
Restaurant SEO Tip #4 Schema
If you're an experienced SEO, you're probably familiar with schema tagging, but for neophytes, this is essentially the code delivered with your web page (although not visible to humans if it uses JSON-LD) that you send to Google ( and other trackers, of course) details about your page and its content.
This code can be placed anywhere on the page, but is typically placed in the .
For restaurant owners, Schema standards for restaurants were changed last April to add the 'hasMenu' property to replace the old menu. The 'menu' property only allowed a URL to the restaurant's menu, which sends little information to Google regarding the details of said menu. But 'hasMenu' changes that.
Schema markup like the following can be placed either on the home page or throughout the site (it is usually most common on the home page):
{
“@context”: “http://schema.org/”,
“@type”: “Restaurant”,
“name”: “Bard & Banker”,
“acceptsReservations”: “Yes”,
“servesCuisine”: “Scottish-style Pub”,
“priceRange”: “$$”,
“address”: {
“@type”: “PostalAddress”,
“streetAddress”: “1022 Government St”,
“addressLocality”: “Victoria”,
“addressRegion”: “BC”,
“postalCode”: “V8W 1X7”
},
“telephone”: “250-953-9993”,
“aggregateRating”: {
“@type”: “AggregateRating”,
“ratingValue”: “4.3”,
“reviewCount”: “410”
},
“openingHours”: [
“Mo-Su 08:00-23:59:59”,
“Mo-Su 00:00-01:00”
],
“url”: “https://bardandbanker.com/”,
“image”: “https://bardandbanker.com/app/uploads/2015/09/BBnight-6832.jpg”
}
Essentially, this is telling Google about the nature and location of your business (it's a restaurant at a specific address) and other key information (like hours). There are other properties that can be added, if you are curious you will find these properties this article.
Assuming you have an online menu, (if not, you should), add schema to the menu page to provide absolute clarity as to where your menu is, how the items are divided, and of course, the menu items in Yeah.
Below, you can see a sample of what the first item on the list would look like: clam chowder – offered in a cup or bowl in the appetizers section. The second section includes sandwiches and burgers, where you will find one of each. Obviously, this is a small sample of the deployment.
There are a variety of options you can select for offering properties (pricing information) and menu items that I haven't added here, such as nutritional information and more.
What's important may vary for each restaurant, but if you have nothing more than what's included below, you'd be miles ahead of most restaurants. For the full list of hasMenu properties you can use, visit the hasMenu site. schema here.
This is what it would look like on the menu page (just a small sample):
{
“@context”:”http://schema.org”,
“@type”:”Menu”,
“name”: “Bard & Banker Menu”,
“url”: “https://bardandbanker.com/menu/”,
“mainEntityOfPage”: “https://bardandbanker.com/menu/”,
“inLanguage”:”English”,
“hasMenuSection”: [
{
“@type”: “MenuSection”,
“name”: “Appetizers”,
“description”: “Start your dining experience with one of our fantastic appetizers.”,
“hasMenuItem”: [
{
“@type”: “MenuItem”,
“name”: “Creamy Clam & Cod Chowder”,
“description”: “Local Cod, Clams & Double Smoked Bacon, Served with Fresh Bread.”,
“offers”: [
{
“@type”: “Offer”,
“price”: “7.00”,
“priceCurrency”: “USD”,
“eligibleQuantity”: {
“@type”: “QuantitativeValue”,
“name”: “Cup”
}
},
{
“@type”: “Offer”,
“price”: “10.00”,
“priceCurrency”: “USD”,
“eligibleQuantity” : {
“@type”: “QuantitativeValue”,
“name”: “Bowl”
}
}
]
}
]
},
{
“@type”: “MenuSection”,
“name”: “Sandwiches & Burgers”,
“description”: “Enjoy one of our made-to-order sandiches or had-pressed, house made burgers.”,
“hasMenuItem”: [
{
“@type”: “MenuItem”,
“name”: “Charcuterie Sandwich”,
“description”: “Italian Prosciutto, Hot Capicolla, Sliced Bocconcini, Roasted Local Peppers, Pickled Red Onion, Fresh Basil Pesto & Balsamic Honey Greens on a Ciabatta Bun, Served with a Choice of Fries or Market Greens”,
“image”: “https://bardandbanker.com/app/uploads/2015/07/fb-opengraph.jpg”,
“offers”: {
“@type”: “Offer”,
“price”: “16.50”,
“priceCurrency”: “USD”
}
},
{
“@type”: “MenuItem”,
“name”: “The Bard Burger”,
“description”: “Ground In-House Beef Short Rib, Brisket & Chuck Burger, Smoked Bacon, Cheddar, Sweet Onions, Tomato, Pickle & Mustard Aioli on a Toasted Brioche Bun, Served with a Choice of Fries or Market Greens”,
“image”: “https://bardandbanker.com/app/uploads/2015/07/fb-opengraph.jpg”,
“offers”: {
“@type”: “Offer”,
“price”: “18.00”,
“priceCurrency”: “USD”
}
}
]
}
]
}
Obviously, this code is not intended to be used as a template, as there are many properties to consider. This is intended only as an illustration to help guide you. And now, finally…
Time to cook
While these four tips can help you rank better and get more exposure where you rank.
Optimization and traditional links on sites are almost always necessary.
Therefore, now is the time to apply them. Some are quick and easy, and some can be time-consuming. Start wherever you want; The only important part is that you get started. Google will appreciate it.
Source: Search Engine Land
