8 tips to improve SEO for your restaurant's website

Are you creating a website for your restaurant? It's a great way to promote your establishment online. Another advantage: a website optimizes your SEO! ... Provided you do it properly 😉 . Follow our 8 tips!

How does a website improve a restaurant's SEO?

If you're reading this article, you probably know how important SEO is for your restaurant. 

This digital technique allows you to arrive at the very top of search results.

Local SEOis key to attracting customers to your business. 

Among the best practices for boosting visibility, having a website adapted to SEO is essential! 

The 3 things your customers look for on your site

According to a Semrush study, the 3 things Internet users look for when they visit a restaurant website are : 

• How to book ;
• View menu ;
• Order online.

Whatever your type of establishment, these 3 queries must be at the heart of everything you put on your website. 

This is the most important element in SEO: making it easier for web users to find what they're looking for. 

Google's algorithm favors sites where you can find what you're looking for in less than a few seconds.

Choose a simple, fast and responsive theme

We've just said it: go for the easy way.

We recommend the simplest and most SEO-friendly: Wordpress or Squarespace. There are hundreds of free and paid "templates" (themes) for restaurants.

If your establishment is small or medium-sized, a free theme may suffice. 

On the other hand, for franchises or large groups, a paid theme will enable you to create more pages (e.g. one page per franchised restaurant). Expect to pay €100 to €150 per month.

Last but not least: choose a "responsive" theme.

Responsive means adapted to reading on a mobile (smartphone). That's right: when they're looking for you, your customers are using their smartphones!

Test whether your site displays correctly on a mobile device.

Creating a logical URL 

The URL is the address of your site. For example: https: //mon-restaurant.com

The best way to do this is : 

• nomdurestaurant.com ;
• nom-du-restaurant.com.

Above all, don't add unnecessary numbers or characters.

Last but not least: if the name of your restaurant already exists, add "restaurant" or "café". Otherwise, you won't be found, or you may not have exclusive rights to the domain name.

Let's take an example: your establishment is called Le Germinal. When we search for this keyword online, we come across Zola's novel (and hundreds of other well-placed sites!).

You should create the URL restaurant-le-germinal or café-le-germinal rather than germinal.com

Building a simple tree structure

Remember the first point: 

• How to book ;
• View menu ;
• Order online.

When creating your tree structure (the architecture of your site), keep it simple and always emphasize these 3 points.

For example: home page / menu / orders

Add prominent "reserve" buttons. 

Focus on images

Because we eat with our eyes, most restaurant websites are image-based.

Use your own photos. Our tip: organize a photoshoot- it'll pay for itself in no time!

Add logical photos to each page. For example: a photo of the interior of the restaurant or your room for the home page, photos of the dishes and drinks for the menu, photos of the team for the "about us" section, photos of the building for the "contact" page.

Reducing and renaming images 

This is one of the best tips for SEO.

• Heavy images slow down your site. Use tools like Resize to quickly compress their size;
• Rename images with your keywords as follows: restaurant name + image subject.

Example: restaurant-germinal-meilleure-creme-brulee

Use keywords

There's no need to write a lot about your site. Remember: Internet users are looking for specific things. However, content is excellent for SEO. 

Be sure to create at least 400 words per site page and insert your keywords.

For the most important keywords, place them in the titles ("H1, H2") to emphasize them.

Adding backlinks

The Internet works a lot like life. Most people trust someone who has been recommended by a friend. On your site, it's the same thing!

• Make sure other sites link to yours.

Insert your website address everywhere: in your Google My Business listing, in your social media bios, in the platforms, directories and applications you use (Zenchef, The Fork, Mapstr...).

The best way to get other sites to point to you is for blogs and media to talk about you! As part of your strategy, invite food journalists.

• Insert links about yourself in your site;

List all the blog articles or magazines that mention you with a link. The best way: create a "Press" or "Recommendations" page. 

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Have you implemented each of these tips? Now all you have to do is wait!