There is no escaping the fact that when it comes to marketing budgets, large companies will normally have larger marketing budgets for SEO than smaller ones. If you are a restaurant owner you might think that this makes it too difficult for you to try and rank on Google, but the SEO experts at www.seoperthexperts.com.au can dispel that myth and explain why local restaurants have a great opportunity to rank highly on the search engines.
The first point to note is that when Google’s algorithms calculate ranking for each individual keyword, they take no account whatsoever of how large a business is, how much profit it makes, or the size of its marketing budget. Bear in mind that rankings on Google are not paid for and work differently from advertising like Google ads or Facebook ads.
When it comes to the restaurant sector, larger chains and franchises might be able to muster greater resources due to their larger budgets. However, our experience tells us that when a company has more money to spend, it tends to want to take shortcuts, and thus, it veers towards investing in paid advertising rather than SEO, which would boost its Google rankings.
Another reason that local restaurants have a more even playing field when it comes to ranking is that Google’s policies treat local searches differently than they do generic ones. Several years ago, Google realized that many people who were entering searches were looking for a local solution, and therefore, it began to introduce a number of features that made finding local solutions easier.
An example of what triggered Google to start focusing on local businesses would have been someone searching for an Italian restaurant. Obviously, they are not travel 500 miles for one but instead, they will be looking for one locally. Therefore, instead of simply entering ‘Italian restaurant‘ as their search, they would enter ‘Italian restaurant’ plus their city, town, or suburb.
With Google obsessed with ensuring that its search results are as close to what the person searching is looking for, they started to give local businesses, including restaurants, better rankings. This was especially the case if the SEO that had been undertaken with regards to its website ensured that not only was it optimized for the search term but for its locality as well.
In addition to changing its algorithm to cater to geographic and local searches, Google introduced a number of other elements that could help local businesses compete. The map pack is one example, where if someone types in a search term such as ‘Thai restaurant Ballajura’, a map of Ballajura showing the locations of Thai restaurants will appear alongside the normal organic search results.
Another point to note is that when it comes to SEO, larger companies, including restaurant chains, tend to be more focussed on their branding, and so they put their resources into ranking for generic terms rather than local searches. MacDonald’s may well come top of the rankings when someone searches for ‘burger restaurant’ but not necessarily if a location has been added.
If the searcher adds ‘in Dianella’ to their search, a local burger bar whose website is optimised for that local search term has every chance of outranking the ‘Big Mac’ team. We are not suggesting it can happen overnight, and it may take a fair amount of SEO, but just imagine the increase in the number of customers who will be visiting your restaurant if you rank #1 in your local area.
