When it comes to finding the best restaurant reviews, there are a few key sites that you should be aware of. Google My Business, Facebook, Yelp, TripAdvisor, Zomato, OpenTable, Zagat, and The Infatuation are all popular review sites that can help you get an idea of what customers think of your restaurant. Google My Business is the most important site for restaurants as it allows you to appear in Google Maps searches and makes it easier for customers to find you. Yelp is one of the best-known review sites and dominates search rankings.
Facebook is also a great website for a social media marketing strategy and can help you reach a huge, targeted audience with good practices. Zagat is one of the oldest and best-known restaurant rating and review websites. Zomato, formerly known as Urbanspoon, is another popular and frequently visited restaurant review site. Customers can also make reservations through Zomato once they have found a restaurant.
Foursquare is a business review site and app that lists several businesses, including restaurants. The Infatuation is owned by Zagat, so they show similar ratings and create restaurant guides. A Harvard Business School study found that even a one-star increase in Yelp ratings could increase revenues by 5-9%, especially for independent restaurants rather than chains. While Yelp may be the most popular review site for restaurants in the United States, TripAdvisor is increasingly used thanks to its marketing boost and better user experience.
Google is the number 1 site in terms of global Internet traffic with 3.5 billion searches performed per day. Listing your restaurant on Google My Business opens it up to a huge potential audience. Locations that change their Google My Business profile rating from 3.5 to 3.7 stars see 120% conversion growth. Yelp has more than 178 million unique monthly visitors on mobile and desktop devices.
Yelp's “ask the community” feature is a great way to use UGC to answer common customer questions and create social proof at the same time. As the most widely used social media platform, Facebook has more than 2.6 billion monthly active users. You may already be using a Facebook page to promote your restaurant business on social media channels. First, make sure all your company details and contact information are up to date. TripAdvisor may focus on travel-based experiences but today it's known as a restaurant review site. You may notice that popular restaurants often display TripAdvisor badges and stickers on their premises to prove their approval.
TripAdvisor has an average of 463 million monthly visitors and some of the keywords that attract the most traffic to the site are “restaurants near me” and “food near me”, making it an essential review site to monitor and optimize. With an average of 11.2 million monthly users, Zomato claims to have 1 million restaurants listed on its site. While it's not Yelp or Google My Business, it's worth paying attention to the site in case your business is gaining ground. With 50 million monthly active users, Foursquare allows people to leave brief tips on different areas or establishments. DoorDash has 18 million users with 28% considering themselves monthly users. Upon receipt of your shipment, customers are asked to give it a 5-star rating in the app and can also leave a comment if they wish. Founded in October 2004 in San Francisco, California, Yelp is the go-to site for diners looking to discover great places to eat.
The site has a wide range of business categories but food, restaurants, nightlife and bars are the sectors in which Yelp has made its name. Social media statistics from restaurants show that Facebook is also popular with customers when choosing a place to eat with 72% using the platform to make gastronomic decisions. Tripadvisor has left an indelible mark on the hotel and hospitality industry but it's also having an impact on restaurants. Chicago-based Grubhub is an online food ordering and delivery marketplace that connects diners to takeout restaurants. Formerly owned by Yelp, Eat24 was a leading food delivery and collection service with a network of more than 30,000 restaurants in more than 1,500 cities. Seamless is an online food ordering service that allows users to order food delivery and takeout from restaurants through its website or mobile application suite. The company is also owned by Grubhub which has more than 115,000 businesses in 2,200 US cities. OpenTable allows customers who use its online restaurant reservation system to share their dining experience so this is a place you should monitor. Approximately 24 hours after diners eat at your restaurant they receive an email from OpenTable inviting them to give feedback on their experience.
Gayot uses a 20-point scale and his reviews include not only the food but also decor, service and cost.
