Welcome to the 21st century: When people look for a place to sit down and eat, their first (and often last) source of information is going to be the internet. If you manage or own a restaurant, you’re already well aware that your business needs an enticing, easy-to-find online presence. You can take a lot of steps to improve your restaurant’s online visibility; one of the most efficient ones is to make full use of the social media tools available to you.
Utilize The Power Of Social Media And Its SEO Benefits For Promoting Your Restaurant’s Website
Social media activity can do a tremendous amount to help your restaurant attract new customers. Although the precise relationship between social media sites and search engine ranking isn’t fully understood (the search engines are hesitant to reveal all), it has been verified that good social media activity can improve a site’s visibility on the search engine results page (SERP) and overall SEO.
Any online marketing strategy worth its salt should include at least some social media activity. The biggest opportunity social media offers you is the chance to engage with your customers (and would-be customers) in a way that simply isn’t possible on other platforms. Play the social media game correctly and you’ll see your restaurant attracting more search engine traffic – and, hopefully, more real-world customers!
Attracting Followers On Social Media
Building up a healthy and stable number of followers on multiple social media platforms should be a priority. The impact your social media activity has on your website’s search engine performance varies hugely according to the size of your following. Attract more followers and your site will enjoy a greater reputation for credibility.
This is not simply a numbers game, though! The search engines are wise to the kinds of tricks less-scrupulous marketers like to play here. Purchased followers will have a minor impact and may even hurt you in the long run. It’s much more effective to make a fair play for organic growth of your following. Keep your tone consistent and present your brand in a positive way to the audience that really matters to you. Provide useful, entertaining, and enlightening material crafted with an eye on your ideal customer. As you do start to build up a following, don’t be afraid to engage with individual followers. Feel free to start conversations and answer questions whenever possible. The first followers you attract are the seeds of a larger presence in the future, and showering them with engagement is how you grow your following.
Optimize Your Twitter Activity for SEO
Although Twitter is supposed to be a spontaneous communications platform, you need to exercise some foresight and fit your Tweets into your overall optimization strategy. Google and Twitter are closely allied, and your Tweets might well show up on a search results page. When you add hashtags to your posts, you’re essentially adding keywords. Selecting these keywords with an eye on how your prospective customers will search for your restaurant can boost your visibility significantly. If you can identify the right keywords and use them regularly, your restaurant will become the easiest one for new customers to find. Just exercise a little moderation and common sense when composing your Tweets. Use too many hashtags and your posts will start to look like spam. As a general rule of thumb, stick to using no more than three hashtags per post.
Keep track of which hashtags you’re targeting, and review them from time to time to see which ones get the most engagement. (likes, retweets, follows, etc.)
Even if you don’t see your Twitter posts show up in Google’s search results, don’t despair. Using targeted hashtags still helps promote your restaurant by boosting your reputation as an authority.
Turn Social Media Activity Into Strong Backlinks That Power Your Site’s SEO
Many years ago, every link was considered a good link when it came to judging the relevance of your website. Unscrupulous marketers were quick to take advantage of this loophole in the way search engines ranked websites. They built hundreds or even thousands of meaningless backlinks to artificially inflate their sites’ importance. Because of this spoofing, Google is now much more discriminating when it judges the quality of the links leading to your site.
Social media platforms give you an excellent opportunity to create quality links because of the high authority social media sites like Facebook and Twitter carry. Every social media profile you operate for your restaurant should include a link back to its main website. Include links with content when you post it to social media, too.
Create Rich, Authoritative Google Optimized Content
Speaking of content, you can use social platforms to spread material that prospective customers will find useful. Social media is an excellent way to update patrons on changes to your menu or current specials. If you share recipes, this is the ideal place to do it. Besides building up the authority and prominence of your restaurant and your brand, this sort of quality sharing can also improve your search engine performance.
Your social media activity on behalf of your restaurant can contribute to its search engine performance in a hugely positive way. Keep the advice presented here in mind when you chart out your online marketing plans. If you make a strong social media presence an integral part of your online activities, it will help a great deal with your other optimization efforts. Be consistent and dedicated, and you can ensure that your restaurant comes to the attention of tons of new customers.
