With paid Google ads taking up a large proportion of ‘above the fold’ space on desktop and all of what is immediately visible on mobile, having a high ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs), is more important than ever.
In spite of Google’s determination to make paid advertising dominate, organic traffic is still the main driver in e-commerce for restaurants. The traffic landscape is shifting for restaurants, while traffic was shifting towards paid listings, engagement and conversion rates were growing. This year our client data-set is still showing organic traffic outperforming all other channels in terms of revenue.
According to Google, we crossed the ‘Mobile Tipping Point’ back in 2015 when more people made searches on their mobile over their desktop. There are many SEO practices and tips but here are just 4 from the latest algorithm updates to optimise your restaurant website’s ranking.
So, what can every restaurateur implement to rank higher on organic search results on Google both today and for improvements scheduled in the near future?
Be Mobile Friendly
Google is a constantly evolving animal and you must play by their rules, so keeping abreast of the latest Google algorithms is essential to get the top spot on the SERP’s.
Google rolled out an algorithm in Spring 2017 which favored ‘mobile-friendly’ websites over those only suitable for desktop. This means getting a mobile website is not ‘just a phase’, it’s now an essential part of maintaining website traffic.
Load Your Site Quicker
For mobile in particular, users want content to load quickly, under 2 seconds in fact. According to KissMetrics, 47% of users expect a site to load in 2 seconds or less and 40% of users abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load.
Website speed is an important factor in SEO ranking because you want to encourage favorable user behavior in the eyes of Google: i.e. clicking on the site and staying on the site for as long as possible.
Scale down on heavy content as much as possible (such as images, videos & interactive maps), not only for a cleaner and easier-to-digest appearance, but also to keep site weight to a minimum.
Want to know how fast your site loads? Sites like Web Page Test or Firefox browser plugins like Page Speed can give you a valuable insight.
Content & Language
Ideally, mobile pop-ups are to be avoided as Google rolled out a mobile-specific algorithm that penalizes sites that feature intrusive pop-ups but not to worry, there are other creative ways of displaying it prominently without damaging your SERP ranking. Such as using an Action Bar:
Meta descriptions and meta tags must be paid attention to. These pieces of text appear in SERP’s as the title and small excerpt of preview text underneath, therefore they need to be carefully crafted to appeal to potential guests, and Google.
Mobile SERP’s naturally provide much less space to sell your hotel in so your message needs to resonate with users across all devices.
The main take away points for creating meta copy are:
To use keywords liberally but never sacrifice on quality – if it doesn’t make sense, it can’t be included.
Use descriptive language and imagery to entice users to click. Employ psychological techniques. Showcase enticing discounts and special offers – numbers attract attention because they are easier for the brain to process, particularly helpful for smaller screens.
Google My Business
Google My Business is a free tool for every company. It displays all the vital pieces of information about your restaurant such as address and contact number, as well as user reviews , property images, and most recently, Google Posts – among other features in the ‘knowledge panel’.
Making sure you have claimed your listing will help make your restaurant the most prominent result for brand related searches. It also gives your restaurant the opportunity to appear as one of 3 businesses displayed for non-brand related search queries so make sure you’re optimizing this feature, to ensure Google displays your restaurant above others.
Conclusion
It is important to know how to get your restaurant ranking high in the search engine. I hope this article of 4 mobile SEO tactics for restaurants will help you plan your search engine optimisation strategy for your own establishment.
