If I Were A...St. Louis Restaurant (Steps 1-3)

The St. Louis SEO consultant, Noggin, has settled into the office in Maplewood. As you may have heard, we will be having some very close neighbors which include GrubGo Restaurant Delivery Service and Eat Local. We have harnessed the power to be mega marketers, managers, and strategists for local restaurants in the area. I’m putting together a two-parter based on the idea of me being a digital marketing manager in some local industries. 

Prerequisites

In order to start, we need to have one or several physical restaurants, an existing customer base, and a website.

Step One - Keyword Niche-ing 

I always begin with a competitive analysis’ heavy keyword research. This starts by going to Google and taking advantage of their search network, keyword tool, and traffic estimator. I would perform some broad searches to give me a general idea of why to follow keyword best practices in PPC and SEO. For instance, 1,378 people in the St Louis Metropolitan area search the term “restaurant” daily, versus the 192 people who search “st louis restaurant.” As you can tell, the second option is just an example of where I should focus my keywords.

Long-tailed keywords are essential in avoiding the competition and attaining higher rankings on search engine results pages. Google’s search network yields 16.3 million results for “5 star restaurant st louis” as opposed to the 2.9 million results for “five star restaurant st louis.” They are roughly the same phrase, but the second option has a lot less competition.

Step Two - Competitive Search and Website Grades 

Now I need to see who’s ranking high in paid and organic listings. I do this by running the top listings on sites like WooRank or Hubspot’s Marketing Grader; they will give me in-depth feedback on what makes those websites exceptional and lacking. It will run through things like inbound links, blogs, mobile, and social sites that may affect rankings.  

This is a crucial step in telling whether or not I stand a chance in fighting for those first few listings. And I know I can capitalize on listings more easily if the competition has a bad website grade. For instance, most of the top listings for “st louis restaurants” are review sites and publications. I can rank higher on these sites by getting more positive reviews using reputation management.  

Let’s do an example. The term “st louis brazil restaurant” lists Coco Louco Brasil in first place rankings for organic (at the time of writing,) but they have a 46/100 website grade. Now, the term “st louis italian restaurant” shows Trattoria Marcella in a fourth place ranking, and they have a 80/100 website grade. Obviously, Italian restaurants have a lot more competition, and it would be much easier to take over the first place listing for Brazilian restaurants.

Step Three - Website Audit 

Why do you have a website? Is it because your competitors have one, or is it because you want to generate targeted leads? Small business owners rarely think about how their website can increase their customer base, and a SEO website audit is a great place to start. Audits can reveal the strengths and weaknesses of your site and a website grade can generate a report, both of which will determine whether or not you need a rebuild. Website rebuilds can often be strenuous and overwhelming, but it’s something that needs to be completed, if necessary, before optimization.