Restaurant Website Design: The 12 Elements Your Site Must Have
Good restaurant website design isn’t just about the way your website looks. It’s about how your website works and helps your customers.
Your website needs to offer all of the information customers need in a clear way. Customers should be able to easily find what they need and take steps to do business with you.
If you aren’t sure if your restaurant website has everything it needs, go through this list and make sure you have every element that customers need and expect to find on your website.
What Makes a Good Website for a Restaurant?
Good restaurant website design looks good, and it also has these elements that help customers and drive them to visit or buy from your restaurant.
#1) General Visitor Info
When people visit a restaurant website, they are usually there to learn more and plan their visit. Make it easy for them to find the essential visitor information they need. Include your:
Hours
Address
Phone number
Accessibility information
Parking information
#2) High-quality Photos
Customers want to know what to expect when they visit a restaurant. Use your website as a way to help them visualize their visit. Feature high-quality photos of both your location and your foods. Hire a professional to capture your best selling and featured dishes. Also, capture and feature photos of your seating areas, private rooms, or other unique design elements in your location.
#3) Menus
As customers plan their visit, they also want to view your menu. Include versions of all of your menus on your website. If you have happy hour or weekly specials, include those menus as well. You can either create pages for each of your menu and list items directly on the page or add links that download a PDF version of your website.
#4) Link to Order Online
If your restaurant offers delivery or take-out options, add links that lead to online ordering tools. If you use third-party apps, link to your profiles on those platforms. A better option is to use your own online ordering tool like MenuDrive to have customers place their orders directly through your restaurant (saving you the expense of third-party apps).
#5) Link to Make Reservations
Convert customers on your website by driving them to make reservations while they research your restaurant. Include an option to make reservations online. You can include your own reservations tool or simply link to a profile for your restaurant on OpenTable.
#6) Gift Card Purchase Options
Another way to convert customers while they are on your website is by selling a gift card. Add ecommerce capabilities to your restaurant website so that you can directly sell gift cards to website visitors.
#7) Instagram Feed
Customers like to stay connected to their favorite restaurants through Instagram. Encourage website visitors to follow your restaurant by including a display of your latest Instagram posts with a link to follow. Showcasing an Instagram feed also gives you an opportunity to feature your latest food photos on your website.
#8) Opt-in Opportunity
When someone visits your restaurant website, they are highly interested in your business. It’s the perfect time to turn the interested prospect into a lead in your email or text marketing database. In your restaurant website design, include a section that asks visitors to enter their phone number or email address to join your list. To increase sign-ups, offer a coupon to everyone who signs up.
#9) Call-to-Action to Leave Reviews
Your website is important for converting customers looking to research your business, but so are other sites. Customers who are researching your research will likely also review your brand on other platforms before their visit. They may go to websites like Yelp to read reviews about your business. To generate reviews on these sites, add a call-to-action on your website asking customers to leave a review on your profiles on other review sites. (Also consider features positive reviews across your website.)
#10) About Page
Help customers get to know your brand by adding an about page to your website. Tell the story of how your restaurant came to be. Feature top staff or your chef and explain the inspiration behind your cuisines. Showcase any stories about how you connect with and give back to your community, and share photos of your team and founders.
#11) Location Pages
If your restaurant has more than one location, you want to make it easy for customers to find details for the location they want to visit. Create location pages that feature information that is specific to each restaurant.
#12) Landing Pages for Special Offers
Consider the special offers or features that your restaurant has and create unique landing pages for each of those elements. Consider what makes your restaurant unique and determined if you need special landing pages to promote:
Events
Catering
Private dining
Customer loyalty programs
Need Help with Your Restaurant Website Design?
Restaurant website design is about so much more than making your website look good. To inform and convert customers, your website needs to include each of the elements listed in this post.
Each of these elements will help your customers get what they need to plan their visit to your restaurant.
If you help with implementing any of these restaurant website design elements, let’s talk. Betwixt specializes in helping small businesses get the essential marketing they need to attract customers. Contact us to learn more.