“Bing” your problems are solved

Today I have a solution for two problems you probably didn’t even know that you had.

Problem #1:  There are potential customers out there looking for a place to eat tonight.  These people are searching the internet to find just the right place that is going to please everyone.  The search results come back…are you in the number one slot?  Top ten?  Fifty-ninth?

In a previous article we’ve discussed optimizing the search results for your restaurant by simply claiming your business on Google Places. That is still very highly recommended as Google is the largest search provider, but they aren’t the only game in town. The second largest search engine in the U.S., Bing, just released their version of Places this past week. It’s called the Bing Business Portal (BBP) www.bingbusinessportal.com and it has some very compelling reasons you should use it as well.

Both Google Places and the New BBP allow your business to rank higher in local searches.  They give you a space to tell everyone on the internet who you are, when you are open, what makes your place stand out, and what others are saying about you.  To do this you must claim your business, a process that takes less than 10 minutes. Once you do you can post a link to your website, pictures, videos, payment options, and delivery area if that applies.  Both allow you to post a printable coupon or deal for those who found your listing by searching. They are both free and easy to use.

This is where the similarities end and Bing takes the lead.  The new BBP also allows you to post a link to your twitter address and your Facebook page, and you can publish the coupon or deal you create to your Facebook page.  You can create and post a profile of your chef and post a link to your menu if you have it online. BBP also gives you option to choose several keywords in the areas of Cuisine, Atmosphere, Features and Entrée Price to describe your restaurant which will greatly help get you found when a customer searches.

Problem # 2:  A recent study found that 50% of people searching the internet for a restaurant did so using a mobile device and your website is not optimized for mobile and therefore is probably driving these people away.  Let’s say I search for your restaurant on my mobile phone.  I find your website and want to take a look at your menu, but your site has lots of graphics so it is slow on my phone, and the links are tiny so I can’t click on them to get to your menu, or if I get to the menu it is so small I can’t read it. Worse yet I get to your site and it has flash and my phone doesn’t support flash so I can’t see your site at all.  Maybe I will try another more mobile friendly restaurant.

Now you can easily make your restaurant mobile search friendly with Bing Business Portal. The new BBP can automatically create a free mobile website from your listing.  The basic website gives you access to address, map and directions to your location and a button to push to call your restaurant. It displays the hours of operation, cuisines offered and features.  The biggest advantage though is you can enter your menu with category headings, names, descriptions and prices if you like, and Bing will optimize this to be displayed on the customer’s phone.  You can also have the coupon or deal you create to be mobile friendly so the customer doesn’t have to print it.  They just show their server the deal on their phone.  BBP also offers a free QR code you can use to promote the mobile website to customers who scan the code with their mobile phone.  An example of a QR code is displayed here and will link you to my about.me page.

The Bing Business Portal is very easy to use, and offers some great features for your restaurant.  I encourage you to take a little bit of time this week and claim your listing on BBP and Google Places.  Now that you know that you have the problems and the free and easy way to solve them, what’s stopping you?

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