Want to build some high quality links for your restaurant?
Well, it’s certainly possible. Everyone loves good food so naturally people are always going to be on the lookout for great restaurants to dine at. Food and drink are one of those commodities that people are always in need of so you’re in a great business.
Now the key is to translate this success into the online world where you can use the web as a great way to build leads for your business. One of the best ways to grow your business is by using social media.
However, there are also other ways to build your restaurant's online presence and this is what I’ll be discussing in this post.
Capitalising on your Existing Clientele
Capitalising on your existing clientele is one of the best things you can do for your business. A good business should always be making an effort to retain customers. These people have already bought from you so you should make an effort to keep them happy. After all, if you give them a good experience there’s a very good chance they’ll spread the word about your business and word of mouth marketing is one of the most powerful forms of marketing available.
Email newsletters
These are a great way to keep customers in the loop about your new menus, happy hour plans, upcoming events, discounted prices, etc. They are also a great way to get feedback so include a link to a quick survey. A survey is a great way to find out what your customers want, what is bothering them, etc, and from the answers you get you can help them.
For more information on how to create attention grabbing newsletters check out our blog posts on email marketing here.
Customer loyalty cards
These are used a lot in medium and lower-priced restaurants. These are a great way to increase customer loyalty and whilst they may not be used regularly at pricier restaurants there is no reason you can’t start the trend.
If you know who your regular customers are then you can send them a free appetiser or dessert every few months. This is a brilliant way to increase customer loyalty and make them a customer for life.
Now these tactics that I’ve just mentioned may not necessarily result in a link to your website. However, if your customers are happy then there is a good chance that they’ll spread the message about your business via word of mouth. This in turn is what may result in a link to your site because the person asking for the recommendation may be the one who gives you a link or some kind of endorsement on social media.
Local SEO
Here I’ll cover five specific restaurant ideas that are perfect for link building. For more advice on SEO for local businesses take a look at our dedicated SEO for local businesses blog post here.
1. Partnerships With Local Bloggers
These bloggers don’t necessarily have to write about food to be beneficial for your business.
Someone could be writing about the town where you have a restaurant and this is a great opportunity to generate exposure for your business. Contact them and see if a review is possible. If they are willing to do a review then invite them to your restaurant for a free meal or half price lunch one day.
Let bloggers know when you have something new, even if it’s just a new beer on tap, a seasonal menu, redesigned space. It’s not easy for local bloggers to keep tabs on what is going on so if you reach out to them to give them information like that, they’re going to be appreciative.
2. News Outlets
News outlets are great exposure for your restaurant. Does your local newspaper have a section like this:
Cheesecakes by Alex (276 Deansgate, Manchester 0161-000-0000) is offering freshly baked sourdough and rye bread when the door opens at 7:30am on Saturdays.
There are also a range of new desserts on offer like hot sticky buns and warm apple pie.
You get the picture. If you have a special, new menu item, new pricing, etc., then reach out to your local news outlets and let them know. This may not necessarily result in a link but it all comes back to gaining more exposure as I’ve already mentioned.
3. Local Charities
Offering to donate food to charities is a great way to gain exposure. Not only that but you’ll be doing something good for the community in the process. For example maybe there is a charity event on in your local town one morning. What you can do is bring the volunteers a free breakfast or snacks.
You can even offer to host the board meetings of a Vocational Rehabilitation group once a quarter if you have space for it. Whatever you can do may result in a link.
4. Local Business Directories and Review Sites
Submit to directories and hopefully you’ll be reviewed on them. You want to be listed on directories like Yelp, Google’s Places for Business, Yahoo Local, and Bing Local at a minimum.
Just make sure you only submit to the directories worth submitting to though because some of them are worthless and can only end up hurting you.
If you’re interested in registering with local directories, we can get your business listed on a number of excellent local business directories, just contact us to find out more.
5. Educational System
One great tactic you can use is reaching out to local universities and colleges. Many of these places are great for finding employees for the hospitality industry. Reach out to the human resources department and let them know you’re hiring.
