Every restaurant website has one main goal and that is to attract customers. All too often, I see poorly designed restaurant websites which are missing the main element ingredients needed to successfully convert visitors to customers.

What are the key ingredients in an effective restaurant website? Listed below are the 5 items that every restaurant website needs to have to maximize its likelihood of converting web site traffic into paying customers.

1. Map and Directions

Don't make it problematic for visitors to find where your restaurant is located. Instead of only listing the address on your website, display an easy-to-read map and directions, which means that your customers can easily find your restaurant. The easiest and quickest solution to display a map to your restaurant is by using Google Maps and embed it on your website.

2. An Accessible Restaurant Menu

If your restaurant website doesn't are the menu with the prices - do it now! Your menu may be the main marketing tool on your own website and your possibility to make mouths water, so do not forget to include some enticing pictures of one's dishes.

The key thing here's to create your menu accessible. Frequently Extra resources see restaurants take the lazy approach and upload a PDF copy of their menu. PDFs take an agonizingly, long time to load, particularly if people are attempting to view your menu from their cell phones. PDFs also provide no search engine optimization (SEO) benefits for the website.

My advice is to take the extra time to develop a dedicated menu page on your website. Ensure that your menu page includes descriptions of the food, any specials or promotions and appealing photos of your dishes.

3. A Photo Gallery of your Restaurant and Food

People want to see what the restaurant looks like before they opt to eat there. This is why every restaurant website needs to have an image gallery. Hire a specialist photographer to come during among your restaurant's busy times and capture the ambiance, decor and dishes that make your restaurant unique. Then display the photos on your website in a simple photo gallery.

Pictures are worth a thousands words and great pictures are invaluable for convincing visitors to arrived at your restaurant.

4. An Effective, Restaurant Homepage

Your homepage is the most important page on your website since it makes the first impression. Within seconds of arriving to your homepage, a person will decide if it is worth their time and energy to look through the others of your site.

So how do you make sure your homepage is engaging?

Firstly, your homepage needs to display a prominent photo of one's restaurant. Pick a really great picture of one's restaurant or perhaps a signature dish and make sure it is the very first thing people see if they come to your website.


You also have to have some well-written copy to check your image. The copy should tell people what your restaurant is about and how it really is not the same as other restaurant experiences. Make certain the content is short and compelling. If this content is too long, people only will not take the time to read it.

Finally, beside your primary image or your marketing copy, you must include a strong proactive approach. A proactive approach is a link or perhaps a button that encourages the individual viewing your homepage to click to some other page. Types of good calls to actions for a restaurant website would be:

View our delicious menu and weekly specials (links to your menu page)
Take a tour of our restaurant (links to your photo gallery page)
Make a reservation for the next event (links to your e mail us page)
5. Reservation Information on Every Page

Every restaurant website requires a dedicated area for making reservations on each page of these website.

If you are in a position to install an online reservation system on your restaurant website, that would be the ideal solution. Another way to accept reservations online is to use OpenTable.com which is absolve to use. However, if you don't want to bother with online reservations right now, just display a telephone number that people can use to create a reservation directly.

The main point here is to make the reservation information highly visible on every page. The most effective spot to put your reservation info reaches the top of one's website, near your primary navigation. This makes the info easy to spot for your visitors and they will appreciate you for it.