HOW TO USE SOCIAL MEDIA TO BOOST SEO FOR YOUR RESTAURANT’S WEBSITE

When on the hunt for a place to sit down for dinner, the majority of restaurant goers will take their initial search online. If you’re a restaurant owner or manager, you’ll definitely want to be seen by these potential customers when they search on the web. To do so, you’ll need to optimize your restaurant’s website to get to the top of search engine results pages (SERPs).

Social media is one of the most effective tools you have at your disposal for getting your restaurant found online. While there’s been some debate about how the search engines utilize social media metrics, their web crawlers treat social media sites just like any other. It’s no secret that Google and Bing definitely take notice of your social media presence.

Any solid digital strategy will incorporate social media to obtain its goals. You can leverage the engagement factor of social media to connect with current and potential customers all while boosting your web presence. You’ll notice more visitors coming through your door as you engage your customer base and your site moves up the SERP food chain.

Organically Grow Your Followers

You should focus on establishing a decent following on social media. The size of your follower base on various social media platforms can drastically affect your search rankings. Larger followings help boost your credibility and give you a leg up in search rankings.

Quality followers are important here. Google analyzes your follower list and determines the caliber of your base. This means that purchased followers won’t help you out in the overall rankings. Put your energy into building your followers organically. This means presenting your brand consistently in a way that connects with your desired audience. Post content that you think your ideal customers will want to read or tips that they would find helpful. Engage directly with the followers that you do have. Be responsive and start a conversation with your current followers. Engagement is a small seed that blossoms into a large interactive following quickly. Don’t neglect it.

Optimize Your Tweets

Take the time to optimize your posts on Twitter for SEO. Thanks to a partnership forged between the social platform and Google, your tweets could possibly show up in search results. Include keywords in your tweets that you think customers searching online for restaurants are likely to use. On Twitter, hashtags act as keywords. By including targeted hashtags/keywords in your posts, you’ll improve the searchability of your content. This means those potential customers searching for restaurant-specific keywords in your area are more likely to find your content. Shy away from packing in too many hashtags at the end of your posts, as this may drive down engagement by coming off as spam. Try to stick to no more than three targeted hashtags for each post.

You’ll want to periodically survey your hashtag use and determine which ones get the most engagement in the form of clicks, likes, retweets, and follows. Use this information to tailor your account and incorporate the most popular tags in future content.

All is not lost if your posts still don’t show up in Google search results. By focusing on creating optimized posts with targeted keywords relevant to your restaurant and the industry, you’ll begin to build a reputation as an authority in your field.

Utilize Your Social Profiles to Build Links

In the past, Google’s search results placed a high value on links regardless of the quality of the individual links that you built. As this became common knowledge, people began to manipulate the search rankings by building out low-quality backlinks to their site. In response, Google shifted the focus to reward high-quality links in search results.

By including backlinks throughout your social media accounts, you can leverage the high web authority of sites like Facebook and Twitter. Google will view these links as higher in quality. Be sure to include links back to your restaurant’s website on all of your social profiles, as well as in any content that you post.

Post specific content, like current menu specials or recipe blog posts, across all social platforms to promote sharing. Shares will continue to establish your restaurant’s reputation as an expert in your field as well as capitalize on the web authority of the social platforms that you use. This will increase traffic to your site and give you a bump in search rankings.

The way in which you use your restaurant’s social media can have a huge impact on how your site ranks in search engine results. You’ll definitely want to keep the above in mind as you consider your social media strategy. Focus on developing a solid social presence in conjunction with your other SEO efforts. When properly optimized, your restaurant’s social media will help put your site toward the top of search results and in front of countless customers.

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10 EFFECTIVE LOCAL SEO STRATEGIES FOR MOVING COMPANY WEBSITES

SEO might not be the first thing that comes to mind for small business owners when they set their marketing strategies. Many local businesses think that SEO is strictly for companies that do a large amount of their business online.

This assumption is a huge mistake. A reported 88 percent of consumers look at reviews on the web prior to purchasing services from local businesses. Small businesses can use SEO as a massively effective tool. If you have a small business, like a moving company, that is specific to one geographic area, you can use local SEO tactics and target your ideal market right outside your door.

To target your local market online for your moving company, here are 10 local SEO strategies.

Start with the Basics

You’ll first need to establish your business page with the search engines’ local directories. The big players are:

• Google My Business
• Yahoo Local
• Bing Places

It’s a pretty straightforward task; simply enter your moving company’s name, address, and phone number, also known as NAP data. Make sure your NAP data are formatted uniformly with the information on your site. You want this information to be consistent anytime a potential customer finds it online.

Format Your Business Info Correctly

While it’s important for your moving company’s NAP information to be consistent on the web, you’ll also want to format it correctly. On your site, ensure your NAP data are formatted in HTML that is search bot friendly.

You can also use schema markup in your HTML code to give the search bots even more detailed information about your company. You can include available services or products, customer reviews, and more.

Include High-Quality Pictures

When customers perform local searches, they often pay attention to pictures of the various businesses. Ensure you upload professional-looking photos into your local business accounts for Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc. Google will automatically place a picture on your account, so make sure to pick your own.

