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There is a restaurant that I go to with Cecil every now and again whenever I want African food or more specifically, Ethiopian food.
It’s not close to my house, not obvious from the road and his restaurant doesn’t even come up in a google search.
The reason we know about this restaurant in the first place is because we went to the vegetarian restaurant next door for a friends birthday and Cecil just happened to remember seeing it.
This guys restaurant by search engine standards has terrible SEO, though every time I go for dinner there, his restaurant is usually full of people.
It isn’t a very big restaurant. The size of roughly a small diner. It could easily fit 30 people inside and another 15 or so outside.
Initially you might wonder how his business survives, until you go and experience eating there for the first time.
Upon arriving, the owner greeted us as we walked in. The lights in his restaurant were dim, though it complemented the elaborate decor of the room.
Pictures and cultural heirlooms from Ethiopia covered the walls and the rich smell of spices flowed from the kitchen in the back.
You could tell that the owner really cared about his restaurant and that he had taken great care to make sure that when people walked in, it wasn’t just for food, it was for an experience.
The restaurant was run solely by his family so everything had a personal touch to it.
When it was time to order, the owner seeing that we were new took a few minutes to explain the menu to us and what exactly each dish was.
Making a selection of two dishes, we waited patiently for our orders.
When the food finally arrived, the owner had brought something we had not originally ordered. It was a bowl of freshly made cottage cheese. Before I can say anything, he quickly mentions that it is on the house and that the cheese would help reduce the spiciness of the dishes.
Earlier I had briefly joked to him that my stomach was fairly sensitive to too much chilli, but that I was determined to try this food that I was convinced was worth a temporarily burnt digestive tract.
Though it was only something small, I really appreciated his consideration and the amount of attention he gave to me though I was only one of many customers.
After we had eaten dinner, which was hands down one of the best meals I had ever eaten, he recommended that we finish off the meal with some spiced tea which he brings over in an engraved silver tea pot.
As he pours the first round of tea, he explains that the tea helps to wash down the spices and aided digestion. I could sense that he was still fairly concerned about my stomach, though I told him that no matter what happened I would be happy to do it again as the food was wonderful.
He laughs, and tells us that next time he’ll try to come up with more dishes that aren’t overly spicy. Surprisingly enough, the next time we visited, he did.
———————
Down the road from his restaurant is another African restaurant. It’ right along the main road you couldn’t miss it. Much bigger as well and it could probably whole twice as many customers.
This restaurant does show up in google search, however the feeling you got there was totally different from the first guys place.
I mean the food was decent (not as good as the other place) and the decor was alright, but the overall feeling you got was that the owner was more interested in making a profit than actually being hospitable.
When he realized that we weren’t interested in his efforts to up sell catering packs and the sort, he became quite rude as well.
We never went back to that place, and I always warn my friends who mention they might want to check it out.
Anyway, on paper, this guys restaurant definitely had a higher chance of getting walk in’s off the street than the other restaurant due to the better location (aka SEO).
Despite this though, the restaurant remained fairly empty during dinner with only one other small table being occupied while we were there.
Alot of people also passed by, and while a few would stop to read the menu, most of them would just continue walking past the restaurant.
The point of this whole story
Since visiting the first restaurant, I have since personally brought more than 10 of my closest friends and recommended it to many others.
The reason being that when I visit that restaurant, it’s not just the food that’s great. It’s the whole atmosphere and feeling of caring created by the owner and his family that keeps me coming back for more.
He might have the worse “SEO” in the history of restaurants, but I know where his restaurant is and I’m more than enthusiastic to share its location with anyone who will listen.
If you’ve ever been thinking of starting an online business, my advice is to simply be passionate about what you do and to care about the people who you serve on your site.
Passion is infectious and people like people who sincerely care about them.
If you do that, you won’t need to be on the first page of Google for customers to find you. The people who you’ve served will point new customers right to your door step, and there’s no better customer than one that’s arrived to your site on a recommendation.
If all the search engines were to disappear tomorrow, the only online businesses that would continue to flourish are the ones that have a dedicated following of people that have your web address memorized so they can always find you.
Connect with a customers heart and they’ll always know where to find you and they’ll want to share you with others.
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