By Veronica Wallace, Contributor
There are plenty of people with ideas about what the best ways are to write blogs that rank. Ideas are nice, but at the end of the day, it’s what actually ranks that matters.
It’s kind of like running your restaurant. You’ll have great ideas for meals that will taste good and sell well. Some of those ideas will pan out. Some won’t. It’s what actually draws customers in, and sells well, that matters.
Things are going to get a bit meta. We’re going to reference where and how we’ve used these tips in this article. The goal is to get you thinking about why this piece is ranking well - and for you to utilize the tools and techniques used here to improve your own blog posts.
So without further ado, here are our six tips for writing strong restaurant SEO:
Start with Market Research
A common refrain in SEO writing is that you want to start with keyword research. That’s close to the mark, but it doesn’t quite hit it.
You see, keyword research gives you a ton of ideas about the kinds of content that you can write. What it doesn’t do, however, is tell you how you should write that content.
Take this article, for example. It’s being written under the assumption that you’re a writer, marketer, or operator who knows about SEO. We’re not going to explain what SEO is, or what keyword research is, because our audience is already completely aware of these terms.
Your restaurant’s audience is different. You’re going to want to figure out who your guests are, what they’re looking for in a dining experience, and the kinds of things they like to read about and research.
In the world of restaurants, customer profiles and market research should be readily available. As you well know, dining is an experience -- and it’s one that needs to be tailor made for the audience you’re looking to serve.
You should think of your blog posts in the same way.
As an aside, customer profiles are incredibly useful outside of SEO research, too. They’re one of the best ways of generating marketing ideas for small businesses.
Keyword Research Comes Second
Now that you know who you’re writing for, you can do keyword research. Keyword research is straightforward -- find the keywords your market would look up, and write articles about those keywords. Remember to match your article to keyword intent.
Informational intent articles should gently guide your reader through the subject. Keep technical details at a minimum, and explain them as succinctly as possible.
There are plenty of excellent informational intent topics for restaurants. Fine-dining establishment? You might make a list of the best regional wines, or create an article on how to taste wine, or even food-wine pairings.
If you’re popular with a younger crowd, on the other hand, you might talk about festivals in your area -- especially festivals at which your restaurant will have a presence.
Commercial investigation articles are rarely used for restaurateurs, but they can come in handy if you’re trying to sell products you make in house, like your secret sauce or cocktail mixes.
Articles targeting keywords that indicate commercial investigation intent can be more technical in nature. Be sure to compare the pros and cons of various products, and get into the nitty gritty.
Before we go on to the next tip, here’s a reminder: don’t keyword-stuff. Google is getting incredibly good at understanding semantics. If your article answers a particular question, you’ll only need to use the keywords you’re targeting a few times -- particularly in the title and headlines.
Write Engaging, Keyword-dense Titles
Engaging AND keyword-dense? Believe it or not, it is possible.
Take the title of this article, for example. It’s keyword-dense: “Restaurant SEO Writing”, “Rank on Google”, “Writing Blog Posts” “Writing Blog Posts that Rank on Google” - you get the idea.
It also tells you exactly what the article is about, how many tips you’re going to get, and what we’re going to help you do.
“Keyword density” is pretty easy to evaluate, but “engaging” is not. Unless you’ve got a market research team on hand for all of your articles, it can be tough to tell what’s going to get clicks.
As a guide, we recommend trying the CoSchedule Headline Analyzer. It’s a free tool that gives the title of your article a score out of 100. It also gives you recommendations for how you can improve your titles.
You can think of engaging and keyword-dense titles in the same way that you think of food that’s delicious and healthy. Hard to pull off? Absolutely. But so worthwhile when you get it right.
In our wine list example, an article titled “5 Wines From Your Area You Need to Taste to Believe” is a keyword dense, compelling headline.
Your Subheadlines Should be Stellar, Too
Speaking of analyzing headlines, don’t neglect your H2s and H3s (subheads)! They’re valuable real estate for keywords and much more.
You can, for example, use headlines to try to improve your odds of getting featured snippets on Google. Let’s say the question you’re targeting is “Where can I get local food in your city” - you might put “Local food in your city” as one of your H2s.
Of course, you don’t have to target featured snippets. In some cases (like in this article), the question you’re answering is broad by nature. In those cases, each H2 and H3 should contain keywords. They should also tell the reader what they can expect in that section of the article.
Try to keep things engaging, too. Make jokes! Use uncommon and emotional language! We’re writing here - living the dream. Have fun with it.
Keep Things Well Structured - Or Everything Will Crumble
The structure of your website and SEO go hand-in-hand. In the same way, the structure of your blogs is essential to SEO.
Well-structured blogs are easier to read for robots and humans.
Each H2 and H3 should address a different topic. In the same vein, each paragraph should address a different topic.
When you’re proofreading your article, ensure that every paragraph revolves around one central idea. If you find that your paragraphs contain 2, 3, or 4 different ideas, you should split them up more.
Your sentences should all address different ideas, too.
That’s not to say there’s no room for art. A run-on sentence, for example, can be useful if you’re purposefully trying to exhaust your reader. You might want to convey a feeling of frustration, then offer an elegant, one sentence solution.
Go for it. Keep things interesting - make long sentences that seem to wind on and on. Follow them up with short sentences. Structure things however you like - this is an art, after all. Just be sure there’s intent behind the structure.
Write for Humans - It’s What the Robots Want
Don’t write for Googlebot. Googlebot is shy. When you write for it, it gets kind of embarrassed, and your page won’t rank well.
Let’s put that a bit more technically. Google wants you to write for people. When you’re stuffing keywords everywhere and putting spammy links wherever you can fit them, it’s not going to reflect positively on the page or your site. They know when you’re trying to game the system.
So don’t! Write with your audience in mind. Write the article that you’d want to read if you were searching for a particular keyword. That will keep your audience engaged. An engaged audience doesn’t bounce - they read the whole article. They click the links.
That sends positive signals to Google. After all, they want their customers to be satisfied - not the robots.
This article is, not to blow our own horns, a good example. We’re not keyword stuffing - just chatting, writer to writer. This is the kind of article we’d like to read - and the kind we like to write.
When you’re looking to boost your restaurant’s presence in your city, local SEO services can help. We hope these 6 tips help you improve your SEO writing. Keep reading articles like this, implement those tips, and your restaurant’s website and pages will be hitting the first page of Google in no time!
