Nearly everyone who visits a restaurant website wants one of four things: the menu, the hours, the address or a table. They are almost always on a phone, often already on their way. A restaurant site that gets those four right does most of its job.
Put the menu on the page, not in a PDF
A menu published as a PDF is hard to read on a phone, and search engines cannot read it as easily as page text. Put the menu on a normal web page with sections and prices, and keep it current. If you change the menu with the seasons, this is the page to update first.
Make hours and address impossible to miss
Show the hours, the address and a tap-to-call number near the top of the page, and again in the footer. Include holiday hours when they differ. Wrong hours are one of the most common reasons a customer arrives to a closed door and leaves a poor review.
Keep the website and Google in sync
When hours or the menu change, update the website and your Google Business Profile on the same day. Many customers see the profile before they ever reach your site, so a mismatch between the two undoes the work. The profile checklist covers the fields to check.
Make reservations a single step
If you take reservations, put the button where it cannot be missed and make sure it works on a phone. If someone has to hunt through several taps to find it, many will simply call, or go elsewhere.
Show the place
Use real photos of the food, the room and the people. Customers are choosing where to spend an evening, and images of your own restaurant do more than stock photos ever can. Keep them compressed so the page loads fast.
Quick checks before you call it done
- Open the site on your own phone over mobile data and time how long the menu takes to appear.
- Search your restaurant name and check that hours and address match the site.
- Ask a friend to book a table using only the website.
If you would like help, see the page on websites for restaurants.