Blog

About

Careers

Contact

Solo's blog provides the resources that microbusinesses, solopreneurs, freelancers, and other super-small businesses need to start, operate, and grow.

Blog for starting, running, and growing your business | Solo.co

Blog - All Posts

In this article:\nWhy every restaurant needs an online menu\nKey features of an effective online menu\nUsing your online menu as a marketing tool\nImproving local SEO with your online menu\nUpselling with your online menu\nIn today’s increasingly online world, even the diviest of dive restaurants needs a robust online presence. Even if you pretend not to care about online reviews, people \nare\n leaving them for you—whether you have \nclaimed your online business profiles\n or not.\nIn addition, the first contact a lot of your customers are going to have with your restaurant is online, because over 9 out of 10 people search local businesses online before they visit them.\nYou need to but your best food \n(sic)\n forward, and your menu is the embodiment of your philosophy and business model. But simply throwing up a .pdf (or—gasp—an image) of your menu isn’t going to cut it. \nLet’s go over the reasons why.\nPeople want to know what to expect from your restaurant before they visit\nSome people enjoy surprises, but the vast majority of people searching for local places to eat want to know what they’re in for before they’ll spend a dime.\nYour menu, when properly constructed, designed, and made searchable, is the easiest way for customers to get an idea of what type of food you serve, how innovative or traditional you are in your approach to cuisine, and what variety of items they might be able to find.\nPotential customers are searching for specific menu items online\nRestaurants and food searches are the epitome of instant gratification. Sure, when people search for local businesses online, a significant portion of those searches result in purchases within the next 24 hours.\nHowever, when someone is searching “Vietnamese food near me,” chances are they are ready to eat RIGHT NOW and if you don’t show up well in that specific search, you’ll be out of luck.\nBut that’s not all. While tons of people search using the “(type of cuisine)+near me” search string, a significant portion of those searches are much more specific, as in the actual dish. \nThis can be as general as something like “noodles near me” or it can be as specific as “Pork cao lầu near me.” \nIf your menu is “non-searchable,” or in other words, if Google’s (or whatever other search engine customers use to try to find you) “spiders” can’t read your online menu and find specific search term results, you won’t ever show up in the top results when people search for your type of cuisine or those specific menu items online.\nThis is why you shouldn’t use a .pdf or image to post your menu online. There are ways to make .pdfs searchable by search engines, but it’s fiddly to do and the results are still marginal even if you take the time to do it. It’s better to build a proper HTML version of your menu.\nEven a simple, plain webpage with a detailed menu included as plain test will be more valuable to your business than a flowery, but unreadable and unsearchable image or .pdf menu.\nYour menu is useful, relevant content for marketing and SEO\nAs noted above, a searchable .pdf version of your menu is better than nothing, but you will rank higher in search engines if you build your menu with easily searchable text.\nSEO stands for “search engine optimization” and getting your menu in the proper format to be searched and ranked by search engines is the first step in improving your local SEO.\nRead more: \nLocal SEO: 15 free tips for better search rankings\nYour menu is part of “next level” info to complete Google and Yelp business profiles\nWhen people search local restaurants, the first thing they often look at are your Google and Yelp reviews, which often show up in the top search results.\nIf a search for local Mexican restaurants turns up your listing and your main competitor’s listing, the “next level” info and detail you include in your business profile on these review sites will be the determining factor.\nIf your competitor has a 4-star rating, lots of fresh reviews, complete info about the facilities and ambiance, \nhigh quality photography\n, \nand\n a full, search-engine-friendly menu—and you have a similar listing but \ndon’t\n include your menu—guess who is likely to get more customers’ business? \nThat’s correct… not you.\nGo deeper: \nThe top 5 things every small business should include in their Google Business listing\nIf you’re set up for online ordering, your menu is your primary sales and upsell tool\nWe’ve talked about how a search-engine-friendly menu can bring you more customers. Now let’s talk briefly about how a properly built menu can help you get more orders from those customers.\nIf you are set up for online ordering and/or delivery, you need to pay careful attention to how your online menu is constructed. Clear descriptions are a must, and professional photos of each item will take you to the next level. You can even add special offers or sale items depending on your online ordering platform.\nAbove all, double check at least weekly to ensure your online menu is 100% correct, or you’ll lose sales and repeat customers.\nEven if you have to build a specific menu for your online customers that is less complete but more reliable than your in-house menu, make sure people can actually purchase everything they find online.\nA good online menu can stand in for your in-house waitstaff and hint to your remote diners, “Are you ready for dessert?” or “I love our pear salad with that entree.”\nHere’s a good article on \noptimizing your online menu for online ordering\n.\nA great business profile on all the relevant review sites, including a robust and beautiful (and fully searchable) menu, will go a long way toward improving your online presence and attract more customers.\nSources:\n
\nhttps://blog.typsy.com/why-your-restaurant-menu-needs-to-be-onlineand-how-to-maximize-it\n

