This space has been radically affected over the last few years primarily due to the lockdown of physical locations we have seen in response to covid-19. This has rocked the boat for restaurants, cafés and takeaways that didn’t have a strong digital presence to update their customers and provide alternative solutions.
We have seen a huge increase in the use of digital solution such as Just Eat, that have become a lifeline for many businesses and allowed for businesses to get food to people’s doorsteps and survive the restrictions put in place.
SEO is optimising digital presence and these applications such as Just Eat, UberEATS and Deliveroo are all part of the mix. Optimised profiles including reviews, titles & descriptions, menus, images are becoming detrimental to restaurants surviving during the current climate. Considering what industries need SEO the most the food space really did need digital optimisation to survive!
To validate that SEO for restaurants is needed, we can look at some key statistics. Just Eat partnerships increased by 59,000 between 2019 to 2020, clear evidence of this shift in behaviour with 244,000 partnerships confirmed in 2020.
Just eat orders via the app went from 286 million (2019) to 588 million (2020) within a single year, also showing a shift in consumer behaviour. The users almost doubled in this year from 38 million to 60 million users. This shows a clear shift to digital solutions which increases the importance of a solid digital presence that SEO for restaurants can offer.
With restaurants, cafes, and takeaways, there are many sensitive areas of scrutiny that consumers will put businesses through. We have factors such as hygiene scores, delivery times, food quality, value for money, appearance of premise, customer service, deals and promotions that all play a part in the consumers decision making process before placing an order.
All these factors need to be optimised across the board in the SERP’s and across the variety of applications such as Just Eat that are leading the way with this digital movement. Search engine optimisation in the context of optimising your overall digital appearance for your local café, restaurant or takeaway will be necessary in 2022.