It’s the internet’s world, and we’re just living in it. As a restaurant owner you should know that your restaurant is no longer just a physical resort, but its online presence and digital imprint is more important than ever. What’s even more important is that in a plugged in world, restaurant websites have become synonymous with outdated, cringe-worthy designs, and overall frustrating user experience. And, our friends, having a restaurant website that makes you want to bang your head against the nearest vertical surface is doing more harm to your business than you may simply think.
At Restaurant Den, we’ve seen the good, the bad and the ugly. Sometimes, we see the same easily solvable problems repeatedly. Just a little FYI, background music on another Flash website “intro” and a link to a PDF menu isn’t the best route. We’re here to redirect your success. Because, really, the list of common restaurant mistakes goes on and on. Putting your website on the map isn’t as hard (or as easy) as you may think, but it all starts with your website layout.
As restaurant website design experts, we know that you have to start your re-vamp by putting yourself in the shoes of your food craving visitor, and pinpointing the little tweaks you may have to make. As restaurateurs and restaurant eaters, we know that when it comes to dining out and browsing local food joints, you want the most easily accessible website. For example, you want to know the restaurant’s location and operating hours without digging at all, and find the restaurant’s happy hour deal while you’re at it. And hey, on the go you’d want to use it on your mobile phone.
Whilst so many restaurant websites fail to encompass even the most essential website needs, our comprehensive but simplistic guide will keep you in the know-how and give you a head start at launching your websites success. With great websites, come great customers – so here’s our essential advice.
Make Your Contact Info, Location and Hours the First Thing Visitors See
It should go without saying, but more restaurants than we can count fail to meet this need. Your location, contact info and hours should without doubt be the most easily located information on your site. In short, take away these key pieces of info and the rest of your website is essentially useless.
You’d be surprised how many restaurant websites fail to meet this most basic need.
We recommend, for this reason alone that your contact info (such as telephone, fax, email, location) should be visible on each page of the website from the eye of a visitor. We recommend either having it stationed at the top of the website, or at the bottom. You might want to keep an eye on which positioning would be best for smartphones, as customers will commonly browse local restaurants on-the-go, so smart phone compatibility is a must. Speaking of smart phones and Google SEO compatibility…
Here is a few additional pearls of knowledge:
- Input a plain-text phone number for your restaurant so that visitors using a smartphone can ‘click’ it to call your restaurant, literally, at the touch of a button.
- When it comes to your restaurant location info, embed a Google Map. You can also place the address in plain text alongside the Google map as well, which can be clicked on mobile devices to initiate extra map apps and get simple directions.
Goodbye Links to Messy PDF Menus, Hello Web-Based Menus!
It’s pretty simple advice, but you’d be surprised how many people overlook even the most simplistic parts of restaurant website design. Your food menu is the heart of the website, the piece a la resistance, the central part of your business. Naturally, it should be the instrumental part of your website. Potential customers and eager website visitors desire easily navigable websites in which they can do a quick glance over the menu.
Restaurants have been doing this for quite some time, but no, that doesn’t make PDF downloadable menus right in any world. And that’s not a hyperbole. We cringe every time we see it, and you better bet that a potential customer re-thinks your restaurant every time they have to externally download your menu. Whilst it’s a quick-fix for your web designer, links to PDFs are more than existentially frustrating to visitors. Nobody wants to download a menu to their computer for a 5 second glance over your items. Links to PDF menus also directly negatively impact your search engine rankings. So, in more ways than one, PDF menus are NOT the way to go.
Our solution? Simply include your food menu items directly on your website display, integrated into your website design. For content management systems such as the ever-so popular WordPress, food menus can be flawlessly built into the CMS, which allows easy updates and smart phone compatibility. So, if you haven’t designed your website yet, this is yet another thing to think about: selecting the right website platform that will simply integrate and display your menu additionally.
