Local SEO Best Practices For Enterprise Restaurant Brands

by | Jan 20, 2022 | Local SEO, SEO Search Engine Optimization, Uncategorized | 0 comments


With endless options to choose from and the potential to eat three meals a day, the restaurant industry can be an extremely competitive category for local search.

Plus, more restaurant locations are continually opening and new concept types continue to pop up.

Maintaining a strong local search presence becomes more difficult for enterprise restaurant brands who are looking to do it at a major scale, sometimes with several thousand locations.

Many restaurant chains are franchisee-operated, which means the brand doesn’t own or operate their locations but instead provides support to the owner-operators.

This adds another layer of complexity being able to scale a brand’s local search marketing efforts since corporate is not fully in control.

Even though there are many intricacies when running an enterprise restaurant brand, there are many ways for a brand and its individual locations to succeed at local search marketing.

It is critical to have a definitive local search strategy since many restaurant visits start with a search on Google or directly in Google Maps.

In this post, we will explore in-depth how to manage local listings and SEO at scale for enterprise restaurant brands, and our best practices for succeeding in the ever-evolving local search landscape.

Listings Management For Enterprise Restaurant Brands

Having local listings is an absolute must.

Without a listing for a restaurant on key directories like Google, Apple, Bing, or Yelp, it would be as if the location didn’t exist to searchers.

But having the location listed on smaller directories like OpenTable, Zomato, TripAdvisor, YellowPages, All Menus, Facebook, Foursquare, Zagat, and Grubhub is just as critical.

Each restaurant should have a listing on all relevant directories as this is a ranking signal to Google since citations are an effective way to build links back to the restaurant’s location page.

Location Management Platforms

For enterprise brands to manage the vast amount of listings with so many different attributes across the various sites requires a centralized platform.

Each directory accepts data slightly differently, plus being able to make updates quickly and efficiently is essential.

Even more so with restaurants needing to be nimble with changes due to the pandemic.

Most enterprise restaurants need a location management platform to be able to manage all of the complexities.

These platforms allow for them to update data in one place and have it submitted to multiple listing directories.

These platforms can also give franchisees the ability to access their restaurant and make their own updates instead of relying on corporate to make these changes.

The franchisee owner-operators tend to know their locations best and will be aware of any changes specific to the location since they typically can decide hours of operation or other nuances with their location.

Accurate and complete information is not only essential to restaurants but also a way to gain better visibility.

Having the wrong hours, incorrect status, or missing links will lead to missed revenue opportunities and possible negative reviews.

Review Management

Review scores are a key piece in factoring where a location will rank. Google will also consider replies to reviews as a ranking signal.

Additionally, 59% of 18 to 23-year-olds say online reputation plays a role in their purchasing decisions at restaurants.

Restaurants tend to generate a lot of reviews, which provides a lot of great insight.

Being able to respond to potentially 100,000 plus reviews a year will take a concentrated effort from either corporate or franchises.

Just like having a platform to manage listings, a tool to oversee and respond to reviews is necessary for enterprise brands.

This will allow you to see how many reviews restaurants are generating, review scores, and sentiment to further improve each location’s level of service.

Listings Content

Having engaging content within your listings is a great way for enterprise restaurant brands to stand out. Two ways to do this are through photos and posts.

Many enterprise restaurant brands just have a few stock photos that are the same on every listing.

Having unique photos across all of your listings is a great way to make your profile more engaging.

Adding photos of the exterior, interior, or anything that makes that location stand out uniquely is beneficial.

Google Posts are also a great way to share specifics of what is happening within that location. Having Posts across each location is another opportunity to speak to your customer and impact rankings.

Enterprise Restaurant Brands Google Post ExampleScreenshot from Google search for [Applebee’s], Google, December 2021

Local Pages

Individual pages are key to any multi-location restaurant brand since it allows the user to know what that location’s specifics are and what it offers.

The challenge for enterprise brands is having several thousand pages that can look like duplicate content.

Not differentiating each location’s page can negatively impact SEO and not give any real insight into the location.

This, in turn, does not provide the reader with relevant content and is seen by Google as the brand not providing quality content.

Unique Content

For enterprise brands to stand out locally unique content is essential. Hyperlocal content is a great way to build out unique content.

Restaurants can think about hyperlocal content in two different ways. The first is what relates to the location locally.

Highlighting the specific neighborhoods the restaurant is near, major highways, universities, stadiums, museums, arenas, or other major landmarks.

The second area is what differentiates each specific restaurant from the others.

Does this location have any specific promotions or events?

It could be weekly kids eat free night, sporting events, nights where there is live music or even karaoke.

Another possibility is highlighting who works in the location and their bios.

The whole goal is to provide as much unique content about the location to make it stand out locally.

Having specific images of the location versus a standard image across all locations is another opportunity for creating unique content.