Why (and how) you need to put your restaurant’s menu online

In this article:\nMost businesses don’t claim their listings on popular review sites\nThey’re missing out on opportunities to attract and engage customers\nClaiming your business listings is free and surprisingly simple\nSomeone posted an online review about your business. Now what?\nAs we explained in other articles, we highly recommend responding to every review—positive, neutral, and negative. You can’t do that unless you first claim your \nonline business listings\n on popular review sites like Google, Yelp, and TripAdvisor.\nYou also can’t control how your business information appears if you don’t claim your listings, and worse yet—what if someone else claims your page? Plus, your listings will still exist whether or not you claim them. It just makes sense to claim what’s yours.\nman leaving online review on laptop for claim your business listings\nPlus, research shows that businesses that claim their listings on multiple online business reviews sites make more money!\nThe bad news about online review sites: \nOnly 33% of of all Yelp listings and 44% of Google listings have been claimed, and only 23% of businesses keep their listings on these sites current. \nThe good news about online review sites: \nClaiming your listings is free and easy. Claiming your listings already puts you ahead of most local businesses who ignore their online presence.\nLet’s walk through some of the basics for claiming your listings. \n1. Start with the claiming your listings on the biggest online review sites\nBefore claiming a page on every review site under the sun, it’s good to prioritize. For most local businesses, it’s most important to \nclaim your business on Google\n and \nYelp\n. It’s not hard to see why:\nGoogle:\nNearly half of Google’s 3.5 billion daily searches are local.\nThe search engine serves 2 billion active search devices every month.\nAbout 20% of Google searches are related to location (e.g. Google Maps). \nYelp:\nNearly 180 million people access Yelp reviews on desktop or mobile. \nCustomers have posted a whopping 163 million reviews on Yelp. \nIt’s not just for restaurants: People use Yelp to shop for products, find professional services, search for a salon nearby, and much more. \nStart by claiming your pages on these two behemoths. From there, \nclaim your business on Facebook\n, which ranks #3 nationally for local business traffic, and then move on to industry-specific sites like \nTripAdvisor\n (hospitality), and \nOpenTable\n (restaurants). \n2. Claim your business listings\nReady to claim your listings? It’s always free, but every site has its own unique process. Below, we’ve listed our step-by-step guides for claiming your pages on some of the major sites:\nGoogle My Business\nYelp\nFacebook\nTripAdvisor\nOpenTable\nFoursquare\nRefer to our \nfree business listings\n article for many more!

Start here to claim your free business listings on review sites like Google and Yelp

