There are over five billion Internet users worldwide, accounting for more than 63% of the global population. Given this figure, it is usually claimed that your food business cannot exist without being on the web. Having your own restaurant website means displaying key information about your restaurant, attracting potential customers, capturing traffic on search engines, and creating brand awareness. This also helps streamline booking and online ordering, drive customer loyalty and expand business with no geolocation barrier. For tips on your restaurant website design, keep reading.
Great restaurant website design tips
1. Know your customers
Frantzén
The best way to start creating efficiently and beautifully designed restaurant websites is to know your potential customers. We hope you know that the website design style can be connected with your main audience one. For instance, keep it lively and friendly for a good impression on your customers if they are young. Should you are serving businessmen, go more formal.
Besides, understand why site visitors are there in the first place. They may fall into one of these categories:
- New local customers
- New customers from out of town
- Returning guests
Consider those groups’ needs when building your restaurant web presence. For instance, a returning diner is likely searching for easy access to gourmet dishes, directions, reservations form, or how to order online - ensure that information is not buried behind lots of clicks.
2. Include essentials for a great restaurant website
The Clove Club makes it effortless for their website visitors to get a table by creating a clear "Reservations" option.
Contact details
Add basic information about your restaurant, say business hours and contact info (e.g., phone number and email address).
Restaurant location
Ideally, restaurant owners have a dynamic map integrated for website visitors to pinpoint where the eatery is faster.
Delicious menu
Sushi X menu powered by One2
Showcase food (known as your main attraction through your menu. A few tips in this sense include:
- Instead of using PDF menus that are hard to update, impossible for Google to index, and deliver an inconvenient experience for viewers, consider taking full advantage of a digital menu.
- Have clear menu categories, for example, Main Course, Veg, and Beverages.
Online ordering
It is easy and fast to emphasize this option on the home page of your restaurant website using the One2 online ordering system.
Menu specials/discounts/purchase gift cards
Make promotions and specials stand out on the website.
Instagram feed and other social media icons
Should you have social media accounts, place the buttons (with social media links) bottom or top corner and encourage visitor interaction.
Feedback button
Asking for and acting on customer feedback is significant to your business's success.
3. Focus on your strong points
Sweetgreen
A perfect restaurant website should highlight what makes your business special. Whether it is an extra delicious menu or $5 appetizers that set you apart, highlight your uniqueness on your website design.
For those struggling to articulate what makes them unique and popular restaurants, ask themselves these questions:
- What does my restaurant offer that the competitors do not?
- What are my diners’ favorite cuisines?
- How do guests feel when leaving?
- What does the restaurant atmosphere represent?
- How do staff describe the food?
4. Keep your restaurant websites up-to-date
Whenever you change your menu, display upcoming events, switch business hours seasonally, update your loyalty program, or add more amazing images, you will need to ensure it is reflected on the website. This way, guests can stay up to date. One of the easiest and least time-consuming ways to do that is using One2’s automatic updating functionality.
5. Ensure it is optimized for SEO
Standing for Search Engine Optimization, SEO involves formatting the content and structure of your website so that when users search the search engine, your site will be on the top results displayed. Read our complete guide on restaurant SEO to ensure you have a perfect website optimized for search performance.
6. Add great photos of food to build an appetite for ordering
Urbanbelly is one of the best restaurant website design examples.
People like mouth-watering photos, and this is how to catch the visitor's attention and persuade people to buy from your online store or visit and eat in the dining room of your restaurant. Inviting images can deliver that feeling of “I should taste it.”
Another great example is from Bon Bouquet Café.
Besides, use interactive video backgrounds if possible. You can show a full-screen video of people enjoying your restaurant food. Full-screen images or clips of your happy diners help humanize your place and make for the best restaurant websites.
7. Create a clean and modern design
Barra lays out the navigation clearly, with every option noticeable.
Disco Cheetah is also one of great design examples.
A great restaurant website design means a big no to space overcrowding. Visitors scroll and navigate to too many hot areas, which is likely frustrating.
Our suggestion is to not make your visitors click four or five times to get the information they need. More straightforward navigation is user-friendly compared to something harder for users to use.
For example, make your home page uncluttered and clean with the main information about your restaurant (e.g., name, logo, services, testimonials, and great headlines). Based on that, decide what to include in the rest of the pages. Ensure your menu site design is clear and intuitive.
8. Make your own restaurant website design mobile-friendly
Sushi X website before using One2
After
Over 50% of web traffic is from mobile phones. That is why mobile traffic is crucial when it comes to your website design.
Here are some tips for optimizing your restaurant website for mobile devices:
- Use the Google tool to test its look on mobile devices.
- Minimize the loading times by selecting the right host for your site and saving photos in a compressed format, for example.
- Use One2’s QR code contactless menus made for mobile customers.
9. Tell your restaurant's story on an ‘About Us’ page to show your human side
Hisa Franko
You can build a personal connection with customers by telling a story. A few ideas include:
- How you were determined to start a restaurant and how you could realize that dream.
- When your eatery was established.
- Where you were inspired for your menu
- Where your food comes from.
- How your food is prepared.
- Who your core team is.
- Who the head chef in your restaurant is.
10. Create a blog
The best restaurant website design generally includes a blog - it works to communicate with your customers. You can write about many relevant topics and share the content on your social media pages. Some topic ideas for your next blog posts include:
- Highlight special events.
- Highlight new menu items with Mouth-watering images.
- Keep customers updated about gift card offers.
- Showcase user-generated content.
- Highlight positive reviews.
11. Stay sociable
Ensuring your restaurant is properly represented on social channels should generate sales right from those networks and assist with your higher organic ranking on search engine results. A few tips in this regard include:
- Make sure your social networks showcase the same quality content as your website.
- Narrow your field based on which works best for your business. For example, should you like taking your food photos, Pinterest and Instagram are good bets.
- Keep those channels updated with relevant information and posts.
- Publish your menu to “Google My Business.” One2 automatically syncs the menu with it, saving you time and increasing your restaurant visibility.
- Link your social channels back to your website.
12. Have an FAQ page
Being short for frequently asked questions, FAQs help direct visitors to the information they may need. Besides, consider having a form for those whose questions you did not mention on the FAQ page. Such restaurant website designs are responsive, improvising user experience.
13. Set up retargeting marketing
Retargeting means targeting potential customers with some interest in your restaurant website. According to MailChimp, this approach boosts your chance for a sale by 50% and decreases cart abandonment (i.e., visitors who start to buy yet never follow through). Moreover, it improves sales from your online stores by 20%.
14. Ensure your brand is present
Websites of chains like McDonald’s and Domino's are some of the best restaurant website design examples partly on the back of their band reinforcing. The site colors, languages, and offers are present throughout their branding efforts.
McDonald’s
Related questions
1. How a website can benefit my ghost kitchen?
A website powered by One2’s ghost kitchen software helps:
- Take orders.
- Market your business online.
- Better customer experience.
- Increase sales.
2. How can I maintain my best restaurant websites after launching?
- Post on your blog two times or three per week.
- Answer questions you receive on the FAQ page. You may turn the question and answer into a blog post for visitors to learn more.
- Keep WordPress and plugins updated.
- Analyze your restaurant website traffic with Google Search Console.
3. How much should I charge for a restaurant website design?
$6,760 on average
4. Is it worth using a website builder?
Yes. They make it simpler to create your restaurant website and manage it long-term. You may create the site with a website builder, then use your custom code to add particular features you want.