City Pages

Another way to help rank locally is to have city pages built out for any of the cities a location is in.

Many searches today are location-based with a city modifier such as “American restaurant in Los Angeles”.

Having these city pages will help improve the restaurant’s rankings.

It is also another opportunity to build unique content for that specific city.

You can take the same approach with hyperlocal content for cities by calling out specific neighborhoods, museums, arenas, highways, and any other key things that make that particular city stand out.

Even having unique images for each city will be beneficial.

Conclusion

For enterprise restaurant brands to stand out in search, having a dedicated listing and pages strategy is essential.

By providing the specifics of each location and creating unique content, enterprise restaurants can effectively compete locally against single-location restaurants.

More resources:


Featured Image: Andrey_Popov/Shutterstock



https://cdn.searchenginejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/local-seo-for-enterprise-restaurants-61e56a04a7df4-sej.png



Source link

www.searchenginejournal.com

Three Key Facebook Metrics to Understand Ad Performance

Three Key Facebook Metrics to Understand Ad Performance

My fellow digital marketers – before we talk about Facebook performance metrics, please complete this short survey. Question: Why do you create new Facebook ads?A. Out of pure habit.B. Our creative team never has enough work to do.C. Because ABT – “Always Be Testing”...

14 Strategies to Promote Your Business Through PPC

14 Strategies to Promote Your Business Through PPC

Are you getting low-quality traffic through your PPC campaigns?  Are fraud clicks draining your revenue from the PPC? Is your return on investment on PPC not as expected?  Even though PPC advertising is an integral part of an effective marketing strategy, poor tactics...

Use Customer Lifetime Value to Find More of Your Best Customers

With new privacy rules continually changing the landscape of third-party data, brands are increasingly becoming more focused on understanding their current customers in order to make more sophisticated marketing decisions. One approach to this is utilizing customer...

Tips for Optimizing a Localized PPC Account

Tips for Optimizing a Localized PPC Account

Before jumping into the components of a local PPC account and why it matters, we should first define what constitutes a local PPC account. The basic definition is that it targets customers within a specific region. The strategy for localized PPC specifically involves...

How Automation Hurts Rank, And How to Fix It

Imagine you are offered an opportunity to have control of all the creative, copy, and budget in your Google Ads account (or your paid media platform of choice) put in the hands of an anonymous six-year-old user. Each day, you are allowed to tell them whether they...

Content Marketing and PPC Advertising: Better Together

Content Marketing and PPC Advertising: Better Together

While some businesses invest solely in one type of advertising and marketing, like social media, others thrive by seamlessly combining multiple strategies, like content marketing and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. Both of these methods can give a boost to your...

Pricing Plans

MediaQuad Membership Levels

Select one of the 8 plans below that best fits your needs.

FAQs

Why wouldn't I just hire a full-time marketing team?

Great question! Hiring a full-time marketing team can be costly, with salaries and benefits easily exceeding $500,000 per year. Plus, you may not always have enough work to keep them busy, leading to wasted resources.

With MediaQuad’s subscription model, you can scale up or down as needed, ensuring you’re only paying for the services you need.

 

Is there a limit to how many requests I can have?

Once subscribed, you’re able to add as many marketing and web development requests to your queue as you’d like, and they will be delivered one by one unless you are on the Enterprise plan.

How fast will I receive my marketing deliverables?

On average, most requests are completed in just a few days. However, more complex requests can take longer.

 

Who are the marketers and developers?

MediaQuad is a team of experienced marketing and web development professionals. You’ll be working directly with our team, ensuring consistent, high-quality results.

How do I pause my subscription?

We understand you may not have enough marketing and web development work to fill up every month. That’s where pausing your subscription comes in handy. You can pause and resume your subscription as often as you need to ensure you’re only paying when you have work available for that month.

What software do you use?

We use a variety of industry-standard tools and software. If you use it, we probably have or currently use it too. Seriously, this is what we do everyday.

How do I request marketing and web development services?

MediaQuad offers a ton of flexibility in how you request services. You can request directly via our platform, share Google docs or wireframes, or even record a brief video. If it can be linked to or shared in our platform, it’s fair game.

What if I don't like the deliverable?

No problem! We’ll continue to revise the deliverable until you’re 100% satisfied.

What if I only have a single request?

That’s fine. You paid for a month’s worth of work, so don’t throw it away. Remember to submit a pause email or pause task in Trello. We’ll note how many business days you have left in your month, and you can come back when you need more marketing or web development services.

Are there any refunds if I don't like the service?

Due to the high-quality nature of our work, we do not issue refunds. However, we’re committed to ensuring your satisfaction and will work with you to address any concerns.

Need to talk first?

Schedule a call

Learn more about how MediaQuad works and how we can serve you.