Does your Restaurant's Website Matter?

We could make this blog extremely short and answer the post's title question in a one word answer, "yes!" but we will explain ourselves. Yes, your restaurant's website does matter. Websites matter very much when it comes to restaurants for a variety of reasons. Nowadays, most people are used to going online to find out information about things before they try them and a website is no different.

So, when you're putting together your restaurant's website, there's a few features that you need to make sure you have to make it a worthwhile resource. Sure you can buy a domain and hosting, and put some text on a webpage, but that's not enough. You need to really think about what your customers want to know. A restaurant's website is essentially a large Frequently Asked Questions page. So ask yourself: what questions do my customers want answered? What time do I open, what's on the menu, what are my specials, and what kind of restaurant is it. These layout the content you want most on your site. Here's what you need to include:

Hours - Part of the basics of a restaurant website is including your hours. Your customers need a place to find what time you're open and what days you're open. This information is often overlooked but it shouldn't be. People expect your website to have basic information such as this so they can plan accordingly. If you are a restaurant that provides delivery make sure you include what time you stop delivering or what time an order has to be in by to still get a delivery.

Menu - When it comes to a menu on a website, you could essentially have a menu and nothing else on your site and it be a big improvement over some restaurant websites. People want to know what food you have to offer before even getting to your location. With as much time as it can take to eat out, between the drive to the restaurant, waiting for a table, sitting down, and then finally received the paper menu, people want to know that there's something actually on the menu for them. To not have a menu listed online, you can scare away customers who want to look ahead of time. This feature on a website can make a huge difference.

Photos - While this one isn't a requirement, with the exception of an image of the outside of the establishment, it's good to have at least a few items of the interior and a few pictures of the food. It helps people decide if they want to visit, the style of the restaurant, and the dress code.

Specials/Coupons - This may be left off completely if your restaurant has neither specials nor coupons, but both of these are great tactics for bringing in new customers, or getting routine, loyal, customers. If you have a special on Wednesday nights for half off burgers, and a specific customer loves your burgers, you'll get them to come in on Wednesdays.

There's other components that some customers like to know too. For example, some customers want to know the story behind the restaurant, what their philanthropy is, read customer reviews, etc. These are going above and beyond though. Simply answer the questions people want to know most and your website will serve its purpose. At the end of the day, your website can grow your business if you use it correctly; make sure it meets the needs of your customers.