Google loves SEO just the way you love coffee in the morning.

Ever woke up and felt that first thing on your mind was a cup of nice, hot coffee? Now, think about your customers. The first thing they think about before going to a restaurant is Google. They think of just going there and searching for a “romantic restaurant in old town”.

Every cafe or restaurant wants to attract new customers and be remembered by its existing customers. Most of the restaurants probably already have the most powerful tools to accomplish it – you must probably have it also. Your restaurant’s website. But are your potential customers finding you?

Let's think about it. A hungry dude will search online (either on a phone, computer, tablet, etc) for a place to eat at, and hopefully, he will find your restaurant in the search results. But is your website optimized for search? By saying that, we mean that will your potential customers find your restaurant online if they’re not searching for your restaurant specifically? What do you think, will it even rank among thousands of other restaurant websites in search results?

So, you might tell if someone searches by the name of your restaurant, they'll probably find it. Obviously. Let's presume they're just using more general keywords like "Italian restaurant in Tallinn's Old Town," "Tallinn's City Centre's quick lunch."

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of affecting the visibility of your website in a search engine’s results. We’re not talking about ads, we’re talking about “organic” search results (unpaid).

Let's make it simple. If you’re an Italian restaurant in Tallinn's old town, the search engine doesn’t know that unless you tell it. It’s as easy as it sounds. Don’t get us wrong, there’s a lot of complicated algorithms that go with it, and eventually, they change over time. But the bottom line is – it will be always focused on your potential customers. Be sure that your restaurant is answering all the questions asked in searches by customers, using the exact same keywords that they’re using.

You should tell the search engines (as well as your customers) what they would find or experience at your restaurant. Let's say your restaurant is great for birthday parties – write it out. Pictures are great, but robots can not understand them.

NO PDF OR IMAGE MENUS. They should be typed in, always. No excuses.

Your restaurant address should be listed out. Include your city & country as well. Get it out, at least on one of your pages, be it either in a footer, sidebar, etc. At least somewhere.

Restaurant awards are great for exposure, but make sure that they’re not loaded in as graphics, links, or PDF’s. Why? Because search engines can’t read and use them. Be sure to type a brief description of the article among PDF or link to the full story, using important keywords such as the name of the award, publication in conjunction with the name of your restaurant.

Embellish them properly. Write out the alt text when uploading a picture to your website. Think in terms of what the potential customer might be looking for. Let's presume you have on your image a "Chicken tikka masala"-write it down. It might even be easier if you could also write down a summary. Also, this way you can get more leads from Google.

Most website management platforms give you an opportunity to write the “Meta” description and title. It’s exactly that what comes out in Google. We, with our restaurant focused smart CMS give you an opportunity to control it.

Let's presume you are in Tallinn providing a catering service. Write it down, it can help bring in customers looking particularly for this service.