Local SEO for Restaurants to Acquire New Customers

A chef framed on a cell phone display. In the background a google maps

Local SEO for restaurants is a restaurant industry and search engine optimized marketing strategy focused on improving the visibility of a business in geo-located search results.

Thanks to Local SEO you can place your restaurant in the first pages of search engine results and increase the number of customers and potential customers of your Restaurant.

This type of SEO is especially useful for businesses that operate locally, such as restaurants, medical offices, retail stores, and other businesses that interact directly with the public in their geographic area.

N.B. if you also want to open restaurants abroad you can read Agency Implementation Strategies Seo International.

How to use Local SEO for a restaurant

For a restaurant, implementing a Local SEO strategy can be highly beneficial. Here are some key steps to optimize your online presence:

Google My Business: Registering and optimizing the restaurant’s profile on Google Maps is critical.
Make sure all information is correct and up-to-date, including address, phone number, opening hours, and photos of the restaurant and dishes.
Customer Reviews: Encourage customers to leave positive reviews on Google and other review platforms. Reviews not only improve visibility, but also increase a restaurant’s credibility.
Local Keywords: Use keywords that include the name of the city or neighborhood in website content and meta tags. For example, “Italian restaurant in Milan.”
Localized quality content: Create content on the website that is relevant to the local community, such as special events, partnerships with other local businesses, or stories involving the neighborhood.
Post your content on Social Media: On Instagram and Facebook, for example, you can also post the location of your venue.
Mobile Optimization: Make sure the restaurant website is optimized for mobile devices, as many local searches are done from smartphones.

Benefits of Local SEO for a restaurant

Implementing a Local SEO strategy can bring several benefits to a restaurant:

Increased Visibility: Improving ranking in local search results means that more people nearby will see the restaurant when they search for options for eating out.
Increased On-site Traffic: Online visibility often translates into increased physical visits to the restaurant. Many consumers who find a restaurant online decide to visit the same day.
Improved Credibility: Appearing among the top local search results and having positive reviews helps build a solid reputation and customer loyalty.
Competitiveness: A good Local SEO strategy allows the restaurant to compete effectively with larger chains and other local restaurants, making it more visible and attractive to potential customers.

Practical example: Local SEO of a restaurant

Now let’s look in detail at what happens.

The example below is related to the search performed to find a Fish Restaurant.

Thanks to Local SEO can find new Customers

As you can see from the above image, the search key we entered is “seafood restaurant,” basically we did not specify the location, so Google interprets this search as “Local” i.e. show me seafood restaurants near my location.

For your information, this article was written at Factory Communication ‘s operational headquarters in Mariano Comense, so Google shows us seafood restaurants near us.

You are probably telling yourself that you know perfectly well the Restaurants near you. But are you really sure?
You only need to enlarge the map minimally to see how many businesses surround us.
Have you really tried them all?
And how do you decide which restaurant is right for you? Maybe reviews and a little more information help us make the right choice. What do you say?

Not only that. We have to take a business and pleasure trip, to a new location, and we want to stop for a break.
This is our first time on this trip and we have no idea where to go to eat. Sure enough, the right Google search allows us to find the restaurant that is right for us.

As you can see from the image, the first result proposed is for a restaurant in Milan, which decided to advertise and therefore placed a paid ad in Google.

We go further.

Next, Google offers us a map, with Fish Restaurants positioned and immediately afterwards a short list to make a quick choice.

With Local SEO you improve the visibility of your restaurant

It is clear how strategic it is to appear in the first local search results.

This depends on how much information you have included in your form, but especially on the number of reviews from your customers.
For Google, it is crucial to give the right answer right away, only then will we continue, all of us, to use its search engine.

As you can see, the most important information for deciding where to go to eat is visible right away:

Customer Comments
Whether it is considered cheap or not (€€)
the opening hours
if reservation is required
What type of venue is it: casual, cozy etc..

I dare say fantastic. We already have so much useful information for deciding which restaurant to go to.

If you are the owner of a restaurant, pizzeria, pub etc… you have surely realized how useful Google My Business is and how local SEO or SEO Local Marketing, can help you to find new Customers.

Imagine every day how many people make this search…. think not only of those who live near you but of the thousands of people who travel to your area for vacation, work, to find a friend, or simply, as is often the case with me, who get lost along the way even though they use the navigator.

How many opportunities to find new Customers have you missed so far?

Let’s not get caught up in discouragement. So let’s get into it and see how to intercept new Customers.

As we said here Google can help us with its free Google My business service.

Before going into detail and seeing what can be done and how, let’s see what the end result is.

Simply click the name of a restaurant and the Google My Business tab will immediately appear.

Do you have a Restaurant? use Local SEO to find new Customers

Google My Business allows you to:

Insert link to your own Web site
Getting directions to the desired location
Save the place to your Favorites List, maybe you want to return there another time
See opening hours
Make the reservation (by clicking on the site if it has been specified)
Make a call now, from mobile phone numbers are immediately active
Ask a question (as you can see in the image), which can be answered by both the Page Manager and general users
The times when the place is busiest and the relative length of time you are there (you are looking for a Restaurant where you can spend some time with your friends)
The photographs of the Local
User reviews

You will agree with me that this is very useful information for anyone who is deciding where to go to eat and is planning an evening out with friends, or simply a business lunch.

Just think right now, as you are reading this article, dozens of people are looking at your Google My Business tab.

Perhaps it is now clearer why doing Local SEO is extremely important.

Do you want to increase the visibility of your businesses? We recommend reading these articles:

Local SEO for Restaurants. Grow your business!

How to use Local SEO for a restaurant

Benefits of Local SEO for a restaurant

Practical example: Local SEO of a restaurant