How can you improve your restaurant's local SEO?

At a time when customer acquisition for restaurateurs is taking place online, it's essential to be visible wherever potential customers are looking for you. The first and most strategic place: search engines. In digital communications, this is what we call local referencing.

How does local SEO attract more customers? What is local SEO? Does it work? How does it work? What results can you expect? Illustrated answers from some of the restaurateurs we work with on a daily basis.

What is local SEO for a restaurant? Why is it essential for attracting customers?

What do you do when you need to choose a restaurant or café for a particular appointment? A search on Google, Tripadvisor, La Fourchette, Facebook, Instagram or even Mapstr? You can also call a friend, but the majority of people (8 out of 10 in France!) will look online and choose the establishments that come out on top of the search pages, i.e. that have the best local referencing.

(SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization).

When we talk about search results, we need to consider the nature of the queries for which it's worth appearing at the top of the results: these are the keywords. Keywords are the words, phrases and sentences that prospects will use to search online.

There are two main types of SEO:

• paid search: these are "ads". Investing in paid referencing guarantees that your site will appear at the top of the page, but the surfer knows that you've paid for it - it's advertising. Examples below:

• natural referencing: this means appearing "naturally" at the top of the results because the search engine algorithm has assimilated you to the most relevant result to meet the need expressed by the web surfer. Example below:

According to a Google Search Console study: 54% to 59% of clicks are on the first 3 results, 70% to 77% of clicks are on the first 5 results.

The challenge for a restaurant is to identify the keywords our potential customers will use to formulate their query, and appear at the top of the results! But what happens when we search for a restaurant?

The importance of local SEO for a business

For an establishment, the keyword revolves around 2 elements:

• The first describes the offer (pizzeria, brasserie, café, vegetarian, terrace, etc.);
• The second specifies the location (a city, a district, an arrondissement, a metro stop, etc.).

Location can also be determined by geolocation - i.e. suggesting establishments "close to one's current position" without having to specify the location in words. This is known as local referencing (46% of searches on Google). Local referencing, as we shall see it here, belongs to the "natural referencing" category.

Here are some of the results that appear on Google when you search for a restaurant:

What do they have in common?

• The structure: at the top of the page, a Google Map, then 3 establishments that appear. The first links to appear belong to aggregators such as booking platforms (Tripadvisor, TheFork), or media/blogs. Having your restaurant's website appear before a Tripadvisor or TheFork link is very ambitious in terms of SEO, and almost impossible to compete with these behemoths. On the other hand, under the Google Map, it's the establishments that stand out, and the competition becomes more playable to overtake another establishment and emerge in the top 3.
• A Malou customer's presence in the top 3. We help our restaurateurs rise to the top of search results to acquire new customers online.

How to maximize a restaurant's local SEO?

Good news: it's perfectly possible to work on your restaurant's SEO without being a digital professional.

• Have a Google My Business listing (Google Business Profile)

• Identify the right keywords, those that are really used by your potential customers. "Trattoria", for example, is searched for 10 times less than "Italian restaurant" and 100 times less than "pizzeria". Today, if you're looking for a pizzeria in the 16th arrondissement, there's a good chance you'll find La Pizza d'Anita, with whom we've collaborated;
• Standardize your online information and update it regularly! By information we mean: opening hours, special closing days, menus, prices, visuals... Everything that's on your restaurant's listing.

You need to understand the logic of search engines, and Google in particular. If it finds inconsistencies online about an establishment, it will penalize it in favor of others that are more reliable. Example below:

Between Google, Tripadvisor, TheFork, Les Pages Jaunes and Petit Futé, the establishment doesn't have the same opening hours.

‍Faced withso many contradictions, search engine algorithms will naturally penalize his online ranking and favor establishments whose opening times they are sure of. This penalizes the restaurateur's customer acquisition work (he's less visible), and if, for example, the opening times on a public holiday aren't updated, on his Google listing an orange mention will state"Opening times subject to change". In this case, the web surfer has 3 choices: take the risk of going there anyway, call to confirm, or simply look at the listings of nearby establishments which have taken the trouble to update their information.

Disappointing a potential customer who has come when you're closed is very damaging. The same applies to menus and prices. Continuing to display a winter menu in the middle of summer severely undermines a restaurant's consistency during the summer, while failing to update any pricing changes will frustrate customers who have made prior enquiries online.

The right thing to do: check your calendar at the start of each week. If you spot any public holidays or schedule changes, update them.

• Respond to customer reviews of your restaurant Responding to customer reviews: to focus on the most strategic keywords, build customer loyalty, analyze customer feedback and improve (for example, we once had mussels removed from the menu of one of our customers because they were the source of many negative reviews).

Did you know that responding to all your customer reviews improves your average Google rating?

