Category Archives: Sheffield SEO

Restaurant, bar & hotel marketing – the fast way to get more customers

Restaurant, bar & hotel marketing – the fast way to get more customers     

We’re in the midst of the Coronavirus lock-down at the moment but the restrictions on movement will be relaxed soon. Before we know it, pubs, bar, clubs and restaurants will be open again. The problem is, though, will the customers be as fast to start socialising and eating out again? How do we market our pubs, bars, clubs, and hotels? Is this even the right time for restaurant, bar & hotel marketing? 

Restaurant, bar & hotel marketing – the fast way to get more customers

Restaurant, bar & hotel marketing – the fast way to get more customers

The last recession was very tough for nearly all businesses but there were some very interesting lessons learned. The most important one, however, is that you can’t be complacent. The successful business that came out of the recession stronger than ever were the ones that realised they had to ‘up their game.’ They knew that it would take time for things to return to normal so they had to fight for the customers or go bust. Many of the organisations who simply ‘battened down the hatches’ and stopped investing in their business went under. Now is the time to start your restaurant, bar & hotel marketing

How to get more customers – restaurant, bar & hotel marketing the easy way

I’ve been in sales & marketing for as long as the internet has existed. Since before Google, Twitter and Facebook existed. Even before smartphones and mobile data. The amazing thing over this time has been the change in customer behaviour. We don’t ‘take a punt’ on a new restaurant anymore. Rather we ‘check it out online’ first. We check the website and read the menus. Look at the photos and explore the virtual tour. If we’re not 100% sure it’s the place for us we hot ‘back’ and go to the next listing on Google. This is why it’s so important to get it right first time

How to get new customers for bars, restaurants, and hotels

1 – First of all make sure your website is up to scratch from the visitors perspective. Your customers don’t need much – don’t make it difficult for them to find what they need! On your website, make the following information very prominent; Opening times, your location & parking (with a link to Google Maps), reservation information if available, menus (please not in PDFs!!!), and any specials or happy hour info. This is the most important thing to consider when thinking about your restaurant, bar & hotel marketing

2 – Make sure you have good quality and accurate photos (please no stock photos!)

3 – A good quality virtual tour is the number one factor in choosing a restaurant, bar or hotel. If your new potential customers are able to explore by themselves when it’s convenient for them, you’re much more likely to get them to visit in person.

4 – Next, make sure your website can be found. There is a very nice article on DIY SEO here, however, I’d recommend hiring an expert SEO to optimise your site and build a few links for you whilst they’re at it

5 – Make the most of what Google has to offer. Get your virtual tour on Google Maps, Google Search, Google Street View, and Google My Business. This is all part of getting a virtual tour done. See this article on integrating your virtual tour into Google

What next?

Here is a list of suppliers you may want to get in touch with:

Web development (click here) – make sure your website is up-to-scratch. Click here for good quality web development

Virtual tour & photography (click here) – good quality photos and a high-quality HDR Matterport virtual tour are two of the most important things you’ll need. Get a quote for a virtual tour here

Search engine optimisation (click here) (SEO) – get your site indexing on Google and make sure new customers can find you – Click here to find out more about Search Engine Optimisation

Google virtual tour integration (click here) – get your photos and virtual tour on Google Maps, Google Earth, Google Search and Google Street View with a Trusted Google Photographer

 

 

 

Improve Your Website SEO with These 5 Helpful Tips

Adapting to SEO trends remains a constant challenge. Yet it needn’t be something that causes frustration. By sticking to clear, concise strategy you can look forward to improved web rankings – and ultimately more genuine traffic to your site.

You can minimise the impact of algorithm changes by taking care to publish optimised, organic, useful content on your site. Not only will this always be well-received by Google; it will also retain customers visiting your site for longer (also great for SEO).

Whether you’re looking for one-off SEO site work, or ongoing content production, you need to make sure that you pick the right company to carry out the work for you. As Sheffield SEO experts, Seven Creative are well-placed to help:

Have a Clear Idea of Your Goals

For your SEO campaign, make sure that you have a clear idea of what you want to achieve before you start. If you work within a competitive trade, for example, you’ll be more likely to see page 1 results by targeting one of your niche services. Similarly, adding a geographical focus to your activity can also help you maximise the benefits of SEO.

