With endless options and potentially three meals a day, the restaurant industry can be a very competitive category in local search.
In addition, more restaurant locations are continually opening, and new concept types are popping up all the time.
Maintaining a strong local search presence becomes more difficult for enterprise restaurant brands looking to run it at scale, sometimes with thousands of locations.
Many restaurant chains are operated by franchisees. In other words, the brand does not own or operate the store, but provides support to the owner-operator.
This adds another layer of complexity that a brand can expand its local search marketing efforts without being in full control of the company.
While there are many complex issues running an enterprise restaurant brand, there are many ways a brand and its individual stores can succeed in local search marketing.
Many restaurant visits start with a search on Google or directly on Google Maps, so having a clear local search strategy is important.
This post details how to manage local listings and SEO for enterprise restaurant brands at scale and best practices for success in the ever-evolving local search landscape.
Listing management for enterprise restaurant brands
Having a local listing is an absolute must.
Without a restaurant listing in major directories like Google, Apple, Bing, and Yelp, it would appear to searchers that the location doesn’t exist.
But it’s equally important to list locations in smaller directories like OpenTable, Zomato, TripAdvisor, YellowPages, All Menus, Facebook, Foursquare, Zagat, Grubhub.
Since citations are an effective way to build links to restaurant location pages, each restaurant should be listed in all relevant directories. This is a ranking signal to Google.
Location management platform
Corporate brands need a centralized platform to manage massive lists with so many different attributes across different sites.
Each directory is slightly different in how it accepts data. It is also essential that updates can be done quickly and efficiently.
This is especially true for restaurants that need to be agile and adapt to the changes caused by the pandemic.
Most enterprise restaurants need a location management platform that can manage all the complexities.
These platforms allow you to update your data in one place and submit it to multiple listings directories.
These platforms allow franchisees to visit restaurants and make their own updates, rather than asking companies to make changes.
Franchisee owners/operators tend to know their location best and are generally aware of location-specific changes as they can determine opening hours and other nuances depending on location.
Accurate and complete information is not only essential for restaurants, but also a way to increase visibility.
Incorrect hours, incorrect status, or missing links can lead to lost revenue opportunities and negative reviews.
Review management
Review scores are an important factor in considering how places are ranked. Google also considers replies to reviews as a ranking signal.
Additionally, 59% of 18- to 23-year-olds say their online reputation influences their buying decisions at restaurants.
Restaurants tend to generate a lot of reviews and this provides a lot of great insight.
It takes a focused effort from a company or franchise to be able to respond to over 100,000 reviews per year.
Just like having a platform for managing listings, enterprise brands need tools to monitor and respond to reviews.
This allows you to see the number of reviews, review scores, and sentiments your restaurant is generating so you can further improve the service levels at each location.
Exhibition contents
Including compelling content in your listing is a great way to make your enterprise restaurant brand stand out. Two ways to do this are photos and posts.
Many enterprise restaurant brands only have a few of the same stock photos across all their listings.
A unique photo on every listing is a great way to make your profile more attractive.
Adding photos that highlight the location, such as the exterior or interior, is effective.
Google Posts are also a great way to share what’s going on in a place. Posting in each location is another opportunity to talk to your customers and influence your rankings.
Google search screenshot [Applebee’s]Google, December 2021local page
Individual pages are important for multi-location restaurant brands as they allow users to learn more about the location and what they have to offer.
The challenge for corporate brands is having thousands of pages that look like duplicate content.
Not distinguishing pages for each location can negatively impact your SEO and give you no real insight into the location.
This is considered by Google to be a brand that does not provide relevant content to its readers and does not provide quality content.
unique content
Local and unique content is essential to make your company brand stand out. Hyperlocal content is a great way to build your own content.
Restaurants can think about hyperlocal content in two different ways. The first is related to local locations.
Highlight specific neighborhoods, major highways, universities, stadiums, museums, arenas, or other major landmarks where restaurants are nearby.
The second area is what distinguishes each particular restaurant from others.
Are there any specific promotions or events at this location?
There are weekly kids eat free nights, sporting events, and nights with live music and karaoke.
Another possibility is to highlight the people who work at the location and their bios.
The overall goal is to provide as much unique content about the place as possible to make it stand out locally.
Comparing images from a specific location to standard images from all locations is another opportunity to create your own content.
city page
Another way to help rank locally is to build a city page for one of the cities in which your location is located.
Many searches today are based on location using city qualifiers such as “American restaurants in Los Angeles”.
Having pages for these cities will improve your restaurant’s ranking.
It’s also another opportunity to create content specific to that particular city.
The same approach can be taken with hyperlocal content in cities by calling out specific neighborhoods, museums, arenas, highways, and other important things that make that particular city stand out.
It is also beneficial to have a unique image for each city.
Conclusion
A dedicated listing and page strategy is essential for an enterprise restaurant brand to stand out in search.
By providing details for each location and creating unique content, corporate restaurants can effectively compete locally against single-location restaurants.
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Featured image: Andrey_Popov/Shutterstock
