Design your way

If you want to create restaurant websites that can captivate people’s attention, you have to learn to think their way.

Better yet, if what you’re designing is a restaurant website, you have to feel as they feel, and bundle the tasty food, relaxed ambiance, and positive energy all on a single screen.

At the end of the day, it is exactly hospitality where good web designs make the biggest difference

What guests expect to see is an attractive menu, a well-organized gallery of your interior highlights, and information on your services. The rule is simple – if they like what they see, they will easily choose you over your competitors. Yet, you would be surprised to know how many good restaurants are ‘one website away’ from becoming modern and attractive.

In this article, we will discuss the importance of creating a proper restaurant website. It may sound like an easy task, but scratching the surface reveals plenty of challenges you probably never thought you’d face. If you follow the tips we provide, however, creating a beautiful website won’t be that much of a bumpy road.

Simplicity takes it all

It is your first website, and you’re absolutely not required to answer all questions customers may have. Today’s websites are almost code-free to maintain, and you can update them at any time. Once the resources and the ideas suffice, you can add all those fancy bells and whistles you always wanted, but still keep the site as straightforward as possible.

Simplicity matters also because of mobile usability, as a website must look impeccable regardless of the device it is being displayed on. This means that you will have to balance between providing less information, and yet letting customers know everything they want. This brings us to rule #2.

Think alike your customers

What would you like to know about a new restaurant in town? The checklist comes down to few simple things:

Contact information, phone numbers in particular
Happy Hours & Special Offers
A physical address one can locate on Google Maps
Opening times
Daily menus

Did you ever care to read anything else on a restaurant website? I personally didn’t, and it was because I was hungry and my only goal was to find a good place to dine.

As the owner of the restaurant, you should make sure my questions are answered, and only then focus on impressing me with picture of happy people dining in a cosy atmosphere. It will also take a while before I’m ready for a monthly newsletter. My first and only goal at this point is – to eat!

How does a good restaurant website look like?

Luckily, it doesn’t take to be a genius to come up with a professional restaurant website. What it takes is to know where to look, as there are platforms that can help build an effective and maintainable site in few hours (check Squarespace or Let’s Eat).

Blogging platforms like Blogger, WordPress, and Tumbler are not a common choice for restaurant websites, as they work around dynamic and time-sensitive posts, but you can still consider them if you have a new menu every day.

Let’s Eat

Let’s Eat is one of world’s best known content creation platform that allows you to create a simple website, prepare and post menus on the web, and send out printable coupons for regular customers. Their websites display considerably well on mobile devices, and bring up a number of cool features such as social media buttons, Google Maps integration, and more.

For a simple solution, you can choose the free package and agree to have ads displayed on your site, or prepay a pro version for an even better-looking site.

No compromise on image quality on restaurant websites

Well, this is easier said than done. Even if you’re a professional photographer, it won’t mean that your images can impress everyone that sees them. Yet, this gives you much better chances than handling the problem like an amateur.

The reason why we’re saying this is that food, as well decorated as it seems, won’t look that appetizing on poor quality photography. It may even have a reverse effect and make visitors question their decision of visiting your restaurant.

Here are some more general tips on your future gallery: Use dishware in bright and fresh colours, and expose them to the right light. To focus on the dish, place it in a larger and more appealing plate, and decorate with vegetables to catch attention with a playful palette.

Last, but not least, food is not everything customers want to see. They will also care about the ambiance, service, and the interior, so give them photos they would like.

Prepare your menu

The menu is, as expected, the potential visitors’ main point of interest, so don’t just throw an invisible link to a PDF on the site. Instead, take the time, and create a detailed, web-based version of it.

Interactivity is also an idea for those who have more time to invest. Visitors would like a menu where items are carefully described, and where they can see images and prices by moving the pointer towards the dish. Sounds like fun, doesn’t it?

Of course, you should always keep menus updated, as you don’t want visitors to crave something that is no longer available.

Direct your visitors

Today’s restaurant websites are simply unimaginable without an integrated mapping tool. Therefore, make your physical address reachable from any location, and use popular geolocation and mobile mapping tools like Google Maps.

Look at examples of restaurant sites that took mapping to a whole new level, allowing customers to figure out how much time they need to get there.

