How the perfect restaurant website should look like

When planning a web page it is essential to study some aspects of it well: knowing the brand, the sector and the potential customer are three key elements and this will make our page work.

In the case of a restaurant website, there are aspects of the sector that are essential to understand and that are often overlooked. In this post we try to list some elements that, if fulfilled, will guarantee us many diners.

Let's take a look:

The perfect restaurant website must have:

1. The target

I imagine that you have well identified your usual clientele, and most importantly, the type of clientele you want in the medium term and the one you want to get through the Internet (often they do not coincide). So the website must breathe and contain the elements that define these objectives. The type of web design, typographies, language, use and selection of photographs or iconography will be very different if we are facing an informal restaurant, etiquette, for families or for couples.

2. The menu

Users will be interested in knowing as much as possible about the culinary offer of the restaurant. You can limit yourself to describing the type of cuisine and accompanying it with some photos, but we recommend going further: present in as much detail as possible the dishes, menus offered and prices. TIP: if we post the menus only in PDF or, even worse, in an iframe of an external platform, Google will have a hard time reading them and we will lose SEO positioning potential. 

3. Photos and videos

Isn't it true that we eat with our eyes? It is essential for a restaurant website to have photographs of its dishes, and that these are as elaborate as possible. If you have the resources, invest in a good photo shoot so that the photos make the most of your delicacies. Do not limit yourself to photographing the dishes, it will be essential to have good photographs of the restaurant. If possible, include a video as well. Remember that videos help user retention on the page and can contribute to SEO if they are on Youtube.

4. Philosophy

In the restaurant industry there is a lot to offer, so we recommend you create a section presenting the restaurant with a good story telling. Explain the origins of the project, and above all its value proposition: what makes your restaurant unique and why they should visit it.

5. Reviews

User testimonials can help visitors orient themselves as to what they will find in your restaurant and whether it will meet their needs and expectations. To generate maximum confidence we recommend that these reviews are not manually inserted and supervised by the owner of the site, but come from external and independent platforms such as Google or Trip Advisor. This will generate more confidence and you should not be afraid if your restaurant works well and diners leave happy.

6. Contact and bookings

Once we have convinced the visitor, we must make it as easy as possible for them to book a table. The more channels you can enable the better, always combining some agile and other unhurried: phone, whatsapp, chat, email, contact form ... the possibilities are endless. In case it is organizationally and technologically possible, we recommend enabling the online booking option, in real time and making it possible to block our table.

7. Useful information

It is not necessary to have a specific section, but you should know that on a restaurant website the user will appreciate being informed about fundamental aspects such as opening hours, address and how to get there, contact information, and any other useful information to take into account before deciding to book or visit the restaurant. It will also be useful and filtered aspects such as information on allergens, local capacity, if you offer local pick up or take away services, and so on.

Websites for restaurants made by us

In our web design agency, as you can see in our portfolio, we work with a variety of sectors and types of businesses. In the case of restaurants we will highlight 3 projects that we especially like:

Racó de la Vila

A modern website for a classic restaurant in the maritime area of Barcelona, dedicated to paella and fish. We worked on a website with the latest technology and design, where the protagonists are the space and the dishes.

Los Bellota

In this case we were facing a type of restaurant specialized in a product, ham, and this involves the whole web design and its visual and written language.

Metropolitan Café

We highlight this one because it responds to a type of restaurant very different from the previous ones, with fast food, in a tourist area and with a lot of international public. In this case you will see a much cleaner website, with a much more cheerful and aggressive use of colors and typographies, and easy to read and navigate.

Conclusions

In this post we have reviewed the main points to consider when building a restaurant website that succeeds on the Internet. As said, restaurant websites must have different characteristics from other websites in other sectors, and at the same time your restaurant website must be unique and faithful to what you want to transmit and defend in your restaurant.