What a restaurant website needs, and what to have ready

Almost everybody who opens a restaurant website is going to eat within the next few hours. They are not there for the story of the founder, the philosophy of the kitchen, or the typeface. They want four answers: what you serve, roughly what it costs, where you are, and whether you are open now.

The checklist below is ordered by how urgently those questions get asked, which is not the order a website template puts them in. Templates tend to lead with the story.

Why a menu posted on Facebook is not enough

Plenty of restaurants post the menu as an image. That works for people already following the page, and fails twice for everybody else. First, an image is not text, so search engines cannot read what you sell. Second, posts sink under newer posts, so somebody arriving today finds last month prices.

A website fixes both by giving the menu a permanent address that can be found, shared, and edited without posting again. The page keeps doing what it does. They are not substitutes for each other.

What the site needs

In the order a visitor asks for them.

• A menu that is a web page, not a file — split into sections, with prices, and labels people ask about: spicy, vegetarian, no pork, house recommendation. Editable by you when costs move.
• A map, parking information and opening hours — one tap to navigate, parking answered because in a city it is the second question, and a holiday schedule kept separate so it is unambiguous.
• A booking or pre-order button — a short form with date, time, party size and a phone number, delivered to LINE or email while the customer is still deciding.
• A page per branch — its own map, its own hours, its own phone number. This is also what lets each branch be found by its own neighbourhood.
• Structured data a machine can read — name, cuisine, address, hours and price range written in a form Google can parse, which is what makes a richer result possible.
• Photographs that load quickly — pictures decide it, and heavy pictures lose the visitor before they appear.
• A promotions page you can switch off — seasonal menus and festival sets, published and retired by you when the campaign ends.
• Online ordering, only if you need it — cart, payment and an order back office, for restaurants selling directly instead of through delivery apps.

A page structure that works

This works for a single restaurant up to three or four branches. Each page has a job in the decision, rather than existing because other sites have one.

• Home — answers the four questions inside the first screen: what, roughly how much, where, and open when
• Menu — by section, with prices and labels. The second most visited page after home, every time
• Booking — the shortest form you can manage: date, time, party size, phone
• Branches — one page each, with map, parking, hours and that branch phone number
• About — the food and the story, for people already interested who want more confidence
• Promotions — only while one is running
• Contact — phone, LINE, map, and a route for events or business enquiries

With a menu under thirty items and a single location, the same order collapses into one long scrolling page. That is the fastest to build and the easiest to keep current.

What to have ready before the build starts

With these in hand the estimate is accurate and the work can start immediately. Without them it can still start, but on the structure rather than the content.

• The current menu with current prices, in something typed rather than photographed
• At least ten food photographs — a phone is fine if the light is good and the dish is clear
• Two or three of the room, including the shopfront people use to recognise the place
• The address exactly as it appears on Google Maps, and the map link
• Opening and closing times per day, including the weekly closing day
• How you want to be contacted — phone, LINE, or both
• Parking details, and booking conditions if there are any
• The logo in its original file if it exists, otherwise the highest resolution copy you have

Can I start smaller?

Yes, and for a new restaurant a single page with the menu, a map, the hours and a phone number beats waiting until everything is ready. One condition: register the domain in the name of the business rather than the person building it, because that is the only part that cannot follow you later.

Where doing it yourself tends to stop working is multiple branches, seasonal menus, and catering enquiries — keeping the same information consistent in several places, and getting each branch found in its own area.

If you want that built for you, the restaurant website page sets out what each package covers and what it costs.