Capitalize on Increased Holiday Search Volume
November 11, 2009
People in the U.S. are beginning to research their Thanksgiving dining options online. Google insights shows that the annual spike in search volume for Thanksgiving restaurants has begun, with the highest search volume occurring in Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey and Colorado. The top five thanksgiving-related searches are shown in the table below:
What should a restaurant do to attract these searchers? If open for the Thanksgiving holiday, post a distinct page on the website that clearly lists hours of operation, links to online reservation portal, directions to the restaurant and the menu offerings for the day. The Inverness Hotel website, The Fort and Villa Mosconi have specific pages already posted on their websites. To further market Thanksgiving dining, a restaurant could set up a pay-per-click campaign that was targeted to searchers located within their state, metro area or even within a particular radius of their location. Facebook is also a great marketing option because of the ability to add events to company pages and the powerful advertising platform that Facebook offers.
Another study, conducted by HitWise, shows that the search traffic for holiday recipes and menus is also on the rise. Consider posting a few recipes or a video of the chef preparing a holiday favorite to capture these searchers, if this material is available or can be created soon. This type of link bait can be re-purposed in social media venues; for example, a video could be uploaded to YouTube and the recipes could be posted on the restaurant’s Facebook page.
Bottom line? A restaurant needs to get creative this year and utilize all the options available to maximize holiday revenues. Taking advantage of every online venue to market the restaurant and its unique offerings is smart business, plain and simple.
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