Restaurants are, by definition, local businesses. It would take a truly out of the world experience for someone to drive for tens of miles just to enjoy a meal. And this is why, as a restaurant owner, you should strive to promote your business to a local audience. You have a powerful tool at your disposal to achieve this goal: Google My Business for restaurants.
Why Is Google My Business Such a Useful Tool?
Google searches are constantly evolving and so is the algorithm that matches a query with a list of adequate answers. Old school SEO practices are no longer effective, and AdWords ads are getting more and more expensive.
By contrast, Google My Business for restaurants is both effective and free. That’s right, you do not have to pay a cent for creating, verifying or updating your GMB listing. Also, Google relies a lot on GMB NAP (name, address, phone number) data to find the closest relevant business to a user’s location.
Give Your Potential Customers the Chance to Find Your Restaurant
Here is why location matching is so important: among other new trends in Google searches, looking for local businesses is among the most prominent ones. In fact, nearly half (46%) of all Google searches contain the terms “near me” or “in [city name]”.
Also, the top business category for local searches is food. These two trends put together lead to a sole conclusion: an up to date and accurate Google My Business for restaurants listing will help you get more customers.
Going in detail, these are the key benefits of using Google My Business for restaurants:
1. Take Users Directly to Your Reservations Page
Google My Business for restaurants includes a section where you can post a link to your reservations page. This is the simplest way to get a new customer: making it as easy as possible for them to reserve a table.
People don’t want to navigate through many pages to get where they want. Most of them are on the go and using their smartphone. If they don’t get what they want in two-three taps on the screen, they will look for another restaurant.
2. Google My Business for Restaurants Helps You Beat the Competition
Many restaurant owners believe that the best place to promote their business is on a food network. After all, if someone looks for restaurants or catering services, that is the logical place to go searching.
Guess what? This is exactly why you should not rely on food network listings. You are there together with all your competitors. And once users are faced with several choices, they are tempted to explore other options out of curiosity. Thus, you may unwittingly lose a loyal customer on a food network.
By contrast, Google My Business for restaurants allows you to stand out. When you rank for local searches, your site appears in the 3-Pack – a section containing 3 top links. That’s one out of three chances to get a new customer seated at your table!
3. Promote Your Menu
In your Google My Business for restaurants listing, you can post and update your menu as frequently as it is necessary. This is extremely helpful for finding new customers. Many people are not looking for a specific restaurant. Instead, they are looking for their favourite dish and want to find it as close to home as possible.
4. Make Your Special Deals Visible to Your Customers
Happy hour, menu of the day, weekend special – you have all sorts of promotions in your menu. But do your customers see all these special deals? They do, if they regularly check your website.
But isn’t it better to find them when they are simply looking for a place to eat out? With a Google My Business update or article, you can put the information in front of them as a result for their search.
5. Collect Reviews and Improve Your Rating
Last but not least, Google My Business for restaurants helps improve the trustworthiness of your business. How? By asking your customers to leave a rating and a review after visiting your restaurant.
These reviews are visible in the information box accompanying your business name in local search results. Thus, potential customers can read them and decide to go and eat at your restaurant because other people vouch for it.