Websites for restaurants
What a restaurant’s website has to do to turn a visitor into an enquiry.
Diners visit a restaurant site for three things: the menu, the hours and how to get a table. A site that answers those in seconds fills more seats.
Almost everyone who opens a restaurant's website wants one of three things: to see the menu, to check whether you are open, or to book a table or order. They are often on a phone, often already hungry, and they will choose somewhere else if those three take more than a few seconds to find.
Restaurant sites often get in the way: a full-screen video, a story about the founder before the menu, a menu that is a PDF too small to read on a phone. The site we build for a restaurant puts the menu, today's hours and the reservation or order link in the first screen, and the story below.
Why restaurants lose the visitors they already have
The menu is a PDF
A PDF menu has to download, opens in another app and needs pinching to read on a phone. Search engines read it poorly too. A menu written as text on the page loads instantly, reads well on any screen, and gets found when someone searches for a dish.
The hours are wrong or hidden
Nothing loses a diner faster than arriving at a closed door because the website said otherwise. Today's hours belong in the first screen, and they must match the Google listing, including holidays.
Booking and ordering are buried
A diner deciding where to eat tonight wants to book or order in the same minute. A reservation or ordering link that is hard to find sends them to the restaurant whose button was obvious.
The photos do not look like the food
Stock photos of dishes you do not serve, or dark phone shots taken during service, both put people off. A handful of bright photos of your real dishes and your dining room does more than a long gallery.
What your visitor arrived wanting
“What's on, when are you open, where are you, and can I order or book?”
In their words, the problem
- where should we go tonight
- are they open now
- can they do something for the kids
- do they take groups
What they want to leave with
- a good meal without a fuss
- know the hours and the address
- somewhere to come back to
A restaurant’s guests think in terms of a table; the page should use their word, not the trade’s.
The page, top to bottom
This is the order a restaurant’s homepage runs in when we build it. Core sections are on every site of this kind; strong ones are there whenever the business has the facts to fill them. Nothing is padded to look full.
- 01
The first screen: what you do, where, and how to reach you
Core
- 02
Opening hours
Core
- 03
Services, as a list a customer can scan
Core
- 04
Photos of your own work
When the facts exist
- 05
Reviews, with the source named
When the facts exist
- 06
A map of where you work
When the facts exist
- 07
How to reach you, with a form that delivers
Core
One ask: “Reserve a table”
The primary action for a restaurant is reserve a table. It sits in the first screen on a phone and repeats on every page; a second, quieter route to the form sits beside it. Two equal buttons pointing at the same place read as filler and cost calls.
On a phone, the sections a visitor must reach within the first three screens: opening hours; services, as a list a customer can scan.
The services to name
Each of these is a search someone in your town types. Each gets its own line on the homepage and, where it matters, its own page.
- Dine-in
- Takeout and online ordering
- Reservations
- Private events and parties
- Catering
- Brunch or weekend specials
- Gift cards
What a guest checks before they come in
- The full menu as text, with dietary marks where they are accurate
- Today's hours, holiday hours, and the address with parking notes
- Bright photos of your real dishes and dining room
- Google reviews linked, and replies to them
- The chef or owner named, with a line about the food
- How to book, and the policy for larger groups
Photographs: what belongs and what does not
The look to aim for is appetising and specific to the place.
Use
- the food, plated
- the room and its light
- the bar or counter
- people at tables, from a distance
Avoid
- stock food that is not theirs
- empty white plates
- a face filling the frame
No stock photography in a work role: a photo captioned as your work is a claim, and a stock one is a false one.
Local SEO for a restaurant
- Google Business Profile primary category should be your specific cuisine, such as Italian restaurant, not just Restaurant.
- Keep the menu on the listing current, and add the reservation or ordering link there too.
- Update holiday hours on the listing before every holiday; diners trust the listing first.
- Post photos of new dishes and specials regularly, and reply to reviews within a few days.
Questions restaurants ask us
- Should a restaurant menu be a PDF?
- Not as the only version. Put the menu on the page as text so it reads on phones and gets found in search. Offer a PDF to download as well if you like.
- Does a restaurant need its own online ordering?
- If you take takeout orders, a direct ordering link on your own site keeps the customer relationship with you. If you use delivery apps, link to them clearly, but make your own option easy to find.
- Where should the restaurant's story go?
- Below the menu, hours and booking. The story helps people choose you, but only after they have found what they came for.
The two questions your own customers ask, which the site answers for you
- Do I need to book?
- Call and ask. Some nights you can walk in; some you cannot. Either way we will tell you honestly rather than leave you standing.
- Can you cater for allergies or dietary needs?
- Tell us when you order. We will tell you honestly what we can and cannot do rather than guessing on your behalf.
Free, automatic, about 30 seconds
See what your restaurant's site is missing.
The free audit checks the first screen, the title, whether Google can read the page, whether it is mobile-friendly and whether there is a way to come in.
Run the free website auditPrefer to talk? Book a 15-minute call.