With endless options and the potential for three meals a day, the restaurant industry can be a highly competitive category in local searches.
In addition, more and more restaurants keep opening and new concept types keep emerging.
maintain one Strong local search presence It becomes more difficult for corporate restaurant brands looking to do business at scale, sometimes with thousands of locations.
Many restaurant chains are franchised, meaning that the brand doesn’t own or operate their locations, but instead supports the owner-operator.
This adds another layer of complexity, as businesses don’t have full control over a brand’s local search marketing efforts.
While there are many intricacies when running a corporate restaurant brand, there are many ways a brand and its various locations can be successful in local search marketing.
Having a clear local search strategy is critical, as many restaurant visits begin with a search on Google or directly in Google Maps.
In this post, we’ll take a deep dive into how to manage local listings and SEO at scale for enterprise restaurant brands, as well as our best practices for success in the growing field of local search.
List management for corporate restaurant brands
have local list is an absolute must.
If a restaurant isn’t listed on key directories like Google, Apple, Bing, or Yelp, it’s as if the location doesn’t exist for searchers.
But it’s just as important to have a location listed in smaller directories like OpenTable, Zomato, TripAdvisor, YellowPages, All Menus, Facebook, Foursquare, Zagat, and Grubhub.
Every restaurant should be listed in all relevant directories This is a ranking signal for Google Because referrals are an effective way to build links back to restaurant location pages.
Location management platform
For corporate brands, managing a large number of listings with so many different attributes across sites requires a centralized platform.
Each directory accepts data slightly differently, and being able to update quickly and efficiently is critical.
What’s more, restaurants need to respond flexibly to the changes brought about by the epidemic.
Most corporate restaurants need a location management platform to manage all the complexities.
These platforms allow them to update data in one place and submit it to multiple listing directories.
These platforms also give franchisees the ability to visit their restaurants and make their own updates, rather than relying on the company to make those changes.
Franchisee owner-operators tend to know their location best and will be aware of any changes specific to that location, as they can often dictate hours of operation or other nuances to their location.
accurate and complete Information is not only critical for restaurants, but is a way to increase awareness.
The wrong time, wrong status, or missing link will result in missed revenue opportunities and possible negative reviews.
Audit management
Review scores are a key factor in determining a location’s ranking. Google also considers responses to reviews as a ranking signal.
also, 59% of 18 to 23 year olds Say online reputation plays a role in their buying decisions at restaurants.
Restaurants tend to generate tons of reviews, which provide a lot of insight.
Being able to respond to potentially more than 100,000 reviews per year will require the concentration of the business or franchisee.
Just like having a platform to manage listings, corporate brands need a tool to monitor and respond to comments.
This will allow you to see how many reviews, review scores, and sentiment the restaurant is generating to further improve service at each location.
List content
Including engaging content on your listings is a great way for a corporate restaurant brand to stand out. Two ways are through photos and posts.
Many corporate restaurant brands have just a few stock photos of the same in each listing.
Having unique photos across all your listings is a great way to make your profile more engaging.
It can be beneficial to add photos of the exterior, interior, or whatever makes the location unique.
google post Also a great way to share details of what’s going on inside that location. Posting in each location is another opportunity to talk to your customers and influence your rankings.
local page
A single page is the crux of any multi-location restaurant brand, as it allows users to understand what’s going on at the location and what it has to offer.
The challenge for corporate brands is to have thousands of pages that look like duplicate content.
Pages that don’t differentiate each location can have a negative impact on SEO and provide no real insight into that location.
This, in turn, does not provide relevant content for readers and is seen by Google as a brand that does not provide quality content.
unique content
It is essential for corporate brands to stand out with locally unique content. Hyperlocalized content is a great way to build unique content.
Restaurants can consider hyperlocal content in two different ways. The first is the content related to the local location.
Highlight specific neighborhoods, major highways, universities, stadiums, museums, arenas, or other major landmarks near restaurants.
The second area is to differentiate each particular restaurant from the others.
Are there any specific promotions or events at this location?
It could be a weekly night of free dinner for the kids, sporting events, live music or even karaoke.
Another possibility is to highlight the people working at the location and their resumes.
The whole goal is to provide as much unique content about the location as possible to make it stand out locally.
Having a specific image for that location versus a standard image for all locations is another opportunity to create unique content.
city page
Another way to help with local rankings is city page Build for any city the location is in.
Many searches today are location-based, with city modifiers such as “American restaurants in Los Angeles.”
Having these city pages will help improve your restaurant’s ranking.
This is also another opportunity to build unique content for that particular city.
You can do the same with hyperlocal content for a city by calling out specific neighborhoods, museums, arenas, highways, and any other key things that make that particular city stand out.
Even having a unique image for each city would be beneficial.
in conclusion
Having a dedicated listing and page strategy is critical for corporate restaurant brands to stand out in search.
By providing details of each location and creating unique content, corporate restaurants can effectively compete locally with single-location restaurants.
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Featured Image: Andrey_Popov/Shutterstock
