Turning your passion for food into a catering business is an exhilarating journey.
From the aroma of your freshly baked pastries at a wedding reception to the smiles and satisfied nods from guests tasting your creations for the first time—it’s a dream come true for anyone with a love for the catering industry.
However, amid the excitement and creativity, there lies a significant challenge—marketing your business effectively.
How do you connect with those needing your services, especially when competing against numerous other caterers? SEO is the answer.
SE-What?
S-E-O. Search Engine Optimization.
Just as a recipe requires specific ingredients mixed in the right amounts and cooked for the right time, your website must combine elements like keywords, backlinks, and content optimization to rank well.
We now live in a world where almost every decision is made online. Looking for a great roast chicken recipe? Google search. What about a great catering company for your wedding? Google search.
Now, consider how often you scroll down to the 7th or 8th result. What about moving on to page 2? Not likely. So, if you’re looking to attract the bride-to-be, you need to be in the top position of search. That’s what SEO can do for you.
Here is a basic overview of the ingredients needed to create a delicious SEO strategy:
- Technical SEO: The technical aspects of a website, from loading times to site maps. This includes ensuring a website is designed so search engines can easily access, crawl, and index its content.
- On-Page SEO: This is all about your site’s content. Do you have a blog section with carefully written articles that use the right keywords throughout? Are your meta descriptions, URLs and internal links optimized for search?
- Off-Page SEO: Just as a restaurant might gain recognition through reviews and word-of-mouth recommendations, a website strengthens its position in search engine rankings through links from other sites and social media mentions.
The truth is, there is so much to say about each of these elements that could never be covered in one article. Fortunately, we already have many related articles and videos to guide the way, which I’ll link to throughout.
How to grow a catering business using technical SEO
Technical SEO doesn’t need to be, well, too technical. Often, all you’ll need is a bit of common sense. Think about what you find frustrating when browsing the web. An article that takes too long to load, a page that doesn’t look “right” on your mobile phone, or a Homepage where you just can’t find the service you’re looking for. Ensuring a positive user experience on your website is important not only for attracting new customers but also for securing repeat business.
Here is a handy checklist to see how your site is performing in this department. These are mostly about providing a great user experience so visitors want to stay on your site and explore more.
Your technical SEO to-do list [to keep visitors happy]
- Is my website organized logically? (e.g., separate pages for different types of catering services)
- Does my site look as good on mobile as on a laptop?
- Does my site take less than 3 seconds to load? Go ahead and test your site speed using tools like Google PageSpeed Insights.
Now, let’s dig a little deeper. Depending on how tech-savvy you are, you may need to enlist the help of a professional here.
Your technical SEO to-do list [to keep Google happy]
- Is my site structured in a way that crawlers can move around easily? Put simply, your Homepage should link to Category Pages, and your Category Pages should link to individual sub-pages. Here’s a simple example.
- Have I submitted a sitemap to Google?
- Have all my important pages been indexed? You can check this by logging onto your Google Search Console, clicking on “URL Inspection” on the left and pasting in the URL you’d like to check.
- Have I installed a secure socket layer (SSL) certificate? When you open your website, does the “lock” icon appear?
- Check your Robots.txt file to see if you’re not accidentally hiding important pages from Google.
How to grow a catering business using on-page SEO
As mentioned, on-page SEO has more to do with the content or words on your site. From your Homepage to Category Pages to your blog section, you need the right words to tell Google what your page is all about.
Your on-page SEO is a bit like building a puzzle. Puzzles consist of hundreds, sometimes thousands, of individual pieces that, when put together, form a clear picture.
In the same way, Google crawlers put each word on your page together to get a complete picture of what the page is about. Once it has a good understanding, it can match your page to a person’s search query.
For example, if our bride-to-be searches “catering ideas wedding” and you happen to have a blog article entitled “10 Catering Ideas For a Memorable Wedding” using all the right keywords, Google will see you as a perfect match and display your article in her search results.
This means that 1) you need to know what potential customers are searching for to create the right content, and 2) you need to know exactly what keywords to include in the content.
1. Keyword Research
Who would’ve thought that keyword research is essential for a successful catering business? It involves finding out what words or terms your potential clients are searching for. This would be a good time to stop and read our article explaining the process, specifically tailored for catering businesses: Catering keywords that will get you clients.
