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Advice needed for growing restaurant chain

by sidea
9 replies
Hi all,

I'm looking for some advice on web marketing for a small chain of restaurants. We're a growing BBQ brand of fast-casual restaurants in the UK. Currently two restaurants, but likely to be four by the end of the year and growing.

I have been planning on setting-up sites for the new restaurants as they open, but now my boss wants to consolidate into one site with pages for restaurants.
This certainly makes my life easier in a lot of ways, although in some it is a bit restrictive.

But I'm wondering if there is an seo reason for us to have One website per restaurant or whether it doesn't really make a difference having separate child pages on one main site.

The sites are wordpress so I will optimise each page accordingly and push the general offer on the home page. I can use social media (which we have for each site) To promote site dependent special offers etc.

Any thoughts and ideas would be gratefully received.
#advice #chain #growing #needed #restaurant
  • Profile picture of the author agc
    Ever wonder why a brand new wikipedia page instantly outranks every other site about the same subject?

    Think about that for a while and the answer is obvious.
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  • Profile picture of the author serryjw
    I can't talk for the UK but any restaurant that doesn't use mobile APPS is crazy. They are cheap and give you immediate gratification like no other medium. Business is slow at 2PM? send out a promotion. 95% of your customers will get it w/i 5 minutes...I know of nothing that can do that...MY favorite promo is a birthday club. Everyone loves to celebrate and brings a bunch of friends. Do you serve beer?
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    • Profile picture of the author luketr
      Sidea, were you looking for marketing strategies in general or specifically answers to your questions?

      Regarding the site, I would keep it all under the one domain. You have the flexibility with Wordpress to create individual pages for each restaurant location and having everything interconnected means is beneficial for a couple of reasons - sites aren't competing for ranking, no duplication of content issues to worry about or coming up with new content for each location.

      May I ask the restaurant's name? I think I *may* have an idea but I'm curious.
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  • Profile picture of the author FreedomBlogger
    Originally Posted by sidea View Post


    But I'm wondering if there is an seo reason for us to have One website per restaurant or whether it doesn't really make a difference having separate child pages on one main site.

    Any thoughts and ideas would be gratefully received.
    The answer is very simple; BRANDING.

    Branding your website online is a very important part of the entire online success process.

    It will help you promote your website online a lot better and fast - by learning how to Bran your website and your Restaurant.

    What I would recommend you to do is; Build a Good Main Website, a Facebook Fan Page, a Twitter Account, a Google Plus Profile, and a LinkedIn Profile. Invest in a good and catchy Logo, and maybe even a catchy phrase that will become the Trademark for your Restaurant.

    If you want to get smart here, Pay Close Attention to other Incorporated Restaurants that are Main Stream. How are they marketing?

    Notice they use catchy logos, words and phrases/quotes?

    They also only have One Main Website and then have a section to List their current Locations.

    And yes, running just one website online will save you a lot of extra work and time. Plus, going with just one website is a lot more beneficial than going with otherwise.

    You get what I mean?

    Branding will also help you a lot with SEO and in this case (because you are branding and promoting a local restaurant), it is a great and smart idea to help you with Local SEO.

    You can easily Dominate your competitors (other BBQ restaurant in the area) in the online market - thanks to SEO.

    So, in conclusion, going with one website is not just better, but it is way more effective in the long run!

    Hope this helps!

    Cheers!
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    • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
      Freddy has the right angle here.

      Think about it. For most restaurant chains, most of the information for each location is identical. What changes? Usually the physical details (location, phone number, hours) and sometimes pricing.

      This means you only have to create the main content once, so you can put your time and energy into making it effective. You also nix the possibility of duplicate content messing with your search rankings (not a penalty, per se, just the search engines trying to guess which site to serve).

      Brand the main site, then give visitors the option of getting details about each location.

      If you do vary your prices by location, you could even serve customized menus for each location. Show the basic menu sans prices, then if a visitor picks a location, you could pull the correct prices from a database.
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  • Profile picture of the author Regional Warrior
    Asked the Mods to move this to the offline section you will get a lot more answers there
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  • Profile picture of the author jessicandre234
    Me in your shoes..... I will keep all under one website.... Let people know you have various brand by having by location as part of your options.... Create an app on both IOS and Android(this will go a long way in boosting your market)....

    Hope this help
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  • Profile picture of the author drherz
    I think the Apps advice is solid. I'd also go with a strang e-mail presence if you aren't already using them to good effect.
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  • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
    Banned
    Are the restaurants all the same, as in a chain like Pizza Hut, etc? If so, consolidation with location information makes sense. If they aren't, and each one is notably different from the other, I would do a site for each one to brand it. I also agree that being listed in mobile apps for restaurants is the best way to market them. A lot of people are using mobile apps to find restaurants as they are out cruising, away from their computers.
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