Website Essentials for Restaurants
What diners look for on a restaurant website, usually on a phone and in a hurry, and how to give it to them without getting in the way.
People visit a restaurant's website with a small number of questions and very little patience. They are usually on a phone, often already hungry, and frequently deciding between you and somewhere else. A restaurant site succeeds by answering those questions in seconds.
The four things everyone wants
- What do you serve? The menu.
- Are you open? Hours.
- Where are you? Address and directions.
- How do I eat there? Book, order or just turn up.
If a visitor has to hunt for any of these, the site is failing, however attractive it is.
The menu
The menu is the most-visited part of almost every restaurant site.
Make it a web page, not a PDF. PDFs are hard to read on a phone, slow to load, awkward for people using screen readers and difficult for search engines to understand. Text on a page is readable, searchable and quick.
Keep it current. An outdated menu creates disappointment at the table. Build the site so the menu is easy to update.
Organize it clearly. Sections, item names, short descriptions.
Decide about prices. Showing them helps people choose and sets expectations. If your prices change often, make sure updating them is simple.
Flag dietary information. Vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free and common allergens, with a note to speak to staff about allergies.
Use photos sparingly and well. A few excellent, real photos of your dishes beat a gallery of mediocre ones.
For Sunset Grill OKI, we built the full breakfast and lunch menu into the site as proper pages, driven from one data file so a change appears everywhere at once.
Hours and location
- Show hours on the homepage, not only on a contact page.
- Keep holiday and seasonal hours updated. Few things annoy a customer more than arriving at a closed door.
- Make the address tappable so it opens in a maps app.
- Make the phone number tap-to-call.
- Mention parking, if it is not obvious.
Ordering and reservations
Whatever you offer, make the button prominent and put it at the top.
Online ordering. You can use a third-party delivery marketplace, a direct ordering system or both. Marketplaces bring visibility and charge commission. Direct ordering keeps more of the sale and the customer relationship. Many restaurants link to both and feature the direct option first.
Reservations. A booking widget or link. If you take bookings only by phone, say so and make the number obvious.
Walk-in only? Say that too. It saves people looking for a booking button that does not exist.
Design considerations
Phone first. Design for a small screen and a thumb.
Fast. Compress images. Skip the autoplaying video. A slow site loses hungry people to the next result.
Atmosphere. A few photos of the space and the food help people picture being there. Use your own.
Simple navigation. Menu, Order, Reserve, Hours and Location, About. Not much more.
Accessible. Readable text with good contrast, proper headings and descriptions on images. This matters for customers and reduces legal risk.
Things to avoid
- Music that plays automatically.
- A splash page before the real site.
- A menu as an image, which cannot be read by search engines or screen readers.
- Pop-ups the instant someone arrives.
- Out-of-date specials or events.
Your Google Business Profile matters as much
Many diners never reach your website. They see your Google listing, check the photos and hours, and decide.
- Keep hours accurate, including holidays.
- Add the menu, or a link to it.
- Upload good photos regularly.
- Add ordering and reservation links.
- Reply to reviews.
See how to improve your Google Business Profile. Make sure the details there match your website exactly.
Useful extras
Once the essentials are right:
- Private dining or catering inquiry form
- Gift cards
- Email sign-up for specials and events, with consent
- Events page, if you host them and will keep it current
- Your story. Who you are and why you cook what you cook. Short and genuine.
Keep it updated
A restaurant site needs more frequent changes than most: menus, hours, specials. Either build it so you can edit those yourself in a couple of minutes, or have someone who will do it promptly when asked.
A five-minute test
Ask a friend to open your site on their phone and find, as fast as they can:
- What is on the menu
- Whether you are open right now
- How to get there
- How to order or book
If any takes more than ten seconds, that is your first fix.