• Share content regularly. The best tip: publish Google posts. These are posts that appear just below the reviews in your business listing. Use them to share offers and news, and always include keywords. Start with one post per week (you can reuse what you share on social media).
• List your restaurant on all the essential platforms. This is excellent for two reasons: being listed on these platforms signals to the Google algorithm that you're active and popular. Last but not least, certain platforms will help youacquire new customers (Tripadvisor, TheFork), especially for Europeans, but also all the platforms used by tourists! Malou's customers are visible on all the directories used by tourists visiting France.

• Adopt the tablet menu. Start-up TastyCloud, for example, offers tablets with a "customer area" option. The aim? At the end of the meal, customers can more easily leave their comments. This tool is a facilitator that increases the number of comments about your restaurant. Far from being a gadget, this tablet allows you to update your menu in just a few clicks and easily generate natural referencing.
• Keep up to date with the latest developments: things are changing very fast in terms of SEO: voice search, for example, is gaining momentum, opening up new opportunities for establishments that are prepared for it. It's important to keep up to date so you can take action and maximize your online visibility.

We'll be sharing our intelligence regularly in our webinars and white papers! To find out more, take advantage of the SEO Guide for restaurant owners below 👇

How local SEO boosts restaurant sales: the case of Le Wilson (Paris 16)

Local SEO performance can be measured on a regular basis. Let's not forget the objectives: to increase visibility, to generate interest, to convert Internet users who have found the restaurant into customers - and therefore to track actions such as clicks on itinerary, on "call" and on "website".

‍Loyalty is built by responding to customer reviews on the one hand, but above all in the dining room by delivering a good experience and then on social media with intelligently disseminated qualitative content.

To illustrate what we mean, let's take a closer look at a concrete example: Le Wilson, which we've been supporting for several years with its local SEO. Le Wilson is a brasserie-style restaurant located in the 16th arrondissement, close to the Trocadéro metro station.

How did the Wilson manage to increase its sales thanks to Malou?

• Rise to the top of key queries

Before working with us, the Wilson never appeared at the top of the Google results, but today it's in the top 3 for its keywords "restaurant Trocadéro" and "brasserie Trocadéro", each searched 1000 times a month, as well as many other queries such as "restaurant terrasse Trocadéro" (searched 100 times/month).

In the tourist district of Trocadéro, appearing at the top of key queries in foreign languages can also prove useful... And Le Wilson is often in the top 3 in English, Spanish, Italian...

Despite its lower average than the other visible establishments, the Wilson still appears in the top 3. And that's because we regularly respond to customer reviews.

What's more, we analyze the semantics of these reviews every month, then share recommendations with the Wilson teams so that they can improve, further satisfy their customers, raise their rating (and stay in the top 3, of course) and thus improve the conversion rates of web users who have seen them online. Despite this average of less than 4, the Wilson is attracting more and more online customers thanks to our work.

• Appear wherever potential customers do their research

The Wilson exists (with accurate information updated in real time, with keyword-rich descriptions, with customer reviews processed...) on all the platforms and directories likely to win him customers and/or boost his SEO. He is present on Tripadvisor, Dianping, Kekanto, Yandex, Mangoplate to attract tourists among others, but also Les Pages Jaunes, L'Internaute, le Petit Futé to send "referencing juice" to his Google listing.

• Increase your visibility

We compared Wilson's monthly views in June 2018 - before he started working with us - with those in June 2019, after the first year of collaboration.

The result (quite logical, given the top 3 appearances on Google mentioned above) is that Le Wilson has significantly improved its visibility, multiplying it by 3.5!

But does that mean more customers?

• Acquire customers online

Now let's compare the actions taken each month on the Wilson's Google listing, comparing May 2018 and May 2019.

Despite its rating, which is often lower than that of many of its competitors in the top 3, Wilson now generates 30% more customer actions every month (comparing similar months in 2018 and 2019). And what does this mean for sales?

Customer actions are the interactions of Internet users with the restaurant's Google listing. For example, clicking on the "directions", "call", "reserve" buttons, etc.

• Increase sales

The average ticket at the Wilson is 25 euros. The average restaurant reservation is for 3 people (Malou estimate based on a panel of 50 restaurants). In the case of the Wilson, this means a total bill of €75. Let's assume that each website visit converts 20% of customers, each itinerary request 50% and each call 60%. Calculating the difference between actions taken in May 2018 and those taken in May 2019 shows that.... the Wilson has increased its monthly turnover by 7,000 euros since working with Malou!

Figures on the impact of local SEO on a restaurant

👉 The balance sheet in 3 figures :

The result, after a year's collaboration with Malou, is an impressive increase not only in visibility but also in customer conversion, and therefore in monthly sales!

In a nutshell: local SEO to attract customers to your point of sale

While merchant sites work to optimize their SEO (natural or paid) to generate online purchases, the stakes are quite different for shops and restaurants whose customers don't order online, but have to travel to the establishment to consume. So it's time to invest in local SEO. How do you do this? Read and learn (we share a wealth of advice on our blog and at social media), or go directly to dynamic, transparent professionals who can guarantee you better performance and higher sales!