By Shawn P. Walchef
Publication Date: 2026-04-07 22:00:00
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Key Takeaways
- YouTube is a discovery engine that can help restaurants reach new audiences.
- Short clips grab attention, but long-form content is where brands turn viewers into loyal guests.
- Metadata and geolocation tagging are just as important as the content you post.
Restaurants don’t need content to succeed. But it makes winning a lot easier.
For years, restaurants competed on location, menu and word of mouth. Now, they also compete for attention. And increasingly, that attention is being earned on YouTube long before a customer ever walks through the door.
Inside Google’s offices in New York City, that shift was impossible to ignore: People are watching content on YouTube before they visit. Farah Shirzadi, Strategic Partner Development Manager, Travel & Local Search at Google, sees YouTube as one of the most powerful tools restaurants have today.
“There are a lot of…