The 14 best platforms to list your restaurant

Numerous platforms are proving to be very useful for listing your restaurant. But why do you need to register your establishment on several directories? Because there are different types of directories for different purposes, and different target groups.

Used regularly by your customers, some are used for direct acquisition, while other secondary directories are used as content aggregators. Finally, directories such as Pages Jaunes, with their historical weighting, give you added value with Google and boost your restaurant's local SEO.

💫 We give you the 14 most relevant and effective platforms for filling your restaurant!

Why list your restaurant?

At a time when 8 out of 10 French people are choosing their restaurant on the Internet, it's vital to get your restaurant's listing right if you want to win customers.

The reasons:

• This boosts your local of your establishment. It appears at the very top of search results;
• This maximizes your chances of being found by customers. On the Internet, via essential applications, French and international directories... You'll reach local, connected, tourist, delivery and other customers. 

1) Google: the importance of local referencing

Each time a web user searches for a restaurant, Google suggests the most relevant results, according to their criteria and location.

The first page of results includes 3 establishments located on a map. This is followed by a series of links deemed relevant by Google. The first links often come from TripAdvisor, La Fourchette or other Internet giants.

The most effective way to attract customers to your establishment? Get back into the top 3 on Google Maps!

To achieve this, you need :

• Create your restaurant's Google My Business listing if it doesn't exist ;
• Enrich it regularly with quality content. Share Google posts, publications, add photos, etc.

Did you know: responding to customer reviews of your restaurant is one of the best practices for improving your restaurant's SEO?

Example: once optimized , the Chouchou Hôtel restaurant listing is found by an average of +15% of Internet users every month. And the number of clicks on the listing (call, itinerary, website) rises from 80 at the start of the collaboration, to 1,800 by the end of 2021 and 2,500 3 months later!

Nb: also appear in the 1st results of Google's equivalents: Bing Places and Yahoo Local, to boost your establishment's visibility.

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To find out more about SEO or local search engine optimization (how to get to #1 on Google), discover our Malou guide 👇

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2) Tripadvisor: the No. 1 travel site for listing your restaurant

The platform recorded +1 billion reviews left in 2024.

‍Tripadvisor lets you refine your search with criteria: neighborhood, type of food, price range, specific diet, etc.

The application uses geolocation to suggest nearby establishments to users.

The more complete an establishment's listing (images, description, attributes, number of reviews, comments with answers, etc.), the more Tripadvisor's algorithm pushes the establishment into the top search results. The platform lists nearly 180,000 restaurants in France.

Referencing your site and making yourself visible on TripAdvisor is very useful, as your pages appear at the top of search engine results.

When a Paris-based Internet user searches for an Indian restaurant, below the 3 Google Maps results appear links to Tripadvisor and The Fork entitled "The best Indian restaurants in Paris." Being at the top of these specific rankings wins you customers!

‍Themost effective way remains to appear even higher up among the first 3 results suggested by Google. While Tripadvisor offers undeniable visibility, its booking system remains connected to The Fork, which comes with a commission.

3) Instagram: "the place to be", the essential social network for referencing your restaurant

With more than 1.4 billion monthly active users and 100 million posts a day, Instagram's success is unquestionable.

Today, this social network is essential for maximizing a restaurant's online visibility: every month, the #food hashtag attracts more than 250 million publications on Instagram.

For your page to gain visibility on Instagram, and generate traffic to the restaurant, it first has to make people want to see it. How do you do that? With regular, high-quality content specific to your establishment! With original postsstories, Realetc.

Second best practice: respect certain rules and trends to go along with the Instagram algorithm.  

Instagram has recently released a new feature: Instagram Maps, which is even more interesting for your restaurant. Google Maps on Instagram! From the "Places" tab, users now have access to an interactive map, where they can discover restaurants, bars, cafés, hotels... close to the place they're looking for. From this map, users have direct access not only to your Instagram page, but also to content shared by your customers.

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Are you just starting out? Discover the 7 essential steps to a successful Instagram strategy recommended by Malou👇

4) Facebook: the historic social network transformed into a beneficial sponsorship tool

48 million: that's the number of Facebook users in France, or the equivalent of one French person in two! It's an indispensable tool which, if properly mastered, can attract a large number of customers to a restaurant, and then build up their loyalty.

But today, Facebook has a real advantage that sets it apart from the rest. social media : promotional campaigns.

‍Facebook's sponsorship tool is becoming increasingly powerful, allowing you to promote your restaurant to a very specific target audience.

Launching campaigns with small budgets is enough to win new customers. How do you go about it? We explain it here!

5) Yelp: a platform for listing your restaurant on several directories

As a customer, don't you immediately think of Yelp when searching for a restaurant? Neither do we. But in recent years, Yelp has proven to be a strategic place to list your restaurant. ‍

One platform for several directories: what does that mean? Various websites, such as City Mapper, reuse and feed their pages with data from Yelp (restaurant information, customer reviews). So appearing on Yelp remains a strategic tool for getting listed on multiple platforms.

