Getting Your Restaurant Online
Whether you’re a beginner or a pro, when it comes to getting your restaurant more online exposure, it can seem a little daunting. It’s actually not that hard. With just a few moments of your time, you can establish accounts with a number of online sites that will provide your restaurant more online exposure. NetWaiter can help walk you through the basics:
Accepting Orders Online
This is easy. If you’re considering NetWaiter, or already have an account, a fully customized and branded online ordering site is provided for your restaurant. In addition, a custom mobile site is also provided, giving customers maximum accessibility to your restaurant and menu. Best of all - it’s easy to get started.
Make a Name for Yourself and Get Connected
This is important. If customers become more aware of your restaurant online, it will drive sales, both online and in-house. Also, if you don’t monitor your online presence, you won’t know what is being said about your restaurant - good or bad!
While the Internet evolves daily, every restaurant can benefit by joining a few major websites. Here’s an overview:
Yelp!
Driven by actual customers, who can add information, photos, and reviews of your restaurant.
Google Places Maintained by Google (a little company you may have heard about?). This is where a lot of customers will land when doing a web search for your restaurant based on name, type of food, and/or area.
Insider Pages/Citysearch
Quickly growing as a competitor to Yelp! Insider Pages is more of a “listing”
service, while Citysearch contains a lot of what Yelp! has and more.
Urbanspoon
A basic listing/review website with an easy to use interface. They were
one of the first
to have an iPhone application and are starting to get into online reservations.
Foursquare
Foursquare is quickly growing as the mobile “check in” app.
Users can “check in” to your restaurant when they’re physically
there and let their friends know what they’re up to. As a restaurant
owner, you can offer them discounts/perks for checking-in and/or being a frequent
customer.
We at NetWaiter would like your restaurant to prosper as much as possible. So, we’ve put together a step-by-step guide to setting up an account with each of the above sites. Before getting started, however, we have some general tips:
- Always provide at least one image of your restaurant - Make sure
it’s clear, and if it's a photo, preferably one taken during the day (unless your restaurant shines at
night). This is what customers are going to see next to your business name,
so it’s gotta get their attention.
- Try to set aside a little time to get this done “right”
- and once it’s done, it’s done. You will need to provide information
such as your business hours, types of payments you accept, what type of parking
is available, etc. This data is vital for customers who are searching for the
best possible restaurant experience.
- Keep your NetWaiter URL handy - you will want this for most accounts.
This will point customers directly to your NetWaiter site, allowing them to
instantly view your menu and order online. This URL can be found by logging
into your NetWaiter Management Console and visiting Site Design -> Promoting
Your Site. You’ll see your URL under the “Links” section
of the page.
Yelp!
- Visit https://biz.yelp.com/
- Click the “Create your free account now” button and follow the prompts.
- When prompted for your restaurant's website URL, provide the NetWaiter URL you looked up earlier.
Google Places
- Visit http://places.google.com/business
- If you have a Google Account, great! Go ahead and sign in with your email/password. If you don’t have a Google Account, click the “Create an account now” button and follow the prompts.
- Once signed in, find the button named “List your business”. Click it and follow the prompts.
- When prompted for your restaurant's website URL, provide the NetWaiter URL you looked up earlier.
Insider Pages
- Visit http://www.insiderpages.com/businesses/new
- Either login with Facebook (if you have a Facebook account) or fill out their “Add A New Business” form and then follow the prompts.
- When prompted for your restaurant's website URL, provide the NetWaiter URL you looked up earlier.
Citysearch
- Visit http://national.citysearch.com/profile/add_business
- Click the “Create New Account” button and follow the prompts.
- When prompted for your restaurant's website URL, provide the NetWaiter URL you looked up earlier.
Urbanspoon
- Visit http://www.urbanspoon.com/
- Find the “Add a Restaurant” link on the left side, about half-way down the page. Click it.
- Follow the prompts to get your restaurant listed.
- When prompted for your restaurant's website URL, provide the NetWaiter URL you looked up earlier.
Foursquare
- Visit http://foursquare.com/business/venues
- Scroll down the page part-way and click “Search and claim your venue” on the right.
- If you find your business on the list, click on the name and then choose the “Claim here” link on the right.
- If your business is not yet listed, click on the “Add a new venue to foursquare” link at the bottom of the list page.
- Follow the prompts to get your restaurant listed.
- When prompted for your restaurant's website URL, provide the NetWaiter URL you looked up earlier.
