With delivery and pickup search on the rise, it’s more important than ever to increase restaurant traffic online. Not only does it help you bring back loyal fans and new customers, it can also be a way to regain up to 30% lost in service fees that would otherwise go towards delivery operations outside your control.
Think about it this way: A customer searches for your specific restaurant and location to place an order for pick up or delivery service, and they click on the first site that comes up. That should be your website, but what if it’s not? What if it’s a Yelp, Grubhub, Uber Eats or Doordash page? If they do order through those pages you, end up paying money to those third-party sites, even though they didn’t actually help anyone find you.
Take a look at this issue with some real-world context: Canter’s Deli sells a Pastrami Reuben sandwich for $17.50. It costs the restaurant $5.50 to make it, but when someone orders it for delivery through Uber Eats, it will cost the restaurant an additional $5.25 in service fees. In other words, the restaurant only gets $6.75 in profit from delivery compared to $12 for an in-store or pickup order.
To gain back that lost revenue, you have to be the first choice in online searches for your restaurant, and control whether you want customers to buy directly from you or through a third-party site. Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to make this possible!
Optimize Your Restaurant Website
A great place to start is restaurant search optimization for your website. Creating new unique locations pages, publishing compelling content, and adding easily accessible phone numbers and menus can help you get to that number one spot in organic search. On top of that, it inspires brand loyalty, shows thought leadership in the space, and keeps communication open with customers.
Use Reviews to Your Advantage
Another valuable piece of content to add to a restaurant website are reviews. Toast data shows 35% of consumers chose a restaurant due to the influence of online reviews. Displaying them throughout your site or even having a dedicated page for customer reviews can easily convince new customers to dine with you.
By using review widgets, such as Amplify, you can easily show off loyal fans and convince new customers that your restaurant is worth visiting. In addition, Amplify helps push your site to the top spot in your own search. Reviews are still a valuable source of user- and business-generated content, which is a major factor in local SEO.
Boost with Social Media
With an optimized website full of compelling reviews, you can promote the restaurant via social media to drive even more traffic to your site. Take advantage of this time and use a social media tool like Hootsuite to get the word out about your site across multiple channels to drive traffic to your restaurant website instead of third-party sites where you can lose money.
You can also use your social media channels to increase engagement with customers, communicate new developments in your restaurant, and even show off reviews from happy customers. When done correctly, your social media strategy helps build your brand and build your traffic, which is a win-win scenario.
The Value of Increasing Restaurant Traffic Online
By neglecting to work on your website, reviews strategy, and social media plans, you miss out on the chance to attract customers and leave precious money on the table. At a time when budget is on top of virtually every business’s mind, this strategy is something you can easily and quickly act on; these few steps will help you get found online and ultimately drive more revenue.
