How would you go about advertising a restaurant online? I'd love to hear all suggestions and tips everyone has here.
My first priority would be geographic SEO. Harp heavily on positioning the restaurant along with major cities ( [type of food] restaurant - serving [city], [city], [city] and [city], [state]). Also, shoot for searches involving popular tourist draws in the area. Someone looking to visit in order to enjoy a tourist trap will need a place to eat too
I would advertise on the website of your city (or closest major city) and local newspapers website. As said, geographic seo would be great as well.
Agreed with drig, known by a people outside your country of your restuarant through search engines doesn't help you too much. I also think it's a waste of money to promote your restaurant website. The only thing you need to is to make your local citizens know your restaurant.
May be an idea to also offer coupons - 5% off etc at restaurant.com and the like. People searching your area would be attracted to the idea of saving money/getting a bargain.
A good idea can be to get yourself listed on a tourism website related to that region where the restaurant is. Also, signing up with an affiliate which provides restaurant reservation can help a lot. This way, you'll start getting regular bookings from websites for the restaurant.
Depending on what type of restaurant it is, simply making it more interactive can be effective in drumming up business. For example, if there are a lot of offices near the restaurant, and it's a type where delivery is offered, allow customers to order online directly from their office, pay online, etc. and then distribute flyers to various businesses / offices with a coupon and announcing the new online ordering. If you're more of a sit-down full-service restaurant, there are probably a lot of creative options, but it would be good to at least know the type of restaurant first (marketing a bar and grill, for example, would be pretty different than a 4 star restaurant).
To try to get the tourist traffic. Get listed with the chamber of commerce in your area. Try to exchange links with any sites tourists may be looking at. Make sure these are visible, recomendation style links. this can include, Hotels, recreational activites, clubs that serve tourists. etc. Many people research an area before they travel, be on thier list.