Local SEO for Restaurant Websites: Strategies, Keywords and 15 Tips to Rank Fast

Local SEO helps a local Business like restaurant Business in many ways generating local leads from the targeted areas or the operated areas. This article will explain how local SEO helps restaurant websites to get leads, set strategies, find perfect keywords and 15 tips for ranking fast for the local searches.

Let's start..

What is SEO marketing?

Search Engine Optimization(SEO) marketing is the process of improving a website for search engines like Google, Bing, Microsoft etc so that the website gets more traffic whenever people search for a service, product or experience/expertise you share on the website.

There is a positive relation between visibility and traffic. The more your business is visible, the more traffic it gets.

What is Local SEO marketing?

Local SEO marketing is the process where an SEO specialist focuses on optimizing a business for local searches.

In the case of a restaurant, people usually search “restaurant near me” or “pizza hat in [the area name]”. Let’s see a real example how people search and how Google shows the results

The above image shows my “restaurant near me” keywords. When a user searches, Google uses the exact location and shows the nearest restaurant for the search.

Only the optimized restaurant businesses will appear there.

Key Local SEO Strategies for Restaurants

Claim and Optimize Your Google Business Profile:

Google Business Profile helps your restaurant website to be visible in local searches. Make sure all the information in the profile is correct and up-to-date. What is the information needed for a Google Business Profile? Let’s see the following list

Business Name
Business Category
Business Address
Phone Number
Website URL
Business Hours
Attributes
Business Description
Photos
Logo
Cover Photo

The photos of your restaurant, menu and staff should be clean and high quality to get the attention of the visitors. Encourage the visitors of your restaurant to leave reviews in the Google Business Profile.

Local Keyword Optimization:

What is the local keyword? Local keyword is the search phrases that people around you use to find out businesses/products or services near them. Suppose, people living in Miami will search for “best restaurant in Miami”. This is considered a local keyword.

How to optimize local keywords? The pages you want to rank in the Search Engine Result Page(SERP) should have the keywords in a perfect ratio. Use them in the pages naturally and do not overload the pages with keywords. If you feel like talking with an SEO expert, send a quick message

Build High-Quality Local Backlinks

A backlink in a link from one website to another. If your restaurant website gets a link from a food blogger's website, it will be considered as a backlink. Let's see some websites with high domain authority and getting backlink from them really adds a great value to a website.

Your visitors can leave reviews in this websites as well.

You can partner with local businesses for cross-promotion and link exchanges.

Local Grocery Stores
Bakeries
Coffee Shops
Bars
Event Venues
Caterers
Food Delivery Services
Food Bloggers and Influencers
Local Newspapers and Magazines
Local Chambers of Commerce

Mobile-Friendly Website

What does mobile friendly website mean? It means the responsiveness of your website with the sizes of mobile. When mobile screen is 320px width, the website fits that width and when it is 425, it also fits. Make sure your restaurant website is mobile friendly. [data on mobile users]