Don’t Neglect Business Directories

After you’ve claimed your business on all the major search engines, it’s time to look at the review sites. Some of the most popular sites to focus on include:

• Yelp
• TripAdvisor
• Manta
• Foursquare
• Yellow pages

Ensure these business review platforms list your business. You can also claim your company, like you would through the search engines. Make sure your NAP data on these pages are consistent with your site and search engine business pages.

Watch Your Online Reputation

Although claiming your page and optimizing your NAP data are important for local SEO, you also want to pay close attention your online reputation and the feedback your company is getting on these review sites. Google has repeatedly mentioned that reviews factor into local results for businesses, so focus on garnering high-quality reviews, especially for Google My Business.

Leverage Social Reviews

Many consumers look to Facebook to find reviews of products and services from their friends list. Focus on garnering positive reviews on your social media platforms to leverage this word-of-mouth style local marketing.

Separate Social Between Branches

If you have multiple branches for your moving company, set up social media profiles for each individual location. Social platforms, like Facebook, have location functionality, which allows business owners to control the pages for all individual locations, as well as the main page for the entire company. This lets customers interact with each branch and the company as a whole

Create Locally Targeted Content

Build your content strategy on locally focused keywords and topics. Blogs, articles, and other content should hone in on the local area. For your moving company, craft content that relates directly to your business and delivers value on a local scale.

This might look like a blog post about local on-street parking regulations for moving trucks or the best time of the day to move in your city to avoid traffic congestion.

Remember Mobile Optimization

Tweak Your Title Tags

Include geographic descriptors in your title tags to boost your pages for local search. Instead of using “highly rated moving company,” use a tag like “best moving company in New York City.”

Optimizing your title tags lets search engines know that your services are local to your area, which increases the chances they rank for local searches.

When used properly, local SEO can push your moving company’s website to the top of the search results pages. By focusing on these local strategies, you can hone in on your target audience online right in your own backyard.

TOP 5 REASONS WHY YOUR LAW FIRM IS HIDING ONLINE

The web is one of the first places many people go when they have legal issues. With a quick search on Google, they can find more information about their legal dilemma and a listing of local attorneys just waiting to handle their problem.

If you’re not one of the attorneys or law firms coming up in the search results, you’re missing out on thousands of potential clients. The web is a great resource for those seeking legal help, but it can also be a great tool for your firm to get in front of potential clients.

Here are a few potential reasons your firm’s name isn’t popping up at the top of the search engine results.

1) You’re Not Targeting the Correct Keywords

Keywords are the specific phrases people use to perform a search on Google. These are typically phrases like, “DUI attorney in New York City.” You may have some issues being found in the search results if you’re not doing your keyword research and using your findings to guide your content.

The key to targeting the right keywords is all in the research. You need to envision your ideal clients and then think of what types of problems or questions they may have. If your firm mostly handles DUI charges, you’ll want to start your research on words and phrases someone recently charged with a DUI might use in a Google search.

You can use the Google Keyword Planner Tool to view the analytics of certain keywords and phrases that you think of. The keyword tool will also suggest related keywords, which will help you build your keyword list.

These targeted keywords will be the basis of your content strategy. You’ll use them to write informative articles that help answer the questions that they’re related to.

2) You’re Not Posting Regularly

Getting your firm’s site in the top of the search engine results is a commitment. Part of this commitment includes posting on a consistent basis. Stagnant blogs with no posts in several months don’t display the level of authority and expertise you’re looking for.

A good target to aim for is one post per week. To gather a decent following and establish yourself as a leader in the legal field, you’ll need to post as often as possible without going overboard. As readers come to know you as a consistent source of legal information, your shares and readership will increase.

One great way to produce quality content is to create a schedule for posting and commit to it. You can create multiple articles at once and then schedule them to be posted later

3) You’re Not Using Social Media

You should use your social accounts to amplify content on your page. Post the links to your articles and other content across all social media channels. Not only will this make your content visible to followers on your social media that may not visit your page regularly, it will also increase the odds of your articles being shared.

4) You’re Posting Thin Content

Posting high-quality, relevant content is a surefire way to steadily push your site up the search results pages and establish your firm as a legal authority. Churning out the same old information spun in various boring ways will do just the opposite.

Thin content is the exact opposite of high-quality content. Whereas quality content is original and provides valuable information to users, thin content doesn’t offer any useful or actionable information for readers.

Users that take to a search engine to look for legal answers need very specific and often technical information. Thin content is not very good at delivering this type of information. Focus on thoroughly delivering quality information, and you’ll see a slow but steady rise in your site’s search positioning.

5) You’re Not Using Internal Links

When it comes to SEO, so many site owners and managers think about external links and their benefits. Although external links are great ways to boost SEO for your firm’s site, don’t neglect the power of internal links.

If you’re posting regularly, you should have a healthy amount of content on your site. Linking back to relevant posts from the past is a great way to give context to current posts, highlight old content readers may find valuable, and boost SEO.

With so many people searching for answers to legal issues online, your firm can’t afford to have its site sit at the bottom of the results pages. Focusing on these above problems and making a commitment to fixing them will help right the ship and improve your chances of moving up in the rankings.