6 digital tools for your restaurant

Restaurants need a digital presence to grow and expand, because people now look for places to eat online. Six digital tools are a good place to start: Google Business Profile, Google Ads, Google Analytics 4, Hootsuite, Mention and Tripadvisor.

You need to meet that demand by creating digital channels for your business. That means putting your main information online and using the tools and resources available to get noticed.

Keep in mind that the digital transformation of your business is not an option but an obligation. Otherwise, you'll miss great opportunities and risk losing customers to competitors who are easier to find.

The most obvious digital tools are social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram or X (formerly Twitter), or an intranet to keep all your staff connected. However, there are several others.

The six tools below do three jobs that every local business has online, not just restaurants: getting found (Google Business Profile and Google Ads), understanding what works (Google Analytics 4), and looking after conversations and your reputation (Hootsuite, Mention and Tripadvisor). Choose the ones that fit your business's needs.

1. Google Business Profile

Google is by far the most used search engine, so it's often the first place people look for somewhere to eat. It also offers many useful tools for businesses, from Docs and Slides to Maps and Search.

One of the most valuable for a restaurant is Google Business Profile (previously Google My Business). It's free and lets you list your restaurant on Google Search and Maps with its name, address, opening hours, photos and menu, so potential customers can find you easily. You can also reply to reviews, post offers and events and, depending on your setup, take bookings or online orders.

To get started, create or claim your restaurant's profile on Google Business Profile and fill in as much information as you can. Keep your hours and menu up to date: for many diners, your profile is their first impression of your restaurant.

2. Google Ads

Attracting customers is the main objective of many businesses that start using digital tools, and Google Ads, also from Google, is a perfect platform for it.

With Google Ads, you can advertise your restaurant so it appears among the first results on Google, labelled as sponsored, when people search for what you offer.

Just think about how many times you've looked for something on Google and clicked one of the first results. Most of the time you don't look much further, which is why this position is so powerful.

But how do you use it?

Sign up on the Google Ads website, choose your goal and follow the steps to create your first campaign. For a restaurant, a Search campaign is a sensible place to start, and location targeting lets you focus your ads on people in and around your area.

Google Ads is a very useful tool for your restaurant: it drives traffic to your website and helps turn those visits into bookings and sales.

3. Google Analytics 4

If you have a website for your business, this tool is for you. Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is Google's free analytics platform, which replaced Universal Analytics in 2023. It's one of the most useful ways to understand how people find your website and what they do there.

Link it to Google Search Console and you can also see the Google searches that brought people to your site, as well as the pages they visit most. This valuable data helps you choose the right messages and know which strategies bring more bookings and sales. For example, with booking tracking set up, you can see whether people who visit your menu page go on to book a table.

Create an account and add the Google tag to your website to start seeing results. You can get started on the Google Analytics website.

4. Hootsuite

Hootsuite is a useful tool for restaurant owners, or whoever manages your social media, for several reasons. It brings your social media profiles together in one place, so you can schedule and publish posts across them, answer messages from a single inbox and see how your posts perform.

It also lets several members of your team work in the same account, and its higher plans add features such as content approvals. If you need ideas for what to post, read our guide to content marketing for restaurants.

Hootsuite no longer offers a free plan, but you can try it for free before choosing a paid plan. You can find out more on the Hootsuite website.

5. Mention

Knowing what people are saying about your restaurant in real time is essential, because you'll be ready to answer a bad review or thank someone for a good one as soon as it's posted. This helps you build customer loyalty and engagement.

Mention, now part of Agorapulse, is a monitoring tool that alerts you when your restaurant is mentioned across the web and social media. You can also follow your competitors or other keywords that interest you.

As in any other business, replying to bad reviews at the right time can minimise the negative effect they have on your audience, and that is why this tool is so powerful for a restaurant.

Mention is a paid service with a free trial. You can find it on the Mention website.

6. Tripadvisor

Tripadvisor is a platform known worldwide for finding and reviewing restaurants. Having a presence on Tripadvisor is essential if you want reviews and the chance to reply to them, and it builds trust in your community.

For this reason, a good reputation on this platform is essential to gain trust and attract potential customers, whether you run a neighbourhood café or offer an innovative dining experience.

Tripadvisor also recognises businesses that earn consistently great reviews with its Travellers' Choice award, which replaced the Certificate of Excellence. Winners are among the top 10% of listings, based on the quality and quantity of reviews over a 12-month period, and the badge is a free way of promoting your business.

Claiming your listing is free, but you can't control everything people say there, so you need to know how to deal with bad reviews.

Once you've claimed it, Tripadvisor's free tools for owners let you update your details and photos, reply to reviews and see insights into how your listing is performing.

You can claim your listing on Tripadvisor's page for business owners.

Start with a free Google Business Profile and add the other tools as your restaurant grows. If you'd like help setting them up or running your campaigns, our digital marketing team can help.