Increasing traffic on your website is one of the highest searched terms recently and with good reason! E-commerce and online ordering have completely changed the business dynamics of restaurants and food service providers. With online traffic becoming the mainstay for driving sales and orders, every restaurant needs effective strategies to increase their website’s traffic and get more conversions or orders.

So, how do you achieve this?

• Design Your Website/Platform Sensibly - If you have a dedicated platform or website for your restaurant business, then you will naturally have to design it carefully to attract and sustain website traffic. The design should be attractive, helping integrate the brand identity into the minds of visitors, easy to navigate (use categories, sub-divisions, genres/types), informative and with secure and swift payment systems. Having an FAQs section for common customer queries and a responsive way to access customer support are very valuable. Make sure that the user interface and experience parameters are met, i.e. simple, easy to understand and attractive enough to stay around for a while.
• List on review sites or directories - You can add your restaurant information to Google My Business and other restaurant review platforms and digital directories. Create an updated and accurate business listing, helping users find you easily. Add information about pricing, menus, safety and security measures, restaurant timings, locations, contact information etc. Always have website links added to these listings along with images.
• Leveraging social media platforms - Use social media platforms for promoting your menus and promotions, as well as your main ordering portal. Have ordering and website links handy on your Instagram, Facebook and Twitter bio/about sections. Show off cool stuff in the Instagram Stories section while using CTAs (calls to action) to encourage more clicks. Have menu items and updates in your posts with CTAs encouraging visitors to buy online. You can also create product catalogs linked to the Facebook page. Use Facebook Shops for direct selling of products as well.
• Deploy SEO strategies - Identify keywords after researching what customers usually search for in your restaurant category and locations. Put all of them neatly into your website, naturally within your page titles, navigation setup, home page content and footers. Use these keywords for building blog content around the site.
• Responsiveness counts - A large chunk of traffic will be driven by mobile devices. Hence, the website or online platform should be optimized for usage on mobile devices and should be responsive enough to encourage online ordering in a simplified manner.
• Fresh and engaging content - When you start generating content that is shareable and engaging, your customers may want to start sharing the same. In this way, they start promoting you, drawing more customers and driving higher sales figures in turn. From restaurant design and merchandise to innovative campaigns and events, promote everything that is shareable by your customers and visitors, tagging the restaurant in your posts.
• Targeted marketing - Set aside a budget for digital marketing, including Facebook Ads and Google Ads. The latter will cover choosing keywords for ranking your website in search engine results. The URL, however, will be marked with the Ad tag. Facebook is also the owner of Instagram so you can have your ads on a single platform. Facebook Ads can target a whole new range of customers based on several demographics and preferences.
• Devise loyalty programs - Build a database of loyal customers and then offer them loyalty programs with rewards and special offers. Highlight such promos for online ordering along with new announcements and updates. Since these customers have an affinity towards your restaurant brand already, they are more likely to see what is on offer and respond likewise.

These are some helpful strategies to enhance restaurant traffic and drive higher sales figures in turn.