Make the restaurant website user-friendly

A website that can make a contribution to your success does not necessarily have to be beautiful, but you should certainly pay attention to making it usable. There are many online tools that can help you serve people, and most of those are free.

What we have in mind here is giving customers the option to order their food online, or fill a form for an online reservation that will integrate immediately with your calendaring and scheduling system. Also, inform them on whether they can rent the place for private parties and events.

Once done, make sure these tools are visible and properly placed, and arrange them in logical units to get all guesswork out of the way.

Make it fun

You’re being methodical, and that’s great, but don’t neglect the fact that restaurants are meant to enjoy. Give visitors a fun experience, and think of music, animations, and cool icons that will capture their attention.

If running a restaurant with a long tradition, make sure customers know where all main recipes are coming from. Introduce a list of honours and awards you’ve earned, or even attach a dedicated blog section where you will share interesting facts and news.

Choose a purposeful palette

Colors are the best way to convey your message, and to set the mood before customers have even arrived. Excite them with bright and energetic choices, but make sure those are consistent with the palette you’ve already used for your branding.

Looking closer at popular restaurant websites, you will notice that most of them use red. This is because of red being proven to entice appetite, and to stimulate good mood.

Inspiration for additional colors can always be found in the food you serve – a vegetarian restaurant, for instance, should lean heavily on green elements, and display those in contrast to a strong red backdrop.

Go mobile on restaurant websites

As it is with every website nowadays, traffic for restaurant platforms comes foremost from mobile devices. This will put you in charge of creating a responsive mobile version of your site, and be there for customers who’re already on their way to having a quick breakfast. With the appropriate budget, you can even create a whole new mobile app and invite users to download it.

The mobile app can, but doesn’t have to contain all website elements. What matters here is to give users the main capabilities, including the ordering button, the menu, and the mapping tools.

Attach social sharing buttons

A website that is not tightly integrated with social media risks being completely isolated from customers’ attention. Customers do appreciate the possibility to engage while being provided a service, and they’d appreciate a special coupon/dining offer for liking our Facebook page.

Statistics are not necessary to compare the success of those restaurants that engage with customers, and those that don’t. From personal experience, we trust those service providers whose ‘voice’ we have heard, and whose work can be learned upon from the comfort of our own newsfeed.

Plus, social media fans like to photograph their food and check in on Instagram, and the one that benefits the most from it is you.

The good news is, you can incentivize social behaviour in many different ways, including rewarding customers for sharing your content.

You’d be surprised to know about all those average-quality restaurants that conquered the market with nothing else but good promotion. It rings a bell, doesn’t it?

Let feedback do its job

You don’t have to create online forms and questionnaires together feedback. Instead, you can choose a popular ranking website and link it to yours, as people will appreciate seeing your place appear on a recommended list. With the right testimonials and high ratings, your job will be half done.

A good idea would be to integrate Yelp or TripAdvisor, as customers already know their way around them. Of course, and in-house rating system is always welcomed, and you can either build it yourself, or entrust it to a specialized provider.

Unfortunately, there is no way around getting few negative reviews here and there, but the good part of the process is that you are the one in charge of what will actually appear there. By integrating a service such as Yelp, customer can read reviews in a familiar format.

Last, but not least, choose the best customer testimonials coming from regular patrons, and make few interesting photos that would entice prospective visitors.

Don’t miss the contact information

Contact information has a vital role on any restaurant website, and it should be placed in a visible and easily accessible location. It is up to you to choose the info that will be included, but make sure you mention the opening hours, phone numbers, and physical address.

If running a restaurant with whatever sort of special requests (early reservation, in-advance ordering, dress codes, etc.), mention those requests straightforward. Promotions and special offers should also have a central position.

Share the good atmosphere on a restaurant website

Once again – customers need to know more about your restaurant, than the things they’re about to it (let’s face it, there is good pizza and better pizza, but pizza is pizza).

Restaurant owners who considered this on time decided to share ‘a piece’ of the good atmosphere, and surprisingly – it worked!

Truth is, people spend a lot of time deciding where to it, and their decision is not always entirely based on food. They are also looking for websites that will make them feel good, so work your magic!

