Restaurant Website Design

In today's online world, your restaurant website is as important as your sign out front. According to recent studies, over 55% of potential new guests will view restaurant websites before deciding where to dine. A good restaurant website design together with a well-planned restaurant internet marketing strategy is key to bringing you more guests and profits.

Your restaurant website needs to work hard for you. It needs to communicate your restaurant ambiance, it should help make sales, it should be a pleasurable place for people to visit, and it should bring back guests often.

Your restaurant website design should match your ambiance! Whether you have a 1950's style restaurant in a converted gasoline station or a French restaurant that makes diners feel they are in Paris, your restaurant website design should present the same feel diners have when they walk through your doors. A custom restaurant website design can help with that. But even if you have a very tight budget and can only afford a simple template, you should have as many pictures on your website as possible that will reflect your restaurant. Pictures of your food, your menu, your staff, the exterior and the interior of the restaurant can be a major factor for people making decisions to visit you.

Keep your menu up-to-date! Your menu is an important part of your restaurant website design. If you have separate menus for breakfast, lunch, dinner, brunch – all menus including prices should be on your website. And the menu should not only be able to be seen, but printed just like it would be if someone visited you and asked for a copy of the menu (without looking like it is simply a print screen from a website). Are there special menus? Kids menu? Wine and spirits menu? They should all be there. And you want your website visitors to enjoy the experience, so make it easy for them to view the different pages. If you have a different menu everyday, then you should should change your menu everyday on your website.

Special of the day! Do you have a special of the day or a special of the week? Put it on the website. A great place to have this special of the day is on your home page as well as your menu page. You might even consider making the special of the day a video instead of just text, especially for special days like Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, or even St. Patrick's Day. It's easy to post a video on youtube.com and have it display on your website.

Speaking of holidays! An “Upcoming Events” or “What's New” page is a great place to talk about special events, or special decorations, or special menus. But you don't want to read about Mother's Day at your restaurant in June. It should be in advanced allowing people to make decisions early.

Your restaurant website design should be selling 24/7! Remember your website is an important sales and marketing tool for you – much more than just a brochure. It can sell for you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, by taking reservations, book private parties and catering, sell gift cards and, if you offer it, sell merchandise.

Communicate! Have a place where people can email you. And be sure someone is responsible for answering those emails – really helps to build loyalty.

Hire online! An employment opportunities page can really help lower your recruiting costs. Have a form for future employees to fill out.

And finally – Get found! A good restaurant website design is the first step. A successful restaurant internet marketing program will include much more than just the website.

Need help? Contact Brevis Marketing Innovations today. See what our specialized staff can do for you.