With the web going social over the last few years how does a Restaurant business know where to spend their efforts online…? How do you get your restaurant to be involved in these online ‘cafe-shaped conversations‘? Where do you find what real restaurant connoisseurs are discussing about your local dinning scene?
Obviously, there are acres and acres of people who are living and moving around locally in proximity to your business. They use the internet to search for credible word of mouth opinions of restaurants. (Who has time to try every fad business that springs up?) With the modern convenience of search engines accessed from handheld phones and Wi-Fi available in establishments that invite any laptop users in makes your online presence even more important (as print media takes a nosedive). The new tool used by millions of consumers are the plethora of restaurant reviews sites.
There is no doubt that when used wisely by a business, online restaurant review sites bring 3rd party credibility which translates to CONVERSATION, which usually will bring in new customers. Isn’t that really the goal? To bring new customers, right? So how does a restaurant biz use these online reviews sites to their advantage?
The first thing you need to do is determine which ones are showing up in the first few pages of the SERP’s. With so many review sites now business can handle monitoring them all, but you want to be sure to know which ones are being found by searchers online.
So we did a little research. Hopefully this will point you in the right direction and save you a little time or at least get your “marketing/brand management” creative juices moving.
What I’m about to share with you is just the result of a little poking around and putting everything in a spreadsheet to make connections and see relevance. You can decide what you want to do with this info.
I used Google (there’s no arguing why right?), and typed in “Top Restaurant Review Sites”, and then “Top 10 Restaurant Review Sites” and took notes on all 1st page search results. Then using these two keyword phrases added modifiers to the end like: “New York”, “Miami”, “San Francisco”, “Los Angeles”, “Montreal”, “Toronto” and “Vancouver”. Noted all results in a spreadsheet to see which ones root url’s kept showing up on the first page results. Then went to alexa.com and quancast.com for traffic statistics of each site in this final list.
Here are the TOP 11 RESTAURANT REVIEW SITES in North America. (Why 11? Because I am tired of “Top 10” Lists 
They are listed in the order of how frequent they showed up on all search results for my searches.
SIDENOTE: This could be totally different for your searches – especially since many localize search results today are showing different results depending on your IP address.
Beside each website, I’ve noted their approximate monthly unique visitors in the United States – No pity party against Alexa and Quantcast for missing Canadian stats. We Canadians are always forgotten 
Anyways, DRUM ROLL PLEEEZE…
- Gayot.com (115 000/mth)
- TripAdvisor.com (4.7 million/mth)
- Yelp.com (4.8 million/mth)
- Zagat.com (217 000/mth)
- Epicurious.com (2.1 million/mth)
- Chowhound.Chow.com (1.1 million/mth)
- About.com (43.3million/mth)
- 10Best.com (368 000/mth)
- SanDiegoRestaurants.com
- RestaurantSpy.com
- RealEats.com
What I suggest you do is the same for your local area using your local modifiers (location) and even (type of restaurant). Find what review sites keep showing up in the first page results and then make a plan of action to get your business involved in those online conversations.
One business I know invested in a laptop and Wi-Fi for their restaurant and had their servers at the end of the service ask how their table found everything…? If they seemed like they enjoyed themselves they let them know that if they were willing to add a review to a “such and such” site on the laptop before they left that the restaurant that they would give them a $25 gift card which they could use during their next visit.
Huge win-win! This idea contains Robert Cialdini’s “reciprocal agreement” strategy and gives the customer an ethical bribe, secures future business…all I can say is “Wow!”.
The customer is most likely going to give it a great review. They will secure a return visit through the gift card. What a brilliant way to make getting tons of positive online reviews from your customers before even leaving the premises. Totally awesome idea!
At minimum you want to monitor these review sites and whenever someone reviews your business (good or bad) be sure to add a comment, thanking them for their review. This alone can swing many new customers to your restaurant over others. Also, learn how to handle yourself if you happen to get a negative review by reading “How NOT to Handle an Online Reputation Management Crisis“.
That’s my 2cents for today!
Let us know what you think below…? How do you manage your brand online? How are you dealing with local online reviews of your restaurant? Do have any tips that are working for you that could help another restaurant…? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
One Response to “Online Cafe-Shaped Conversations”
Great article Dat. We posted about Yelp last week to raise awareness for restaurateurs who are not as tech savvy. It’s great how you expanded on that topic.
Owners really need to be aware of these services and get out there and see what people are writing about their establishment. Depending on what they find, these sites can be used for publicity or as an eye opener.