6) Foursquare: France's recommendation-based directory

In France, Foursquare is not only a natural referencing directory for restaurants, but also a social network. Users exchange recommendations of places to eat. With over 55 million users, this directory is a real lever for visibility.

7) Masptr: interactive maps to help you reference your restaurant

A real social network dedicated to restaurateurs! Your restaurant's e-reputation is a decisive factor in the customer selection process. Now more than ever, your reputation on social networks is essential to converting your prospects. The Mapstr Mapstr application makes you visible to 2.5 million users looking for good addresses!

Unlike other social media sites, Mapstr reaches a community specifically looking for restaurant, bar or hotel addresses, which they can then share with their friends and family. A powerful visibility lever! And through the application, you can also be put in touch with influencers!

8) Michelin Restaurant: a more varied directory than you might think for listing your restaurant

This professional guide will help you find the best restaurants in the city of your choice. Contrary to popular belief, it lists establishments of all ranges, with special offers for those who book on the site. Users can also leave reviews.

9) Le Fooding: the trendy guide to the industry

With an offbeat tone, a sense of humor and a fine palate, Fooding presents its best tables! " We've created a counterweight that allows chefs to exist in a way that doesn't fit into the Michelin guide," confided Alexandre Cammas, ex-founder of Le Fooding, to Telerama.

Very active on Instagram with 440,000 followers and a growing audience every month, Le Fooding represents the grail of today's restaurant industry. The hashtag #lefooding is becoming a reflex for industry players. Seeing your publication "rescheduled" by Le Fooding is a real sign of recognition! Even better? To appear in their annual guide!

10) Timeout: the other hip urban guide 

Timeout offers"the essentials of going out and culture" for restaurants, bars, exhibitions, shows and more, not only in Paris but also in London, New York and Los Angeles. The content is not exclusively devoted to gastronomy, but a rich section focuses on restaurants, tea rooms, patisseries and bars. Listing your restaurant on this site will give you high visibility with a target audience similar to that of Fooding.

11) Le Petit Futé: a well-known tourist guide

Known for its tourist guides, Le Petit Futé has been around for decades, making it a must-try address guide. Formerly a paper version, today's online Petit Futé is ideal for attracting French tourists!

12) Yellow Pages: the historic directory not to be forgotten

Being listed in more general directories is still very important.

The more backlinks your website receives, the more trust Google places in it. And the higher the position of your Google listing in the search results. Having a complete, optimized listing in every directory not only boosts visibility across a wide range of media, but also strengthens the positioning of your restaurant's website.

Although Les Pages Jaunes no longer has the prominence it had 10 years ago, the site still features in the top 50 most-visited sites. It provides access to numerous establishments, opening hours, menus, a few photos and customer reviews. Compared to platforms such as Tripadvisor, the number of reviews doesn't matter. But having an inbound link from the Yellow Pages to your establishment is still relevant for improving your visibility.

13) The web surfer

Listing your restaurant on L'internaute gives you the opportunity to reach new users. With over 65,000 listed establishments, the directory has made a name for itself in France. Internet users filter restaurant results by location, cuisine, price...

14) The Fork: the search platform for restaurants

The Fork, formerly known as La Fourchette, is one of the market leaders in online restaurant reservations, generating 20 million visits per month to 60,000 restaurants worldwide, including more than 15,000 in France. If you manage to reference and optimize your listing (enough ratings, good ratings, recent ratings, agreed promotion, etc.), your establishment becomes visible to potential customers.

Customer-specific directories

Is your restaurant's offer or concept aimed at a specific clientele or culture? Are you catering to vegetarians, vegans or customers looking for halal or kosher cuisine? These customers look for their restaurant on specific directories, in line with their "specific diet". So don't forget to list your restaurant: HappyCow and VegoResto for restaurants offering vegan and/or vegetarian food in France, Pages Halal for halal restaurants...

Delivery directories for sedentary customers

Do you deliver? Delivery and click-and-collect are no longer innovations in themselves.

‍Theseservices have managed to establish themselves in consumers' habits and become part of French people's daily lives. The rise of delivery platforms is increasing the visibility of the restaurants that join them. Nevertheless, the popularity of these applications puts all types of establishments listed on these third-party delivery services in direct competition with each other.

‍Towin delivery customers, you therefore need to appear effectively on the main players in the sector such as. UberEats and Deliveroo.

Directories to reach tourists

If you want to make yourself known to foreign customers, you have to start by ensuring that your restaurant is present where tourists do their research. In France, Tripadvisor and TheFork are the most popular directories, but they differ from country to country.

Americans search on Yelp and FoursquareChinese Djanping.

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