In this article:\nHow to claim and create your Bing business listing (2 ways)\nWhat you should do next\nBing currently holds around 3% of the market share for search engines, which may not seem like a lot. But when you consider the billions of people that do internet searches every day, that means that Bing still gets hundreds of millions of searches daily.\nDon’t limit the opportunities for your business by leaving your Bing listing unclaimed. Follow the simple steps below to get your business added to and claimed on Bing. \nHow to create and claim your Bing Places business listing\nLet’s get to it!\nStep 1: Log in to Bing\nThe first thing you need to do is create a Bing account, or sign in with your Google account (we recommend the latter as it will speed up the process). \nLogging in with Google will allow you to important any existing Google My Business listings that you own directly onto Bing without going through their verification process. Pretty sweet, right?\nGo to bingplaces.com to sign in or sign up. \n(Image)\n\nSign in with Google, if you are able to, otherwise, select one of the other options for signing in: Facebook, Microsoft, Work Account, or create one. \n(Image)\n\nWhen you get signed in, Bing will prompt you to finish setting up your profile, feel free to finish this by adding your phone number and email or just click save and move on. \n(Image)\n\nWhen you click save on your profile information, Bing will take you to a screen that allows you to import your business from Google or claim and add your business manually. Follow the steps below for each of these options. \nStep 2 (Option 1): Import your Google My Business listing to Bing\nIf you don’t own a Google My Business listing, or don’t have a Google account, then skip this step and go to Step 2 (Option 2). \nIf you do own your business’s Google My Business listing, this is the faster way of claiming your business listing on Bing. Click “Import from Google My Business Now.” \n(Image)\n\nA new window will then pop up from Bing and prompt you to continue to Google My Business. This window shows what you should do once you get to Google. \n(Image)\n\nMake sure you select the Google account that is associated with your Google My Business listing. \n(Image)\n\nClick “Allow” on the next screen to grant Bing access to your Google My Business listing. \n(Image)\n\nYou’ll then be brought back to Bing and prompted to “Continue.”\n(Image)\n\nBing will then show you that your business has successfully been imported into their directory. Your listing may show “Not verified” because Bing places each listing under review before publishing them. \n(Image)\n\nWhen you click “Go to dashboard” there will be a little sliding bar that shows you when your listing will be published. \n(Image)\n\nIn your dashboard, be sure to “Sync with Google My Business” so that whenever you update your Google list, your Bing listing will automatically get those updates too. \n(Image)\n\nYour Bing business listing is now done! Just wait for the review process to complete and your Bing listing will go live. \nStep 2 (Option 2): Manually claim or add a new Bing Places account for your business\nIf you don’t own your Google My Business listing or have access to the Google account that does, then select “Claim or add your business manually.”\n(Image)\n\nNext, fill out the information in the form provided: business type, country, and phone number OR business name and location. \n(Image)\n\nBing will do a search for your business in their directory. If it is in their directory, you’ll see your business listed and be given the option to claim your listing. If your business has ever had a name change or other information change, it may be outdated, so look for the best match and click “Claim and edit details.” \nIf you do see your business, we urge you to claim and edit it so you don’t create duplicate listings. \nIf none of the businesses displayed are yours, then click “My business is not listed in the search results.”\n(Image)\n\nBoth options will redirect you to the same form, but if you select a pre-existing business listing, then the information will already be filled out for you. So make edits to the existing information or add your new business information to your Bing listing. \nFirst, add your business name, phone number, and address (make sure these are the same that you use across all your online listings). \nIf you have a website, be sure to add that here too. \n(Image)\n\nNext, select the best category segment and category for your business. You can add multiple categories, and once you have these added, you will need to select a primary category. \nAdd your business description and click “Next.”\n(Image)\n\nNext, you will need to indicate whether or not Bing should show your address to customers. If you have a physical storefront where customers can come in to see you, then you should select “Yes.” This will help you show up better in Bing’s search results. \nIf you have a service area business where you go to your customer and are using a satellite office or employee’s home for your address, you should select “No” to hide the address. \n(Image)\n\nThen you will need to enter contact information for your business. This will have an email address option, so make sure you enter an email that customers can reach you with. \nYou can also enter information for the following social accounts:\nFacebook\nTwitter\nYelp\nTripAdvisor\n(Image)\n\nThen be sure to add plenty of photos to your Bing listing. Photos of your location, logo, and branding will be helpful for customers to recognize and find you. If you sell products or serve food, images of those would also be great to include here. \n(Image)\n\nNext, add your hours so customers will know when you are open and available. \n(Image)\n\nThe last section of your listing is for menus and pricing. If your business is a restaurant, be sure to include a link to your menu and online ordering if applicable. \nOnce that is done, click “Submit” to complete your Bing listing. Proceed to Step 3 to verify your listing.\n \n(Image)\n\nStep 3: Verify your business listing on Bing Places\nBing provides four options for verifying businesses in their directory: phone verification (by text or phone call), email, and mail. Phone verification will only be an option for your business if it was already listed on Bing and your address didn’t change. \nEmail will only be an option if you have are updating an existing listing and have an email on the domain of the listing’s website. For example, support@solo.co. \nProceed through each option to see how you can verify your business listing on Bing. \n1. Phone call\nWith this option, Bing will place an automated call to the phone number on your listing. They will provide a code that you will need to enter once you click “Verify now” and receive the call. \n(Image)\n\n2. SMS/text\nYou’ll only be able to do this option if you have the ability to receive text messages for your office line. Click “Verify now” to receive a text message to verify your Bing listing. \n(Image)\n\n3. Email\nEnter in an email address you have access to that is on your website’s domain. Then click “Verify now” to get an email to verify your Bing listing. \n(Image)\n\n4. Mail\nIf you are unable to complete any of the previous methods for verification, you’ll need to have Bing send you a piece of mail with a verification code. This can take 5-6 business days to reach you. \nBing will send the code by mail to the address you listed, so make sure you can receive mail at your address before doing this. \nWhen you receive the code, just log back into your Bing Places account and enter it on your business listing to finish your verification. \n(Image)\n\nFinished claiming your Bing business listing? Here’s what you should do next\nNow that your listing is complete on Bing, there’s a lot more that you can do to improve your online visibility. But don’t get intimidated—we have a couple of great guides with some free tips to help you improve your local search engine rankings. \nLocal SEO: 15 free tips for better search rankings\n\n25 free business listing websites every small or local business should be on\n\n

