At some point in your catering career, your expertise as a professional caterer will overlap with the ins and outs of the SEO world.
And there’s simply no two ways about it. A catering business, like any other professional service, needs to understand what its customers are searching for to connect with them on the digital front.
Sure, the quickest way to a man’s heart has always been through his stomach, but with so much competition out there, your business needs to be visible for that internet searcher…
So here are some top tips for catering companies of all sizes to optimize their chances for success in 2024.
PS! We offer full-service SEO for catering companies. If you’d like to learn more, head over to this page to learn more.
Top 3 Hacks When Looking For Catering Keywords
Hack #1 Keyword Research
Keyword research means finding the search phrases that people use to search for something on the internet.
Simply typing the phrase “catering for” into the search bar of Google will give you a really good idea of what’s on people’s minds…
It turns out that people are searching for catering for weddings, groups of 30, 40, 50, or 100 people, office lunches, baby showers, and kid’s parties.
Great! Target those keywords and you’ll be making dough (Pun intended) all day long. Well, not exactly.
First and foremost, you need to identify relevant keywords for your business. For example, small businesses with one or two employees wouldn’t have the manpower to cater for a large corporate event or a group of 100 people.
So first of all, ask yourself:
Do my services line up with what these people are searching for?
If someone clicks on my website, will I realistically be able to fulfill their search intent (the reason they’re searching for a specific phrase)?
Try to find phrases that people are searching for and that you can fulfill, and target those keywords.
Hack #2 Target Realistic Keywords
The next step is to identify whether your list of keywords is realistic (this time in terms of ranking). Remember, search engines like Google prioritize pages that are most likely to satisfy the search intent of the internet user.
A website that has a long track record of producing content that makes internet users happy has a higher chance of placing in the top 10 search results, and these are the money pages. People usually only click on the top search results.
If you have a website that has one of those long track records and you’re known in the industry as a catering giant, then you can probably target any keyword you want. However, if you’re a relatively new business, and still looking to make a splash in the catering world, you need to set yourself realistic targets.
Here’s how to do it:
Begin by using a keyword research tool to figure out some key metrics for each of your search terms. These metrics include, but are not limited to:
KW Difficulty – This is a rating between 1 and 100. The higher the number, the harder it will be to rank in the top 10 for the given keyword.
Search Volume – This indicates the average number of searches worldwide for the specific phrase. The higher this number, the more people you’ll be reaching with this keyword.
Admittedly, this is an oversimplified way of looking at it. There’s quite a bit more that goes into figuring out which keywords to target. But prioritizing these two metrics will give you a good start.
Check out this video that will help you understand the ins and outs of effective keyword research:
This video shares creative hacks that any business can apply to its SEO strategy.
A rule of thumb would be to target keywords that are relative to your business but have a keyword difficulty of less than 10. If the KW has a traffic potential greater than 300, it will be worth trying to rank for the phrase.
Using Ahrefs, a well-known SEO platform, I checked some of the keywords we found in our Google Search, and here are the results:
Keyword: catering for 50 people
This keyword was the most popular to target. It has an average search volume of 600. But remember—each keyword also has a difficulty rating assigned to it. Just because there are, on average, 600 searches for this phrase each month, the likelihood of ranking high for this phrase is pretty slim.
The reason? Difficulty.
There is a KW difficulty of 36 assigned to this phrase. This means that good content alone simply won’t get you noticed by search engines. You’ll also have to invest in a well-thought-out SEO campaign to show Google that your pages are worthy.
A solid link-building campaign will help create a ‘buzz’ around your page, and Google will reward you for it. However, this specific phrase would need more than 47 links (depending on their strength) to rank well on results pages.
One way that an SEO campaign would be able to create the buzz you’re after is by setting up a guest post link-building campaign that will help you reach a wider audience of foodies.
The second example we have is for the search term ‘catering for baby shower.’
While there’s a lower search volume for this search term, there’s also a way lower difficulty associated with it.
“Catering for baby showers” would be a much better option to try ranking for. With a decent on-page SEO strategy and good-quality content, you’ll be noticed by Google in no time!
So now you have a basic idea of how to conduct keyword research – what’s next?
Hack #3 Create Quality Content
Understanding which search terms to try to rank for is just the first step. Now, optimize your service pages by using the phrase in your main heading and periodically throughout your page.
Make sure that Google understands you want to cater (again with the pun) to people planning baby showers. Use quality images where appropriate and accurate picture descriptions.
More than that, invest in a proper blog section.
Many people underestimate the value of a well-optimized blog section. The reality is that when a blog article ranks high on search engine results pages it will continue to send a stream of potential customers to your business.
Using a platform like Surfer SEO will help you understand what Google thinks will rank well.
It will give you certain parameters to stay within when writing your content, suggesting the number of words, the number of pictures to use, and how many times certain catering terms like ‘meal service’ or ‘main course’ need to appear within your article.
As you write your content while adhering to the content structure suggestions, your score will increase. The higher your content score, the more optimized your article.
Be careful not to over-optimize your blog by forcing too many catering keywords to the point that the content becomes unnatural. After all, you want to appeal to readers, not search algorithms only.
An article that adds real value to your reader’s lives will always do well.
SEO Help for Catering Companies
Catering services have a lot going on, and staying on top of their website’s SEO is probably one step too far for most.
Fortunately, there are affordable specialists out there who can take care of any SEO strategies, helping you gain a stronger domain rating, attract natural backlinks, and ultimately rank higher on the Search engine Results pages.
Batlinks.io is one such company—small enough to give you the personal service you crave (last pun, promise) but large enough to fully understand all the tricks of the SEO trade.
If you have a catering company and would like to learn more about how we can help you gain the online visibility you need to succeed, simply get in touch for a free video audit or fill out this form.