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How to Get Your Restaurant on Google’s Front Page

There is some important information that you need to hear as a business owner, but you might want to brace yourself. Ready? Here it is: according to information gathered by HubSpot, around 75% of Google users never scroll past the first page. If that doesn’t send shivers up your spine, you might not fully grasp the ramifications of this digital marketing bombshell. Essentially, you’ve got to get your business ranking on the first page of a user’s search results or you likely will not get that user onto your website.

The true kick in the teeth, though, comes when you do a bit of keyword research. By using online tools, you might discover that the most likely keywords for your restaurant (terms like “seafood,” “authentic pizza,” or whatever else applies to your business) yield the big names in your industry. The good news is that professional restaurant content writers can help you rank on Google’s first page.

Think Local to Dream Big

The first step toward getting that coveted position among household restaurant names is to focus on your immediate surroundings. You aren’t going to outspend Outback Steakhouse on advertising. Since those big-name corporations can afford to have writers constantly creating content, marketers running ad campaigns across all social media outlets, and search engine optimization (SEO) specialists performing audits to ensure high rankings, smaller businesses simply cannot compete. That’s the bad news.

However, the reality is that you don’t have to compete with those corporations. Instead, hone your keyword research in on what the people in your local area are searching for. Include the name of your town, specific delicacies linked to your community, and other details that are unique to where you are. Those are keywords that the big spenders probably do not have a lock on. By narrowing your vision, you might reduce some of your potential clientele. But, by the same token, you reduce a healthy portion of your competitors and can take advantage by building a strong reputation that will grow with your business.

A good way to think of this is to compare it to the process of building a restaurant chain. All chains initially start out as one location, get popular, and eventually earn enough revenue to expand into new markets. By focusing on local keywords and search trends, you’re doing the same thing with your Google rankings. Gain enough of a local presence, and Google will rank you higher as a more authoritative website.

Use Web Writing Best Practices

This part is the tricky one. As a restaurant owner, you are almost certainly the type of person who likes to be involved in every aspect of your business. You’re willing to do what it takes to succeed. However, writing for the web is a very niche skill that includes lots of considerations you likely have not studied. For example, some of the best practices for writing on the web are as follows.

  • Provide answers to your topic/question upfront rather than in concluding paragraphs.
  • Pick the correct keywords, and use them sparingly but effectively.
  • Reduce the amount of text on the page through bullet points, numbers, and white space.
  • Write with mobile users in mind.
  • Put the most important information “above the fold” so users don’t need to scroll.

These are not only good practices for your restaurant blog or website because they help users, but also because they line up with Google’s standards. This past year, Google released one of their most important updates in the last decade, known as BERT. Essentially, BERT uses machine learning techniques to better understand how natural language speakers use words and phrases. The idea is that this will allow Google to connect users’ searches with the content they truly desire. If you provide an easier online reading experience for users, and your page reflects the most current web writing practices, Google deems your website more suitable and authoritative, giving it more credence and a higher ranking in its results.

Why You Need Help

You might be an excellent writer, but the above, somewhat jargon-laced paragraph should show you that writing website content is an entirely different ballgame. Just like any profession, people get paid money to write restaurant content because they have the training and experience that allow them to provide a service that is better than what you might get from an amateur.

If you run a restaurant, online content is one of the best ways to get your business’ name in the minds and on the lips of potential customers. Turn to professional content writers and start seeing the results in no time!