When a person searches “restaurants near me”, they usually are not interested in getting an entire collection of restaurant names as a first step. They simply want to locate somewhere to sit and have dinner and be fed!
Probably tonight or maybe the next hour, right?
This is exactly the reason that restaurants have to care a lot about their online business profiles.
To make sure that a good listing can lead your restaurant to people who have been searching for a place to go. The point is that they do not need to persuade the customer. They are just hungry, they are looking, and it might be that your restaurant is exactly, the one they need.
In my experience, very small dining houses have become the receiving end of an increased number of inquiries due to simply having updated properly their Google profile. The difference was not some big advertising campaign. It was the availability of very simple, accurate, and trustworthy information.
How can “restaurants near me” searches bring in new customers?
Try to reminisce the last time when you made a search for a place to eat.
You probably had your eye out on the name, the pictures, the reviews, the opening and closing hours, and the exact location. Actually, most of the people follow similar steps.
This is the moment when restaurant listings can be quite helpful. You have to figure out how to answer what people are asking without giving them a long time to look it up themselves.
Avoid making mistakes by giving wrong hours or address, and if possible, get a good photo of your dining area, or even better – an attractive video. Make sure when you put the phone number the customer can reach you at the right time – it is one of the most basic but also crucial elements.
It doesn’t seem to be a big deal? Because it is.
If a restaurant is displayed closed in your online listing while it actually opened, you may lose one customer even before the customer gets over to a phone call.
It particularly comes in handy for small eateries. Someone looking to dine at a nearby address might spot your place and several other alternatives. If your listing provides a clearer photo, accurate details, and up-to-date reviews, your restaurant probably will get that final touch and a visit.
Can better restaurant listings help people choose your restaurant?
Absolutely! However, avoid over the top with your online description that it may sound more like an advertisement than an honest depiction of what you offer.
Consumers generally sense what is artificial, right?
So, it’s better to take photos that will actually showcase your business, e.g. photos of diners, a busy kitchen, your Sunday roast menu, etc. If a vegetarian dinner is your specialty, be sure to include it, too.
There were two clients whose Manchester restaurants listings I inspected for a while. One of them had only 18 photos the majority of which were old. The second one had 42 photos showing not only food but the interiors of the place taken recently. Now tell me which one of these looked more like you can trust them?
Second one definitely.
Review feedback also carries weight. Although your power of influencing people is limited as far as the reviews section is concerned, don’t try and fake them either. Just politely respond to complaints and express gratitude to reviewers who praise you.
A bit of such interaction is a good indicator for customers that the restaurant still exists in the market and cares about its reputation.
How does an online presence of a restaurant helps you to be found during local searches?
The internet presence of a dining place should not only refer to the website.
Apart from that, it covers the Google My Business listing as well as social media profiles, review websites and other venues where potential customers can look for your establishment’s background.
All of those pages need to reflect on similar contents.
Suppose that one version of your web page declares the shutting time at 10 p.m. while the other listing claims it is until 11 p.m. Which time is correct then? Or imagine you have put different names for your restaurant on websites versus another online platform. Or even the telephone numbers, addresses, or food menus don’t coincide. It is not only confusing for the customers but also reduces their loyalty to you as they will wonder – “What is the real place?”
This is especially critical when people are looking for “best restaurants near me”. They are literally comparing all restaurants at one look! Your online presence doesn’t need to look fancy. It needs to look genuine and current.
A clear menu link can help. So can a few good photos. Even a short description of what makes your restaurant different can give someone a reason to choose you.
Maybe you’ve got a wood-fired oven. Maybe it’s a family-run curry house. Maybe your fish comes in fresh every morning.
Say that.
4. Can local restaurant marketing turn searches into actual bookings?
Getting found is only half the job.
The next question is what happens when someone lands on your listing.
Can they book a table quickly?
If they have to click through four different pages just to find your booking number, there’s a good chance they’ll give up. People are impatient when they’re hungry.
Local restaurant marketing works better when the next step is obvious.
Add a booking button where possible. Keep your phone number visible. Link to your current menu. If you offer takeaway, make that clear too.
There’s another thing worth checking. Your listing should look good on a mobile phone.
Most local searches happen while people are out and about. Someone might be walking down the high street thinking about dinner. They aren’t going to sit there reading a 900-word restaurant description.
They want the answer quickly.
I helped a small café in Leeds tidy up its online information, including the opening hours and booking details. Within a few weeks, the owner told me people were mentioning Google when calling to ask about tables. That wasn’t a scientific experiment, but it was a useful sign.
5. How can local restaurants use reviews to fill more tables?
Reviews have the power to either support the purchase of a product or service or discourage people’s decision making.
Suppose you have two nearby dining places displayed side by side on a search engine. One has a rating of 4.6 based on hundreds of reviews. The other has a ranking of 3.2 and many recent complaints about slow service.
In that case, the majority of individuals are not going to be swayed.
Getting 5-star reviews all of a sudden is certainly not your only goal.
Besides, asking customers to get fake reviews is a really bad idea.
In that case, you should ask genuine customers for their feedback.
When a guest really liked the food, you could include a message on the bill or your staff could ask nicely, after the meal, if customer was happy to give his opinion. But you shouldn’t push them around!
Then reply to the reviews you get.
Instead of having identical responses to all reviews, which is not nice, a personalized message such as “Dear Sarah, thanks for your coming to see us, hope that you found our dish very enjoyable”
Negative reviews don’t deserve being ignored. Someone writes about a bad wait time, you can just say sorry. Moreover, if you have modified the process because of continuous criticism, state it.
Customers will definitely pay attention.
What can and should a restaurant do on their listings each month?
Take some time to go through all this.
Not like days.
The minimum is probably about 20 minutes.
First, you should verify your opening hours to ensure it’s correct. Then, the number on the phone, the link to the website, the menu, booking, and pictures. Browse through reviews, too.
Use the service ‘find restaurants nearby’ as one of the customers and see the restaurants shown.
Not only is your shop to be considered but also your rival shops.
Can they offer something that you are not? Are the photos of them better? Are they able to get more up-to-date reviews? Are their menus easier to access?
This is a learning process not a copying activity. You get to identify what customers see in comparisons of their possible options.
This kind of feedback will not have any bad consequences as long as it is being interpreted and put to good use.
FAQs
What makes restaurants appear on searches like restaurants near me?
By having the latest and correct information about their businesses, getting genuine customer reviews, uploading high quality photos, and being consistently visible on the internet, restaurants can significantly boost their rankings in local search results (including searches like “restaurants near me”).
Are restaurant listings just another item on a marketer’s checklist to tick off?
On the contrary, it’s the best place to get a free, unbiased customer review for the restaurant.
Should a restaurant keep its online listings fresh often?
As a minimum, it might help to check up on significant points at least once a month. Photos, menus, etc. can be updated along with changes or whenever there’s a new development.
If you want people to start coming out of their homes and coming through the restaurant’s door,…
You can do away with the need for marketing campaigns that are based on large amounts of money for you to begin promoting the restaurant.
The first steps can be: Check your listing, fix all the major issues, enhance visual content of the place, make your staff ready to take orders online, ask your satisfied customers if they can provide true-to-life reviews about your services.
In many cases, you will have the power to change a situation through a small alteration, for instance, if you are one of the few restaurants available that a person has thought of visiting.
And when you go to the place that person had in mind, the restaurant that you own, and they type “restaurants near me” again, then yours would be one of the options to have considered at a time. Just the one they would go for.
