Restaurant Advertising – Is Ranking on Google Worth the Money

To have your restaurant listed on page one of Google’s search engine results pages is fabulous, but it can take some work.

You certainly can’t get there and stay there without having a website that the Google search engine rates highly. Your rating is affected by hundreds of ranking factors that determine your website’s quality score.

So, the question before us today comes down to restaurant advertising and whether or not ranking on Google is worth the money.

The answer is yes, a first page ranking is worth the money, and here’s why.

Ranking is Money

When your restaurant shows up on the first page of Google search results, that’s money in your pocket. Why?

• A top ranking means more visitor clicks to your website.
• You’ll get many more clicks than people on page two.
• If you’re at the top of the page (page 1), you’ll get more clicks than people at the bottom.

It is worth noting that you also get more clicks if your search engine results page snippet (the info describing the link) is what the searcher was actually looking for.

You’ll also find that organic listings get more clicks than sponsored ad listings so you want to spend money on optimization.

This isn’t a hard and fast rule as Google is always on the lookout for ways to improve their paying customers’ clicks.

How Do You Get the Top Ranking?

To get the #1 ranking on the Google search engine results page takes some effort on your part. And, the ways to get there are continually evolving as Google changes their algorithms often.

Typically, the following can give your restaurant website a boost in position:

• Paying for advertising – Google AdWords
• Getting there organically through an optimized website

To get top billing organically, your website must meet a lot of criteria. Here are a few basic things your website should have:

• It should be quick. Google favors speedy sites.
• You should update the site regularly.
• Search engine optimization.
• A blog that you add new content to at least weekly can help.
• Your location and phone number in a prominent place.
• Links.
• Optimized images and video.

Organic listings are of course more beneficial to you because you aren’t paying for the privilege. Everyone wants this top billing, so there is fierce competition.

If you live in an area where your restaurant has a lot of competition, you’re going to have to use Google AdWords to get into the top spot.

You’ll need to bid on the best keywords and phrases to get to the top.

Search Engine Optimization

Since search engine optimization (SEO) is so important to your Google ranking, let’s discuss it.

SEO is what you do to make your restaurant’s website pages as relevant as they can be so search engines place value on your site.

Getting to the top of Google means they trust your website, and your reputation is good. It also means your pages are relevant to most search queries. (tweet this)

You can bet that the chain restaurants are getting top billing on Google. But, if you build the reputation of your website, you can get there, too.

Link between pages on your site and concentrate on adding valuable, relevant information.

You also want to ensure that your site’s navigation is friendly and intuitive. This also makes Google trust your site.

Finally, to improve your organic rankings, your website must be created with the user in mind, not Google.

The Details are in the Data

To help you get to the top of Google rankings, take a look at some of the tactics that the current top websites use to land at the top of search engine results pages.

1. Backlinks are important. These are incoming links to your website.
2. The number of unique sites linking back to your site also factors in.
3. Purchase an SSL certificate for your site as Google is rewarding secure sites. This means instead of http in front of your domain name, you’ll have https.
4. Use anchor text. This text should be the same as your target keyword.
5. Optimize your page titles and keep them short – about eight words in length.
6. Include your target keyword in your page title.
7. Use your target keyword in your page’s URL.
8. Keep your URLs short, too – around 59 characters in length.
9. Use keywords that your customers are searching for.
10. Don’t overuse your keywords.
11. Fill out all of your image Alt tags and use image captions when appropriate.
12. Use H1, H2, H3, etc. headings to organize your content.
13. Add new content often that your customers find engaging and valuable.

A few words about content because it’s so important – content should be part of your overall restaurant advertising strategy.

Adding fresh content consistently matters to Google. Content can be blog posts, newsletters, infographics, videos, webinars and more.

Use your content to attract new customers and retain current ones.

New content helps you get top rankings on Google, but you don’t want to add it purely for content’s sake. It should be high-quality content that provides value to current and potential diners.

When you add content, you give Google more results to show in searches, and you can highlight more keywords.

Plus, the more content you have, generally the more links you get back to your site. And, valuable content means users stick around on your restaurant website longer which again makes Google happy.

Final Thoughts

When it comes to restaurant advertising, is ranking on Google worth the money? Again, the answer is yes.

Ranking high on Google can mean the difference between a highly successful restaurant and one that fails. (tweet this) After all, if searchers can’t find you, they can’t eat at your restaurant.

Additionally, the position of your restaurant website in Google search results can mean a click to your site or a searcher who finds someone else first.

You might want to know just how much that top ranking on Google is worth.

According to Google, paid search results are worth $37.7 million per day.

In addition, the first position on Google search results on desktop computers has a 34.36% click-through rate, while the top position on mobile has a click-through rate of 31.35%.

When your site is listed in natural search results, it’s worth even more as more Internet searchers click on organic listings as opposed to paid listings.

In other words, you’ll get more clicks with an organic listing than a paid listing.

So, the money you spend optimizing your site for ranking on Google is well worth it.

At Restaurant Engine, we create great, responsive websites that Google search engines love. Ready to take the plunge and create a website with an online menu, blog and beautiful photos? Get your free website consultation today!

Images: Edho Pratama and Zeny Rosalina