Where Are You?

I have been looking for you. I want to take my family and friends to your restaurant for dinner tonight. We are in the mood for exactly the type of food that you serve, we like the look of your place, your prices are right, and you are open when we want to dine. But we can’t find you. I guess we are going to that other place tonight.
How do people find you? If someone has never been to your restaurant, or maybe they have but not for some time, how are they going to know where you are? Well from that big Yellow Pages ad of course! NEWS FLASH nobody has used an actual phone book for anything except a booster seat in years. Actually when people are looking for products to buy, places to eat, caterers or other service providers, 82% of them use the internet. Surprised? Probably not, because that is probably how you find those same things. The question is, when people are looking for you, can they find you?
I can see your heads nodding, because you think the answer is YES, but is that really the case? I am pretty sure that if a potential customer gets on the internet and pulls up their favorite search engine, probably http://www.google.com, and then types in the name of your restaurant or business, then they do indeed find you. But what if they don’t know the name of your restaurant? What if they forgot about you? What if they never heard of you or the fantastic food that you have to offer? The deal is when people are looking for places to eat, they don’t type in the name of the place they are looking for. If they know your name chances are they already know where you are.

People who are looking for restaurants or certain types of food actually use keyword searches to find places they don’t know already. For example: I might go to Google, and type in “deep dish pizza”, or “BBQ”, or “Steak Restaurant”, and boom right there is a list of places that offer those types of foods, that are “Local” to me. Google actually knows where you are, and when you type in the keywords it searches its huge database of places and gives the searcher the results that most closely match what they typed in.

I see a lot less head nodding, some uncertainty, and a couple of heads shaking. It’s o.k. I am here to help you out. No you don’t have to be a computer genius, or web master, or SEO (search engine optimizer). You actually have one ready to go to work for you, and it’s free. I am talking about Google Places http://www.google.com/places . Google Places is a free service that allows you to enter lots of information about your restaurant into a simple form. Things like what types of food you serve, average dinner prices, hours of operation, specialties, your website address, additional phone numbers, and service area (great if you deliver). It also allows you to upload 10 photos and 5 videos so you can show people what they have been missing. The service is free and easy; you merely have to sign up for a Google email account to get started.

Once you fill out the form and verify that you are the owner, (either by phone or a post card mailed to the business address) Google takes all of the info that you entered and indexes it in their database. Then the next time someone searches for something you offer, your restaurant information is displayed.  And it gets better, Google Places allow you to see analytics about who is searching for you, how they found you, and where they live. This information may be very helpful in planning additional advertising or even menu development. To find out more watch the short video provided by Google below .
Now that I and 82% of everyone else looking for you know where you are, maybe you better stock up. I think it’s going to be a busy weekend.

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