Having an online presence is a necessity in the current era of extreme business competition and advancement in technology. A business that does not have an online presence stands to lose a significant market share given that most of the customers are using digital devices to locate businesses where they can buy particular products or services. Creating a website for your restaurant could be the key to achieving your vision. You can use the following tips to make a vibrant and responsive website for your restaurant.
1. Use Vector Images
You can be sure that a significant number of people will be interested in your menu as compared to other details on your website. Therefore, you have to make sure that they can easily read the menu without struggling. It is recommended that you use vector images which can easily be read through mobile phones and tablets. Using PDFs or JPGs will make it hard for those individuals who want to read your menu because they will struggle to see what has been written.
2. Show Location and Operational Hours
Your website should be acting as a marketing tool that explains your local position and tells potential customers when you operate. You should highlight the place, building, street, and contact details where you can direct a customer. You should also be in a position to go and take the customers to your restaurant if they can’t find it. Remember that the operational hours and days are necessary because they will help you not to book a visitor only for you to close on that particular day. You can optimize your website with local SEO so that people can quickly locate you.
3. Upload Some Quality Photos
Make sure that your website is displaying a significant number of photos to your potential customers. You can get a professional photographer who has been trained to take photographs naturally. Make sure that most of the food that you sell in the restaurant has been captured as it is your core business. You can also capture the accommodation facilities such as neat rooms and bathrooms.
Capture the main floor with customers dining so that it can look like a friendly place where families can spend some time. Don’t forget to capture your kitchen. Remember to get the best culinary equipment from a local commercial kitchen equipment supplier before capturing your kitchen. Some people want to see how your kitchen looks like before they can decide to buy your food.
4. Booking Systems
Remember that your customers are on the go and they are not willing to spend long hours trying to book a table or a room in your restaurant. Make sure you have a simple booking system that only requires short information such that one can use little time as possible to book their table. Don’t force your customers to fill all the personal details some of which are even not important to the restaurant. You will make them feel that you don’t trust them and they may end up choosing another restaurant.
5. Have a Responsive Site
With an increased number of people using mobile devices, it is evident that a significant number of people will be accessing your website through a mobile rather than a personal computer. You should, therefore, make sure that your website can easily be accessed through the mobile platform and other smaller devices that customers are likely to be using. Enhance user experience so that people visiting your site can easily navigate from one page to another. Having an unresponsive website that makes it hard for customers to move from one page to the other might create a bad image about your brand.
In this digital era, customers are not only interested in a business that has an online presence. They want a company that has a website that meets their needs such as being responsive and one where a person can easily navigate. Use the tips discussed above to create a site for your restaurant.
Top comments (3)
I wrote an article like ages ago that covered some of these things but since then more has come out and you have added some new inspiration. I wrote this: sitecentre.com.au/seo/local but you have things in here even I didn't think of. Do you mind if I borrow some?
Very-very important moments.
Everything starts with a combination of functionality and beauty. You need to understand how to make your site unique, beautiful, to do the pages and sections which will give responses to the main questions of users - menu, interior, delivery, social media to explore more, your personnel etc.
Only after I highlighted these moments I stepped to technical and SEO tips. And started to look through the restaurant website design examples (in this blog for example weblium.com/blog/restaurant-websit...). This steps helped me to achieve and create a website.
Great article!