How to create and claim your Bing business listing

How to respond to bad reviews [with examples]

In this article:\nBenefits of DIY business photography\nHow to get started\nTaking awesome photos\nEditing your photos\nA picture is worth a thousand words\n…or so the old adage goes. But this can really ring true for your business. Photos are an important aspect of creating a brand and attracting new customers, especially with the visual nature of modern advertising methods on \nsocial media\n.\nProfessional business photography\n can get expensive though, so it doesn’t always make sense to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on a professional photo shoot (even if it may be worth it in the end).\nThat’s why you should know how to take your own business photos. Whatever type of business you own, you can benefit from DIY photos skills. We’ll walk you through some of these benefits and how to produce your own quality photos. \nBenefits of taking your own business photos\nThere are three main benefits of DIY business photography:\nIt’s cost-effective. Sure, it might cost a little bit initially to get the equipment you need to take the photos, but then you have it for life and can always rely on yourself moving forward. \nYou can work on your own time. You don’t have to work with a photographer’s schedule to take your business photos. You pick the time and determine when you want the photos to be done. You just have to hold yourself accountable. \nYou can make your photos look exactly how you want them to. You’ll have the ability to edit your own photos and pick the exact shots that you love. There won’t be any back-and-forth review process between you and a third party. \nIf all that sounds great to you, then read on to learn how to take your own photos and what you’ll need to get started. \nNot sure about taking your own photos? Check this out: \nTop 3 ways to get (and use) professional photos for your small business\nHow to get started in taking your own business photos\nThere’s a little bit more to taking a good business photo than just snapping a quick pic and being done with it (although sometimes it can be that simple). \nDetermine what kind of photos you want/need\nFirst, you’ll want to come up with a plan and determine the type of photos you need and what your goals are. What do you want customers to feel when looking at your photos? What message are you trying to get across?\nThese are some of the types of photos you might want to take for your business:\nBrand photos like your storefront, owners, and candids of products or services with customers\nProducts\nEmployees\nOffice or building photos to show off your space\nDepending on the types of photos you want to gather for your business, you might need different supplies to get started. \nGather the essentials\nAt the very least, you’re going to need the equipment to take the photos. This can be as simple as using your smartphone (many offer high-quality cameras built-in), or you can go out and purchase a nice digital SLR camera. \nHaving your own camera will allow you to get a little more creative with the style of photos that you can take. Different lenses and camera settings can help you find that perfect shot that you are imagining. \nIf you do want to purchase your own camera, one of the top-recommended professional cameras for creative photography is the Fujifilm X-T100, which you can currently get for under $400 at Walmart. \nIf you have a little more cash on hand, then you might want to consider getting a Nikon DLSR. These can run up to $3,000 or more when you add in different lenses, lighting, and other equipment. \nDon’t be intimidated by any technical camera talk though. You can still take professional quality photos with your phone if you’re on a tight budget. \nBeyond the camera, there may be a few other items you’ll want to make your photos stand out:\nLighting options (spotlights, umbrella lights)\nTripod for stabilization and creative angles\nBackdrops (solid white for product photos and employee headshots)\nTaking good photos\nWhen you’re ready to take your photos, keep these best practices in mind. \nSet the stage. Take the time to set up your “studio.” Set up your lighting, backdrop, camera angle, or any other props you need for the photos. \nUse the rule of thirds. This will always be applicable in photography. It draws the viewers’ eyes to the focal point of the image. This will help you to keep a clear subject.\nTake several photos testing different options. When you go back to look through your photos, you’ll want several different options to choose from. Testing different lighting setups, angles, and subjects. \nPost-production and editing your photos\nAfter you have taken your photos, you can take the final step in your DIY photo journey: editing. \nWe have one main rule when you reach this step: keep it simple. Most of the work of taking your business photos should be done in the photo-taking process. Editing should really only be done for minor touchups like brightening the photo and adjusting colors if necessary. \nIf you are creating an edgy piece of marketing material, you can get a little more creative with the style of your photos and effects. But as you are taking product, employee, brand, and office photos for your website and other media, simple is better. \nHere are a few free editing tools that you can use on your desktop to bring your photos to perfection:\nPhotoScape\nPicMonkey (this does have premium options as well)\nPixlr X Online Photo Editor\nAnd, if you’re taking photos with your phone, you might want to try some of these editing apps:\nAdobe Lightroom\nAdobe Photoshop Express\nPixlr\nNow you have the perfect photos to take your marketing to the next level. 

