Tips for building a restaurant website

This article is dedicated to restaurants owners who are planning on building a new business website. The article aims to give you a fundamental structure for your restaurant website.

All restaurants have something in common, you’ll want to generate new customers visiting your restaurant. If you have an informative website then you have a great chance of getting new customers through your restaurant doors.

Before building your website you should consider what structure you need to get all the information about your restaurant to your potential customer.

Home page – Your home page should be a brief but concise introduction to your restaurant. You should help your customers to understand the types of food you serve. You can also state how long you have been established for and also provide accurate contact information so your customers can contact you to place a booking or find the location of your restaurant. A good idea is to also put some customer testimonials on your homepage so people can understand why they should be visiting your restaurant. If you use organic produce or cater for vegetarians then this would be a good idea to also state this information. You should add some high-quality images of your restaurant. You may also add a Google map to your homepage which will help your customers to find your restaurant more easily.

Food and Drink Menu Pages – It would be a good idea to display your food and drink menus on your website. You should try to describe the food as accurately as possible and you may also wish to stay how spicy or sweet some of the food may be for examples you may have mild or hot and spicy curry dishes. You should also try to list the prices for the food which you have your menu directly on your website so customers can see clear pricing of your food. Your drinks menu can also be added to your website and you should describe any wines as accurately as possible. You should also state the cost for a glass or bottle of wine. You can also add other types of drinks such as tea, coffee, spirits and soft drinks.

Online Booking - It would be great if your customers can book a table at your restaurant directly from your website. At a minimum, you should try to capture the following information in your booking form:

• Full name
• Telephone Number
• Email Address
• Date of Reservation
• Time of Booking
• Number of Diners
• General Message

The above for information can be sent directly to your e-mail and you can also connect your e-mail directly to your phone so you know when a customer has made a booking immediately. I would advise that you contact your customer as quickly as possible to confirm all information in the booking.

Reviews – Why not get your customers to review your restaurant and possibly given an incentive to do so. If you have customers that visit you regularly then asking them to write a brief review will help you to generate potential new customers. Try to keep the reviews short and concise as possible.

Contact Page – Your website must contain a key point for where customers can get all of your contact information. You may also display a contact form so customers can fill out the form for any enquiries which are not related to direct booking, for example, they may want to enquire about having a birthday dinner. You should also display your full restaurant address and any telephone numbers.

Article created by: DCP Web Designers