Jeff Woelker : Chicago SEO, SEM, and Social Media Consultant

As it’s now summer in Chicago, there’s plenty of opportunities to dine al fresco and I’ve been looking for new and fun places to eat. The one thing I don’t find is actual restaurants ranking well in search engines for common phrases: wrigleyville al fresco dining, restaurants with outdoor seating in chicago, or outdoor dining in the loop. The majority of sites which are ranking well are listing websites (Yelp, Metromix, CenterStage, etc.). Herein lies a real opportunity for a local restaurant to take advantage of this situation with some simple changes. Below are five tips any local restaurant could use to improve their rankings:

Page title, party of 65. Your table is ready.
Although brand recognition is something to strive for, especially in a competitive market like Chicago, you can’t rely on that alone. Unless you are Starbucks or Alinea, people are probably just looking for a lakeview mexican restaurant. You have to give your users, as well as search engines some context as to what your restaurant is, who you are, and who you serve. And you only have 65 characters to do it in. I know, that doesn’t sound like much, but it’s more than you think. Here’s some examples below of what I’m talking about:

Instead of “Mom’s Diner“, say “Mom’s Diner – Quality Food in Northcenter Since 1935“. That’s only 52 characters, you still have about 13 or so left.

Here’s another one. Instead of “The Road House Bar“, say “The Road House Bar – Roudiest Bar in the South Loop and West Loop“. That’s 65 characters. This can be as much a part of your branding as the design of your website itself. Remember, Google is only as smart as the information you provide it.

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Just an awesome use of technology and social settings. Here’s a bit of explanation of what’s going on:

ZYGOTE is a lightweight inflated ball, illuminated from within, that responds to pressure applied to its surface. Interacting with the ball is simple: punch it, bounce it, squeeze it, or tap it and the ball’s internal LEDs react instantaneously.

NUday-ZYGOTE from todo.to.it.

No matter how often you talk with a client or how in the loop your agency is, there will always be things that slip through the cracks in terms of information coming from the client. Whether it’s “Oh, I forgot to tell you. Joe’s been transferred to Omaha” or “Man, you guys should have talked with us last week. We had a bunch of fires to put out.” Each one of these is a lost opportunity to assist the client and improve your existing relationship, but it’s also lost revenue for your agency. Well, there are many ways to stay more in the loop as a result of information constantly being posted online, specifically your clients.

The following are three ideas of how you can stay more in the loop, better service your clients, and improve your bottom line at the same time.

Job alerts
You’re probably thinking, what am I going to learn from job alerts from my client? Well, the first thing you’ll learn is whether they are going to be a client much longer or not. As marketing is often the first place cuts are made, when your client stops hiring, it often means their bottom line is flattening or starting to decline and hence your relationship may come into jeopardy. Second, it will clue you into things that are going on within the organization that you are often not privileged to as a third party. Are they hiring in sales or marketing? Product development or HR? Are there trends or is this an ongoing thing? For example, if you are constantly seeing the same position come up within the marketing department, does it mean the department is growing or do they just have a lot of turnover? Do you need to make other inroads and obtain other client champions in case your client contact is transferred, laid off, fired, etc.?

Ok, you get the point, so how do you do this now? Well, the first place I would start is:

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