Do-it-yourself photography guide for small business owners

In this article:\nWhy your small business should be listed on Manta\nHow to add your business to Manta\nWhat you should do next\nManta is one of the largest online resources for small businesses. You should definitely keep this free listing site on your digital marketing checklist. \nManta’s directory gets millions of visitors each month, all searching for local services. Because of this, Manta is constantly working to improve its platform to better serve you and your customers. \nWhy get your business listed on Manta?\nIf we’ve said it once, we’ll say it again–you should list your business across several different online directories. That is a major benefit of using Manta, because it’s a free directory that is so easy to add your business to. \nAdding your business to several online directories helps send trust signals to the search engines as they verify your info across multiple authoritative sites, which helps you to rank higher in the local search results. \nBeyond that, Manta has some pretty cool capabilities for you to take advantage of:\nFree listings scan that allows you to check your NAP consistency across several directories (more on this later)\nDrive more customer traffic to your website\nPromote your small business\nConnect with other small businesses and share insights\nHow to add and claim your business listing on Manta\nLet’s get your business added to Manta. \nStep 1: Check to see if your business is on Manta and if it isn’t, add it\nOn every directory you add your business to, it’s important to check if there is already a listing for your business. Sometimes a previous owner or another employee may have created one, or the directory may have pulled data from another source. \nEither way, always check. \nGo to \nmanta.com\n and type in your business name and city. \n(Image)\n\nOn the next screen, if you see your business, click “Do you own this business?” That will automatically begin the claiming process. \n(Image)\n\nIf you don’t see your business in this list, click “Add Business” at the top of your screen. \nFill out the form on the next page, including the following information:\nCompany name\nCompany address\nWebsite\nPhone number\nClick “Add My Company.” \n(Image)\n\nStep 2: Update your business information on Manta. \nWhether you added your company just now or it already had a listing, you will then be brought to your business page and shown a screen that asks you to check your business information. Click “Yes” if your information is correct or “Edit Info” to edit your business information. \n(Image)\n\nNext, select a photo for your banner photo, or choose to upload your own later. These are usually pulled from your website if Manta has access to it. \n(Image)\n\nThen, add or check your website to make sure it is correct. Click “Yes, list this as my website” or “No, I don’t have a website.”\n(Image)\n\nThen, update your business hours and click “Yes, use these.”\n(Image)\n\nStep 3: Sign up for Manta\nAfter you’ve completed filling out your business information on Manta, you’ll be prompted to sign up so you can save your updates and publish your company. \nYou can connect with Facebook, Google, or register with your email. \n(Image)\n\nOptional Step: Check your online directory listings\nManta has a cool tool (very similar to Yext) that allows you to check several of your business’s directory listings across multiple sites. It will tell you if your business name, address, and phone number (or NAP info) are all consistent across these sites. \nNAP consistency is super important, as it helps Google and other search engines verify your information across multiple authoritative sources in order to rank you higher on their platforms. \nCheck your listings and make notes of those that have errors so you can fix them later. Or you can pay Manta to fix them for you by clicking “Fix All Errors.” They charge $99/month to update and maintain your listings on more than 70 online directories. \nIf you’re not interested in that right now, simply click “Not right now” and you will be redirected to the dashboard for your company profile. That’s all! \n(Image)\n\nOkay, you’ve claimed your business on Manta. What’s next?\nNow that you’ve completed your Manta business profile, there’s a lot more you can do to enhance your online visibility. \nCheck out these two guides for some great next steps:\nLocal SEO: 15 free tips for better search rankings\n\n25 free business listing websites every small or local business should be on\n
\n

192 articles found in “Learning”

Why (and how) you need to put your restaurant’s menu online

Start here to claim your free business listings on review sites like Google and Yelp

How to create and claim your Bing business listing

How to respond to bad reviews [with examples]

Do-it-yourself photography guide for small business owners

How to create and claim your free business listing on Manta

Recommended

How to spot fake online reviews

25 free business listing websites every small or local business should be on (Updated for 2022!)

How much does it cost to rent space for a small business?

The 6 elements of an effective customer loyalty program

Important market research questions to ask before starting a new business