2. Adding the right words
Okay, you’ve come up with a list of article ideas and now need to get down to writing them.
But how will you know what words or puzzle pieces to use? The good news is that you can get pretty close just by writing a helpful article that answers the person’s search query.
The next step is to search for the keyword and scan through the top 10 articles that appear. Take note of common headings or questions that are answered, and try to include them in your article.
Why would you want to “copy” another writer’s work? Becuase this is the type of info that Google feels has answered the search query best. So by mimicking their article structure, you have a better chance of ranking.
Note that I use the word “copy” here loosely. You need to strike a good balance between giving Google what it wants and creating a helpful and downright awesome article. So once you’ve “mimicked” a top article, ask yourself, “What can I add to improve it?”.
Maybe it’s time for some honest reflection at this point. Content writing works. It is worth the time and effort you’ll invest in it. But let’s be honest: if you’re running a catering business, it’s highly unlikely you have the time to knock out articles. If you do, or maybe have a member of your team to assist, great. If not, you want to partner with the right people who care about your success.
Batlinks.io cares. Becuase your success means our success. So if you choose to outsource your content work, get in touch and let’s see if we’re a good match. From keyword research to the complete article, we’ve got you covered so you can focus on creating fab dishes.
Your on-page SEO to-do list
- Conduct keyword research
- Create new blog articles targeting these keywords
- Optimize existing articles or pages
- Make sure your URLs are optimized. Here’s an example of a good and bad URL slug. As a general rule, only use the target keyword.
| Target keyword: catering menu wedding Bad: gourmetgrub.com/blog/10-best-catering-menu-for-an-unforgettable-wedding Good: gourmetgrub.com/blog/catering-menu-wedding |
- Edit the meta title and description when publishing to the site. Ideally, a meta title shouldn’t be longer than 60 characters, and a meta description not more than 160. Want a trick of the trade that not many people know about? Insert your target keyword in both at the beginning. For example:
| Title: Catering Menu Wedding: 10 menus for an unforgettable wedding Description: Catering menu wedding packages that delight your guests. Explore our elegant and delicious options. |
- Add internal links from blog pages to your main pages or between blog articles. This helps to boost the rankings of the target pages and increase your website’s crawl efficiency, which enables Google to find and rank your articles much faster.
- Forget the list and visit our content service page instead.
How to grow a catering business using off-page SEO
The most important ingredient in off-page SEO is link building.
If you’re new to Search Engine Optimization, the term “link building” and all the various strategies could leave you feeling very, very confused.
Backlinks are when another site includes an external link in their content to your site. Google sees the link as proof that your site/article is awesome and worth linking to. The more backlinks you get, the higher you’ll rank in search.
For catering companies, building relationships with local businesses can be particularly beneficial. Collaborating with nearby event venues, florists, and photographers can lead to valuable backlinks and increased visibility within your community.
Oh, and the higher the Domain Authority of the site, the more weight the backlink carries. So you can get thousands of low-quality sites to link back to you, and it won’t move the needle. (and could very well get you penalized). For this to be effective, you need to do it right.
Here is a simplified breakdown of each link-building strategy:
Guest posting:
You contact a website to ask if you can write a guest post on their site. They say yes (and sometimes ask for a fee). You write the article about a catering topic and include a link to your site.
Simple enough. While nothing stops you from doing this yourself (except limited time and energy), you could outsource it to the experts. For a deeper understanding of the process, see what our guest posting service entails.
Link insertions:
Link insertions are links that are added to existing articles on relevant websites. Here’s the low down on this link insertions.
3-way link exchange:
A 3-way link exchange is when three different sites link to one another in a way where there is no reciprocal linking between two of the three sites. Confused? Here’s why a 3-way link exchange is awesome.
HARO:
The strategy works through a website called connectively.us. Journalists post queries each day, and you can sign up to answer them. If they quote you in their article, they’ll include a link to your website.
But is it worth all the effort? Does backlinking really work? See for yourself.
Conclusion
There are several ways to grow your catering business, but don’t overlook a simple but powerful strategy like SEO. If you want to see an increase in your catering sales, you need to be seen online. While posting stunning photos on Instagram or other social media platforms can be effective, SEO is a far more targeted approach.
But it does take time. So, if time isn’t something you have a lot of, consider teaming up with an SEO company with a proven track record. We don’t just talk the talk – we want you to succeed. Here’s what we can do for you.