Lean heavily on color and texture

Colors and textures are also a leading armory for restaurant website designers. The best among them make heavy use of rich and realistic textures.

Show people how their favorite specialties are made

We all enjoy looking at how raw and disconnected ingredients turn into an appealing mass of delight, and that makes us trust the chef that is preparing it.

This is a trick you can easily turn to your advantage, and let people know they’re eating healthy dishes prepared with passion instead of a lasagne that were just shipped over from Italy.

First things first about restaurant websites

Now that we equipped you with tones of suggestions and ideas, we feel obliged to remind you that there are few basic elements in restaurant website design you should not neglect.

Keep these in mind, and you can count on the fact that the goals of average users are already met.

These are the things each customer wants to know:

What can I eat there (a detailed menu, and quality images)?
How much will that cost (prices bundled within the menu)?
How does the place look (image & video galleries)?
Where is it located?
Can I book a table? Or can I order a dish for delivery?
Where is the contact information?

Answer these questions, and the needs of your customers will be covered. Pay specific attention to location details and contact info, as there are customers who’d rather call and ask instead of browsing your website for details.

This may entail also a large and very visible map in the footer section, and all phone numbers listed in the header one. Another element that must be clearly visible is the social sharing option.

Less is more on restaurant websites

A thing we all learnt from technology developments is that information is accessible even without necessarily looking for it, which means that forcing people to read ten pages won’t be your key to success.

Certain websites neglect this rule and attach pages dedicated to their chefs, owners, loyal visitors, and important events, but unless you have excess money and time to invest, you don’t really need to do it.

Restaurant websites are so visual that they can convey the right message with images and videos. The text that must be there should come down to few simple paragraphs, and nothing more than that.

No-no for excessive styling with animations and music

Did it happen to you as well to come across a website with music, and spend at least half a minute to mute it down? This won’t make you hungrier, but may end up making you angry.

Every experienced web designer will advise you against website music, and for a good reason. The same goes for flashy images and animations, as their time is gone a decade ago. All of these elements are distracting users and leading to poor usability, and that’s the last thing you want for a brand new restaurant website.

Mobile usability comes first

Making a mobile-friendly website is easy nowadays, either by adding a small line of code on the homepage to redirect users to a mobile-friendly version, or by using templates that will simply adjust to all screen sizes. With a dedicated mobile page, we recommend you to cut on elements and text, and simply provide users with an image gallery, map, menu, and contact information.

According to a 2014 study conducted in 10 different restaurants, 40% of all viewers were visiting their websites from a mobile device, so try to guess what that number is right now.

Use Google Analytics’ tracking codes

Google Analytics is a great tool you can use to optimize your website usability. To get some, you can subscribe for the service of a dedicated business intelligence service provider, and let them measure your performance and advise you on further improvements.

Google Analytics, for instance, is one of the few free and easy to use intelligence platforms that drills down into your statistics, and discovers how much time people spend on your site, and for what purpose. It also unveils the patterns visitors use to reach you, so that you’d know where you should advertise.

What is more, you will be able to compare performance with your main competitors, and learn from leading websites’ usual practices.

Tips on Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

For those who’re not familiar with SEO, optimization helps having your pages prioritized and indexed by Google, and appearing as high as possible among users’ searching results.

Since you will no longer pay a dollar to those who referred you, you will mark the beginning of a long saving process.

Another important role of Google 6 Pack is making your website stand out. Lately, the company imposed new restrictions and stricter criteria for those getting listed, but that won’t necessarily leave a new website out of the game.

The importance of contact forms on restaurant websites

For many website owners, contact forms are a secure mean to protect their inbox from scam, but what these forms do the best is collecting subscription info for your email marketing campaigns.

Basically, you will be collecting email addresses to retain and engage users, and that’s where the highest marketing ROI is coming from.

These forms are easy to create, and even easier to embed on any website, and will also protect you from scanning bots that can redirect your messages to spam inboxes.

Ending thoughts on restaurant websites

We hope to have inspired readers to launch a creative restaurant website project, or at least to give their old one a solid makeover.

Be it that you’re designing a website yourself, or working by hand with an experienced designer, make sure to follow our tips and to enjoy the process!

If you liked this article about restaurant websites, check out these articles as well:

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