How difficult it would be depends entirely on the competition within the market.

Honestly though, I think that is a waste of time and resources. I don't know anyone who searches for a coffee shop in Google. If they search for anything, generally they search specifically for Starbucks, Dunkin' Donuts, or whatever their coffee shop of choice is.

Beyond that, they know where coffee shops are in their area unless they just moved there.

Time and money would be much better spent marketing the shop on Facebook.

As an SEO, if a coffee shop came and tried to throw money at me to rank their coffee shop in Google, I would give them their money back. They are just not going to get a serious return on their investment.

They should have a website and be in Google My Business, so that if someone searches for them specifically, they show up as a local business. Outside of that, I wouldn't bother focusing on SEO at all.

I disagree.

I have had many instances where people have come up to me in the morning and inquired about a coffee shop near by. That is probably the number one question I get asked, so you can certainly bet others are going to be using their phones to find one.

People love their coffee and those that aren't familiar with the area will want their fix. I know quite a few coffee drinkers that like to get their coffee locally rather than via a Starbucks chain.

Connect with the local community and try to get local backlinks.

IMO every local business can use Local SEO help beyond GMB.

As far as course go, Check out Moz, Search Engine Land, Backlinco, SEObook. They will help get you started.

I do agree that having a good Facebook presence will help.

So the #1 question you get asked is if there is a coffee shop around?

Lol... yeah, ok.


Anyhow, the search volume is going to be so small, that they won't get a decent ROI if they put in the appropriate money and time into outranking the local big chains and established independent shops.

Much better off going the social route and trying to create buzz. That in addition to print, radio, and TV ads is where their money should be going, not SEO.

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In the case of a coffee shop that probably does not have an online store.. I would ensure there is a mobile site ( NOT a responsive site ) that has the ability to direct call and directions.

Every single client I have taken on has had issues with their websites. They haven't submitted sitemaps, they aren't listed on GMB, they have 404 errors, they have missing title tags, they haven't installed analytics or haven't looked looked at it, their plugins are out of date...

Basically they have zero clue to what is really going on with their websites. They are too busy running their business.

On the Local SEO side with citations, they have all sorts of messed up listings. Old phone numbers, wrong addresses, incorrect names...

Fixing these can go a long way to improving their local rankings.

This is just basic stuff where a good SEO person can help.

Your website is probably the only thing you really have control over. Facebook or Twitter or the next big social media platform can change the way they do business and then all of a sudden the traffic that you used to get from those platforms disappears.

I do agree that it's hard to quantify customers walking in the door because of a Facebook ad they saw vs SEO. For me personally FB ads that get served up to me haven't made me go anywhere locally. Almost always if I am looking for something local I will do a google search, get on Google Maps or type it on my phone.

I think i should have started off by asking, "is SEO even worth it for a small, local coffee shop?"

I didnt think it would be which is why i havent even suggested it to the owners.

For a coffee shop, yelp and facebook are definitely where its at and they are essentially free to use

When i was in las vegas last year i visited a mexican restaurant that had amassed over 1000 reviews on yelp in less than a year. They shared their secret with me and it was unbelieveably simple

HangTenSEO - I couldn't tell you how many times I have had a client come to me with a broken website. Almost every client I have had a broken or incomplete website. There content not finished, broken links, pages with no content, duplicate content, no Google search console or analytics. It is mind blowing since most of this information is easily accessible on the web.

That is why teaching yourself isn't always the easiest thing to do when it comes to SEO.

I truly think organic SEO is the best approach for every website and business but sometimes doing research first and learning if a business needs to wait to perform SEO until it has generated a buzz or a cult following so the business owner can afford to pay it and generate more foot traffic is a good idea.

There are many other strategies to SEO that are more affordable and can still benefit a business or website owner. A video that you rank for the coffee shop might work (not saying this is a good idea but listing other methods of SEO that can help businesses that I have successfully used).

Video marketing and using on-page on YouTube and backlinks to rank a video for local keywords may work for some businesses but not others. Like a short commercial or information based video.

My favorite example is Stihl, the chainsaw and outdoor company. They have videos all over the web that don't sell their products but rather, teach you how to use them safely, how to maintain them in order to make them last longer, and the proper tools to fix their products DIY style.

This builds brand trust and something similar could help a coffee shop you just have to sit down and discuss or present a way to do such a thing.

You can create powerful inbound links to your business website and convert this traffic into qualified leads with the help of business listings in High Page Rank local directories. Most of this directories are paid but can help you rank higher locally for your keywords.

Search your local area for "local business directory listing" and see what comes up. Only list your site on well research directories with traffic flow and do-follow backlinks.

I am with Mike on this one, having worked with a pastry shop/

(Slice of cake selling for $3 costs the shop $1, $1 goes to rent/mortgage, electricity, equipment, etc.), the remaining $1 is for the owner and the employees (1 per shift). $5 dollar slices: $2.5 to purchase them, the rest is almost the same).

Takes a lot of slices to just break even, even more to hire SEO consultants. And, for most locations, there's not enough extra clients you can bring in.)

You may get on page 1 for a lot of keywords with onpage optimization, fixing Google pages, making a youtube profile correctly and uploading a video or two, claiming the yelp page.

But, wouldn't you be better off partnering with the local bank? Every one gets a free coffee on the anniversary of their account opening. All they have to do is bring in a card the shop gives the bank. (They, in return, will display the bank's postcard on their counter, or on every table). (When they get the free coffee, they get a coupon : bring this coupon next week and get 15% off whatever... And when they bring that one in, they get another coupon.... After you get them to come in 3 or 4 times, they're a lot more likely to keep coming... on their own, for free, being my argument.)

The offer has to be perceived as good (enough) every time.

With the pastry shop I mentioned, the first ad offered 30% off any slice, the 1st coupon 25% off on any slice; the 3rd one, 25% on a slice, if they bought 3.) I created a 4th and a 5th but the owner didn't give them away. The owner didn't feel they were needed. (Don't know how he came to feel that.) In the end, the owner said he acquired regulars that came one to four times a month, spending $15 to $20 per visit. Some of them are still coming, 3 years later.

The only problem... owner didn't track accurately... So we don't know how many coupons he gave away, or were brought in. It was working, so why keep tracking, was his attitude... The ad appeared for several weeks after he stopped tracking.... (I am, here, making sure you make sure your owner tracks everything, for the duration.)

No matter what the opinion is, there are basics EVERY local business should have.
1-Decent website.
2-Decent Facebook page.
3-Decent Google My Business or what ever they are calling it these days, seem to change every 6 months.
4-Introduction video or two hosted on YouTube and embedded on sites above.
5-Reviews, reviews, did I say reviews posted everywhere. They should have a handy link or easy way for customers to post reviews with out gaming the system. Whitespark has a nice form for that too.

Correct NAP on EVERYTHING; website, Facebook etc... with at least 50 local citations; if it was my business, I would shoot for as many citations as Whitespark could find for me, hundreds if possible.

Google will list that business fairly high in the local ranking for the city it's located in; of course depending on competition and what experiment they're running at the time.

Not that it matters anymore as far as the 3?pak. All my clients use Adwords Express just to make sure they're up at the top.

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Have to agree with Mike on this one.

Probably not necessary.

i think..you must focus to create backlinks and do smo to promote any small business.if you have some budge to spend money on adwards then you must try it.

Out of curiosity, does anyone have any suggestions on what the best way to promote a small business like this on Facebook would be?

My own strategy is to host free or low cost events and promote them on Facebook. The more people you can get in the door, the better

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