Online Strategies for Restaurant Owners

First a question:  Are your Yellow Page ads still working? 

In some cities and with younger customers, Google is replacing the yellow pages as the preferred method for finding local businesses including restaurants.  So if you think your Yellow Page ad is not driving the traffic like it used to, it may be time to pull the plug on that marketing expense. 

We’ll talk more about using online advertising such as Google, Yahoo!, and MSN in a future blog.  First, we are going to talk about getting your business listed for free.

 There is a saying in the media and Internet business:  “Content is king!”  This including local business listings.  The major search engines Google, Yahoo! and MSN would love to have information about your restaurant.  The more relevant content and information they can provide to their customers the better.

 A second question:  Did you know that Yahoo! and Google have a locals section where you can add and update information about your business?  These Internet search companies pay third party companies to provide them with business listing information that they can populate to their database.  Usually the information is address, phone # and business name only. 

 Try this:  Go to Yahoo’s Local site.  Once you are at the site, enter the ZIP CODE of your restaurant in the text box. 

 Select the Restaurants link.  Once you are in the restaurants link, locate your restaurant listing. 

 Click on the UPDATE THIS BUSINESS link.  You will see an option that will ask you if you are an owner or employee, or a customer.  Select owner or employee.  Login using your Yahoo! account.  If you do not have one, apply for one.  It is free and easy to setup.

 Now here’s where it gets cool.  Once you are in, you can edit your restaurant info (such as):

- Address,

- Phone #,

- Web Site URL,

- Fax (I wouldn’t suggest listing this as you will get tons of spam fax),

- Company Email,

- Hours of Operation,

- Payment Methods You Accept,

- Year Established,

- Languages Spoken,

- Brand Names Carried,

- Products & Services Offered (Delivery?, Catering?),

- Professional Associations, and

- Specials.

Pretty cool.  Only takes you a few minutes, its free, and now prospective customers will know a little more about your restaurant.

You can do the same with Google and MSN.  We’ll discuss restaurant review sites like Yelp! and CitySearch in our next blog.