You can take a similar angle here as with the charities by offering to host group meetings in your restaurant. It may even be worth your time writing a piece on your blog about working in a restaurant, tips for being hired to work in a restaurant, etc.
Social Media
Social media is one of the most powerful ways to build any business. Why? It will generate exposure. Food is a popular commodity and people are going to talk and they will talk on social media.
You can use Twitter for everything from tweeting out when your newest menu will be available, what charity meetings you’ll be supporting, etc. You can even use it to tweet out if someone cancelled a reservation and now there is a spot available at your restaurant.
You need to be active on here with what you post but you also need to remember to reply to your followers as well. If a follower asks you something about a menu then make sure you reply.
People want to know that you care and that you appreciate them as a customer. One of the best ways to do this is by showing them that you care by replying to all of their questions.
Food is visual so it makes sense that you would use Instagram to promote your business. You should Instagram your own photos but also make sure you pay attention to when other people do it so you can build connections with others in your industry.
You can post photos of your new menu, your new cheesecake, your latest special or discounts. Make sure you remember to use hashtags though.
For more information on how to grow your Linkedin followers, take a look at our dedicated Instagram blog post here.
This platform is great because it’s also highly visual like Instagram. You can use Pinterest to pin recipes, post a photo of your meal and link it back to the recipe on your blog. Pin photos of your restaurant all lit up for a special occasion or showcase a photo of the latest beers you have on tap.
Foursquare
Foursquare is a great way to market your restaurant for discounts, happy hours, etc. You can even tell who else has checked in if you’re connected to a group of friends who are in town for the weekend.
When using Facebook you need to make sure that you let people know what is going on at your restaurant. Let them know about new dishes you have available, ask for feedback on new dishes and just keep them in the loop in general regarding what’s going on.
Guest Blogging
Guest blogging is a great way to increase exposure but just don’t overdo it. Seek out great opportunities for guest blogging because they can result in great exposure for your restaurant but make sure you use this strategy in conjunction with other strategies mentioned above.
5 Do’s and Don’ts
1. Do: Make Basic Information Easy to Find on Your Site
Simple things like your hours of operation should be easy to find. Your menu should be up to date.
Make sure that you provide basic information that everyone wants to know about. Things like whether or not you accept reservations. The kind of menus you have on offer. All of this information should be easy to find for customers and not have to take them 15 minutes to find it.
2. Don’t: Ignore Basic SEO Practices
There are some basic SEO practices you must not ignore. Things like broken links, your site not working on certain browsers. Not being responsive for mobile devices. These are some simple things that you must get right.
3. Do: Some Quick Competitive Analysis
It’s a good idea to spend a bit of time researching what your competitors are doing. Look at their websites, their social media presence. Look at where you can get an edge over them.
If you were to run a backlink report and find that a restaurant in your area has great local links in the profile then they may be links worth getting for your own site. Maybe you find out a local blogger who hasn’t heard of you and can ask them to do a review of your site. These are all smart ways to increase business for your restaurant.
4. Don’t: Forget Webmaster Tools
You need to set up your site in both Google Webmaster Tools and Bing Webmaster Tools and run some analytics software on it.
5. Do: Make Sure You’re Monitoring Your Mentions
You will definately want to stay up to date on who is talking about you. The easiest way you can do this is with Talkwater Alerts. Even if it’s negative talk you still want to know about it because it might be information you can use to improve your restaurant.
Summary
So here is your ultimate guide to helping build your restaurant’s online presence. Ignore online marketing at your peril because you’ll be missing out on a ton of opportunity to grow your business. There are many creative ways to market your business online and hopefully this will help you.
Through our SEO Manchester services, we can help to build quality backlinks, social bookmarks and social signals to boost your rankings. Take a look at our SEO services page for more information.
Have you used any of these marketing tactics for your restaurant? If yes, what kind of success have you had from using them?
Christian Michaels
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