You Eat First With Your Eyes: Images Are Everything
Maybe you overlooked this key part, but most visitors that have bothered to check your website aren’t the same kind that will blindly walk into your place having no idea whatsoever what it looks like. All restaurateurs know that atmosphere is almost as important as how long you cook the steak, so providing website visitors with a feel for your exclusive dining experience before they step foot in your place makes them more likely to be prepared.
Moreover, people are interested in finding what category your restaurant fits into. Is it an upscale French dining experience or a jeans and t-shirt 50’s style diner? It’s essential you include enough shots (but not too many, 3 or 4 will suffice) to portray your carefully selected interior design, outdoor seating and scenic views you picked so selectively when designing your restaurant.
Having a short but albeit simple photo gallery on the landing page is a great way to do this – also having an Instagram feed with continual updated shots from your eatery is another great way to make your restaurant relational and feel like home.
Not an Option, a Must: Smart Phone Compatibility
In the web design field, it’s becoming increasingly important that sites are mobile responsive, and for good reason. Computers are becoming a more at home means of accessing the web, and those on-the-go people (most of your customers) are seeking restaurant ventures from the tip of their fingers.
Yelp and Google maps are the new word of mouth in finding new hot spots and nearby restaurants. Let’s take it a step further, and say that a potential visitor taps over your restaurant’s website, only to be greeted with a slow, eyebrow-raising made-for-PC website. 9 times out of 10, that very same customer, if greeted with an easy-to-use, optimized mobile website will head to your restaurant for Fondue.
Also, a lot of restaurant websites in existence don’t have a mobile website, so this quick step is an exclusive way to gain way with customers and trump the local competition. We got your back.
Be Social By Integrating Social Media
Restaurants are not only a place to dine, but a place where people come together to socialize in the name of say, a damn good pizza. People dine out primarily to socialize in many instances, and recommend their favorite eats to friends – they’re a social business, by nature. People in the increasingly internet oriented generation also look to social sites to see your restaurant’s social standing and social presence, so ignoring this very integral part of the modern restaurant business can even result in the illusion of non-existence.
Needless to say, your restaurant website should easily integrate all and any of your social media accounts to help promote word-of-mouth. Linking the easily familiar and cute twitter, Instagram and Facebook buttons to your homepage is the best way to start.
But, hey, why don’t you take it even further:
- Add a Facebook ‘Like’ Box to your website sidebar. The faces of their friends who’ve ‘liked this restaurant’ is an extremely powerful form of social proof, and can gain you more fans by the second!
- Showcase your restaurant’s best reviews and testimonials. Every bit of social proof helps in creating a user-centric restaurant website that makes people want to eat there.
- Implement and Include social sharing buttons (Tweet, Facebook like, etc.) to every individual pieces of content. This could let users ‘share’ your latest blog post or latest status update!
Want Even More?
These quick tips are for restaurant website success so you don’t have to rack your brain as you wonder how to get even more out of your restaurant’s website. We’ve given you the basics, but here’s the advanced crash course. They’re not all essential, but they’re definitely worth thinking about.
- Online reservations: Taking reservations online is easier than ever. Hello technology impaired, meet services like OpenTable – services that allow your customers to place online reservations and also don’t look too shabby on your site.
- Online ordering: Having an online ordering system could add a huge boost in sales, if you’re the kind of restaurant that is marketed towards takeout and delivery orders. It cuts the middle man and gives your customers the power to DIY order.
- Events calendar: If your restaurant host events, why are you not keeping and updating an events calendar? If you are, have a pat on the back compliments of us. If not, we recommend you include a list of upcoming (and past) events with photos and other info, and it’s a great way to constantly re-vamp your website, making updates a piece of cake.
- Restaurant blog: It’s a bit of commitment, but if you create great content, or just hire great content writers, a blog can go a long way in molding loyalty and providing more info such as stories and up-to-date info. It’s all in your hands, so get creative with it.
Check out our previous blog article to find out even more about why websites are important to restaurants.
