With endless options to choose from and the possibility of three meals a day, the restaurant industry can be a very competitive category for local research.
In addition, more restaurant locations are constantly opening up and new types of concepts keep popping up.
Maintaining a strong local search presence becomes more difficult for corporate restaurant brands looking to do so at scale, sometimes with many thousands of locations.
Many restaurant chains are operated by franchisees, which means that the brand does not own or operate their locations but instead provides support to owner operators.
This adds another layer of complexity to the ability to scale a brand’s local search marketing efforts since the company is not in full control.
Although there are many complexities when operating an enterprise restaurant brand, there are many ways for a brand and its individual sites to be successful in local search marketing.
It is crucial to have a specific local search strategy since many visits to restaurants begin with a search on Google or directly in Google Maps.
In this post, we’ll explore in detail how to manage local listings and scale SEO for corporate restaurant brands, and our best practices for success in the ever-evolving local search landscape.
Manage menus for enterprise restaurant brands
Having local listings is a must.
Without a listing for a restaurant in major directories like Google, Apple, Bing, or Yelp, it would be as if the site didn’t exist for searchers.
But having the site listed in smaller directories like OpenTable, Zomato, TripAdvisor, YellowPages, All Menus, Facebook, Foursquare, Zagat, and Grubhub is crucial.
Every restaurant should have a listing in all relevant directories because this is a ranking signal to Google because citations are an effective way to build links back to the restaurant’s website page.
Website management platforms
For enterprise brands to manage the huge amount of listings with many different themes across different sites, they require a centralized platform.
Each directory accepts data a little differently, plus the ability to perform updates quickly and efficiently is essential.
Even more so with restaurants that need to be smart with changes due to the pandemic.
Most corporate restaurants need a website management platform to be able to manage all the complexities.
These platforms allow them to update data in one place and submit it to multiple listing directories.
These platforms can also give franchisees the ability to access their restaurant and make their own updates instead of relying on the company to make these changes.
Franchisees-operators tend to know their locations better and will be aware of any location-specific changes since they can usually specify business hours or other nuances with their location.
Accurate and complete The information is not only essential for restaurants but also a way to gain better insight.
Wrong business hours, incorrect status or missing links will result in missed earnings opportunities and potential negative reviews.
Management review
Review results are an essential part of determining a site’s ranking. Google will also consider responses to comments as a ranking signal.
in addition to, 59% are from 18 to 23 years old He says online reputation plays a role in restaurants’ purchasing decisions.
Restaurants tend to generate a lot of reviews, which provide a lot of great ideas.
Being able to respond to more than 100,000 evaluations annually will require a focused effort from the companies or franchisees.
Just like having a listing management platform, a tool for moderating and responding to reviews is essential for enterprise brands.
This will allow you to see how many reviews restaurants generate, review results, and sentiment to improve each location’s level of service.
Lists content
Having engaging content on your menus is a great way for corporate restaurant brands to stand out. Two ways to do this are through photos and posts.
Many corporate restaurant brands have a few similar stock photos on each menu.
Having unique photos on all of your listings is a great way to make your profile more attractive.
It is useful to add pictures of the exterior, interior, or anything that uniquely characterizes this site.
Google Posts is also a great way to share details of what’s going on inside this site. Having posts across each site is another opportunity to speak to your customer and influence rating.
local pages
Individual pages are key to any multi-location restaurant brand because it allows the user to know the specifics of that location and what it offers.
The challenge for enterprise brands is having many thousands of pages which can look like duplicate content.
Not differentiating each site’s page can negatively affect SEO and not give any real site visibility.
This, in turn, does not provide the reader with relevant content and is considered by Google to be a brand that does not provide high quality content.
Unique content
For corporate brands to stand out, locally unique content is essential. Hyper local content is a great way to create unique content.
Restaurants can think of local content in two different ways. The first is what is related to the site locally.
Highlight specific neighborhoods close to the restaurant, major highways, universities, stadiums, museums, arenas, or other major landmarks.
The second area is what distinguishes each restaurant from the other.
Does this site have any special promotions or events?
It could be a weekly kids eat free night, sporting events, nights where there’s live music or even karaoke.
Another possibility is to highlight who works on the site and their bios.
The whole goal is to provide as much unique content around the site as possible to make it stand out locally.
Having site specific images against a standard image across all sites is another opportunity to create unique content.
City pages
Another way to help rank locally is to create city pages for any of the cities in which the site is located.
Many searches today are based on location with a city modifier, such as “American Restaurant in Los Angeles”.
Having these city pages will help improve restaurant ratings.
It’s also another opportunity to build unique content for that specific city.
You can take the same approach with hyperlocal content of cities by identifying specific neighborhoods, museums, plazas, highways, and any other key things that make that particular city special.
Even having unique photos for each city would be helpful.
conclusion
For corporate restaurant brands to stand out in search, a dedicated menu and page strategy is essential.
By providing the details of each location and creating unique content, establishment restaurants can compete effectively locally against single-location restaurants.
More resources:
- The Complete Guide to Local SEO for Multiple Sites
- 10 quick SEO tips to boost your restaurant’s ranking in search
- A guide to local search engine optimization
Featured image: Andrey_Popov/Shutterstock