You Must See SEO as a Long-Term Marketing Strategy

It’s essential that you remain patient with this digital marketing strategy. For monthly campaigns in particular, it needs to be something that you invest in for the long term. A re-work of your website can improve your positions fairly quickly depending on how competitive your keywords are, but if you then don’t continue to add regular, organic content -whilst your competitors do – you’ll soon find yourself sliding back down the SERP’s.

Detailed Monthly Reports Are a Must

SEO needn’t be all smoke and mirrors. If you’ve had a bad experience with paid services previously, that will only be heightened. A company that provides you with detailed, transparent, monthly reports can be worth their weight in gold; and you’d be wise to choose such a firm to carry out any SEO work that you need.

Regular Blogging is Vital

Don’t underestimate the importance of business blogging, which can be great for your brand image. When optimised correctly, this content is perhaps the most important factor with relation to how the Google Algorithm deciphers your website.

Engaging news articles, case studies and blog articles are the best way to show the search engines that you have something of value to offer on your site, so this really is an opportunity not to be missed.

Make Sure New Content is Optimised

Whenever it comes to adding new content to your site, make sure that it’s optimised for the search engines. If you’ve hired an SEO company for one-off site work but now want to try it yourself, it’s essential to maintain good practices such as adding descriptions and alternative title text to any new images you add to your site.

SEO Experts in Sheffield

Maintaining practices such as the ones mentioned here will stand you in good stead for your SEO campaign. To implement the strategy, it’s well worth hiring professionals Seven Creative, who are here to help.

Their SEO experts in Sheffield can provide you with engaging web copy; that will stand the test of Google updates to fire you up the rankings – and then keep you there. You can get in touch with them today on 0114 383 0711 to find out more.

Ever wondered if SEO will work for your business?

Sheffield SEO

Sheffield SEO

One of our fastest expanding services we provide at Seven Creative, here in Sheffield, is SEO, and there is one thing that nearly all our new SEO enquiries have in common – they’re nervous about the idea of embarking on an SEO campaign!

So, why is this? Firstly, not many people truly understand what SEO actually is. To me, it’s simply about making sure a site is of high quality meaning that it can effectively communicate with Google about its subject and purpose (which is a win-win for everyone). It’s certainly not about creating a million inbound links from poor quality sites to manipulate the search results! Secondly, the results seem to intangible. This was something we noticed early on so we made sure that an activity report was available to everyone – regardless of their budget – on a monthly basis. Thirdly, many people have been ripped off in the past. Even now, knowing what we know about how Google evaluates websites, poor quality companies with unethical sales people are still conning trusting people out of their cash by providing poor quality SEO that somewhere between little and no effect to how a site indexes – in fact, poor quality SEO will often have a negative effect on rankings; so don’t underestimate Google’s increasing ability to spot a cheap link!

It’s perfectly understandable why Google doesn’t like the current SEO industry – Google wants to be the one evaluating websites; historically, SEO has been about manipulating results to make a site appear more relevant and important that it would normally appear – so everything the search giant is doing in terms of regularly updating its algorithm is pushing site owners towards best practice and high quality content; and away from link building.

So, to refer back to the initial question, it depends. Of course I would say you should call us but if you don’t here are my top tips to make sure you pick a good company:

  • Avoid companies that outsource – it’s probably a sign that it’s going to be poor quality SEO
  • Ask to see examples of reports – this won’t give you an idea of the results you’re likely to achieve but you’ll be able to see the way those results are presented.
  • Speak to their current customers – happy customers are happy to recommend.
  • Avoid pay-on-results agreements – this incentives the SEO company to provide poor quality SEO for an immediate boost that wears of very quickly when you stop paying.
  • Go local – we all know how nice knowing that the person you’re relying on is available when you need them!

For more information about Sheffield SEO services, call Seven Creative on 0114 383 0711 or click here for more contact options