Local SEO for Catering Services

Everyone in the world has a mobile phone today. A good number of people access the internet through their mobiles. Trust us; it is easier to search the internet on the mobile as compared to your laptop. The principal reason is that the smartphone is always ‘ON’ whereas you have to switch on your computer and laptop every time you need to browse the internet. As the word suggests, the smartphone is ‘Mobile’.

You can browse the internet even when you are sitting in the park or doing your exercises in a gym. Hence, it makes great sense for any small business owner to invest in a mobile friendly website. Invariably, people search for catering services and restaurants on their mobiles. They need quick results. A customer friendly mobile website page appeals to their taste.

Indisputably, Google is the most popular search engine of all. It is imperative for any localbusiness to have a GMB listing (Google My Business). Now, a GMB listing is not the most difficult thing to achieve. In fact, in marketing parlance, it is one of the easiest ways to announce your business. It does not take more than a couple of minutes for any business website to acquire a GMB listing.

The procedure requires you to submit your business information such as NAP particulars for the listing to take effect. Ensure that your NAP details are accurate. TribeLocal’s industry wise cheapest citations can help you in this regard. Maintain the requisite consistency so as not to confuse the search engines. That should be the last thing you want.

Do your homework right. You need a strong base to build up your local SEO. The first thing to do is to have a keyword bank ready. Try to be as specific as possible and maintain the generic quotient as well. Some of the best examples of generic keywords are ‘Food catering services, home catering services’, and so on.

You can go a step further and introduce your specialty like ‘Wedding catering services, Corporate catering services’. Have a healthy mix of your primary and secondary keywords. Try to include variants of keywords like ‘Local wedding catering, Marriage catering services, wedding reception catering services’, and so on. This will not cause keyword stuffing, an aspect Google is very serious about in today’s circumstances.

Catering services have a definite local flavor. You do not expect a person residing in New York to search for a restaurant in Washington, especially when he is at home. Therefore, listing in local directories is more important than having your business name in a global directory. It will be great if you can narrow down your listing to specific local directories within your city based on the geographical location.

People love to search for catering services they can reach immediately. Having an industry specific listing is most advantageous. You can also have your listing in allied industries like entertainment, recreation industry, travel and tourism, and so on. Ensure to maintain consistency of your data. TribeLocal’s industry wise cheapest citations are the best tools to employ. They can push up your SERPs within no time.

This is a very important concept in your endeavor to improve your SERPs. One example of this concept is the GMB listing. Use of Google Adwords is another fantastic example of off-page SEO. The best advantage of these listings is that they pop up based on the browsing history of the user. This example will prove this fact.

Your customer had used the internet to search for your location in the recent past. Subsequently, he might be browsing some other website when your Google Adwords listing suddenly pops up on the right hand side of the page. Such advertisements can bring back good memories if you had managed to satisfy the customer.

Just as Off-page SEO is important, so too is On-page SEO. The best way to do it is to have an attractive home page detailing various aspects of the cater service you provide. The Home page should have all the requisite details like Contact Us, About Us, Services, FAQ, Blogs, and so on. Having a separate Services page for each service you provide is the best option.

For example, your catering services may be available for weddings, parties, corporate dinners, and a variety of options. Having a dedicated page for each service pays rich dividends. Your FAQ page can have relevant questions you expect your customers to ask. Having an internal link from the FAQ page to the various services you provide is a great way to improve your local SEO for small business.

The Page title and Meta descriptions are the first things that your customer reads when he goes through the SERPs. It is imperative to have a compelling title and description. The keywords play a vital role. The description should contain as much information as possible in the shortest manner (about 160 to 200 characters).

SEO content is the King. Nothing can replace this fact. It always pays to have excellent content to describe your business. You should have different content for each of the services you provide. Compelling the people to read through your content is important. Remember, the attention span of your customer is very short. You have to catch his attention and hold it as well.

Excellent content needs its dose of keywords. However, ensure that you maintain the keyword ratio perfectly. The thumb rule is that it should not exceed 3% to 5% of the total content. Hence, it makes sense to use synonyms of keywords like marriage caterers in place of wedding caterers. Usage of long-tailed keywords in your webpages is advisable. It provides a specific thrust to the SEO strategy.

This is the age of Black Hat SEO. Google is very strict in these aspects. Hence, it is very important for you to ensure quality of your backlinks. Securing the same from .GOV or .EDU websites adds a lot of weight. You can seek backlinks from the business websites of allied sectors such as entertainment or recreation.

Internal linking is very useful under such circumstances. Your FAQ pages should link to your service pages. You can have effective links from your Blog pages. A healthy combination of your internal and external links is the key formula for success.

The catering businessis such that people make their choices depending on customer reviews. Therefore, it makes sense to have each of your customers drop in a line or two about the services you provide. It boils down to the fact that you need to have an excellent customer satisfaction program in your armory.

Your existing customers can act as the brand ambassadors for your business. This is the best way to attract new clients. The catering sector is such that you normally do not have much repeat clients as far as certain services are concerned. Hence, reviews do matter a lot. You get new clients every time.

Surveys show that the younger generations prefer to avail catering services more than the elderly people. Now, you equate the younger generation with social media. Every youngster has at least a couple of social media accounts, if not more. Therefore, your business should be active on social media. Every webpage should have social media links whereby customers can access them easily.Having a dedicated social media campaign is also helpful in ensuring a “First Page Rank” on the search engines.

Customer reviews have their roles to play. An interactive blog can work wonders for you. You will be able to relate better to the customer and satisfy his requirements. This can also help you to improve your services. Interactive blogs provide the best platform for you to introduce new deals and rebate offers.

Having fun recipe contests can also help in improving the relationships with your customers. You can always give out discount vouchers as prizes for the winners of the contests. You get the chance to try out the recipes as well. These are all SEO optimization techniques.