12 February 2010
Top Dining Guides to Market Your Restaurant
Posted by Crystal under: News .
These days, when diners look for restaurants, they search online, using a multitude of online guides, review sites, and search engines. Most online guides provide customers with relevant results according to individual search criteria, some of them capture the community vibe of existing online groups and blogs, and others provide ratings and expert advice. Dining guides allow customers to search thousands of restaurants to meet their individual needs. It is absolutely critical for restaurant operators to make sure his/her restaurant is listed in major online guides and directories:
AmericasGreatRestaurants.com provides a listing of restaurants in major US cities, categorizing them by neighborhood, cuisine and price. The guide also features chefs, experts’ musings on cooking methods and recipes, and provides quick links to top lists, such as Zagat review. The guide offers a wealth of information about special events, money saving offers, and features dining establishments that offer movies and shows.
Yelp is a popular social networking and review site, providing ideas about top restaurants, shopping, night life, and entertainment. It’s an online urban city guide that summarizes user reviews and recommendations to help consumers find great places to eat, shop, drink and relax. Yelp is one of the most trafficked restaurant reviews sites: as of December 2009, more than 26 million people visited Yelp in the past 30 days. Yelp’s visitors have written over 9 million local reviews.
BooRah.com markets itself as the personalized review guide for consumers to find great restaurants. Site’s algorithm automatically summarizes a collection of online reviews from bloggers, professional critics and consumers, and allows consumers to search based on their personal preferences. As a restaurant owner, you can setup a free account to post offers, photos, and menus, message customers, and track reviews on your restaurant.
HealthyDiningFinder.com promotes healthier menu options. HealthyDiningFinder’s professionals work with restaurants and analyze menus for nutritional content. The guide then publishes dietitian approved menu items that range from fast food to fine dining. The guide also promotes participating restaurants and provides free publicity for them.
Fodor’s uses worldwide team of over 700 travel writers to provide consumers with useful information, ranging from shopping, dining, hotel, to culture recommendations. The site also provides guide books and other insights to help people plan their trips, find cool restaurants while on vacation, and so on.
Gayot provides customers with rated restaurant reviews, reviews for the world’s best hotels, shops and cultural attractions. The site reviews are written by restaurant critics and experts in food, travel and lifestyle. Even though Gayot initially started with restaurant reviews only, it now covers a large variety of topics, such as wine, spas, cookbooks, fashion, luxury resorts, movies, and even automobiles.
America’s Cuisine.com provides diners with a wealth of information for restaurants in major US cities: users view menus and wine lists, get info on catering and banquets, and so on. For each restaurant, the site provides quick overview, such as hours, type of cuisine, attire, description of restaurant, chef’s biography. For a small additional fee, your restaurant can be featured on your city’s home page.
Online dining guides pull and summarize restaurant reviews from other review sources across the web. They provide consumers with time critical information, allowing them to find good ideas for places to go out to eat. Online dining guides are a valuable venue both for consumers and restaurants. Participation in many of these guides is likely to produce documented results for your restaurant by increasing your reservations rates, catering bookings, and party requests.
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