Once we step inside, restaurants make us bon appétit.

But how to create a website that will make internet users feel your food?

Despite the number of other options available, restaurant websites are an essential attribute of any modern business. It will give an opportunity to create a centralized location where visitors can view your menu, find your location, make a reservation, and know about upcoming events.

On the other hand, restaurant websites are not like other business sites. There are certain traits you must follow to build the best restaurant website.

Our article talks about the creation of proper restaurant website design which will help even first-timers to craft a gorgeous restaurant website.

Without further ado, let’s get started.

Tips for Creating an Amazing Restaurant Website

Creating a lively environment, and offering finger licking dishes will make your restaurant sprawling, which is only half the battle. The other half is adapting to the online world. Restaurant websites are becoming unhealthy due to their outdated designs, and bad user experience. When you visit such websites, you wonder, “What was this web designer thinking?” Apart from outdated stuff like PDF menus, image-based content instead of text, they have an extremely slow load time.

And the list goes on…

With attention span plummeting, you literally have few seconds to grab the attention of users.

To harness the power of the people available in your market, keep these tips in mind when designing your restaurant website.

1.Find Target Audience for your Restaurant, Hotel

From the very beginning, you must find out your target audience.

If there is a university near your restaurant, students and teachers will be your regulars. If there is a business centre nearby, business executives will visit your place often. So check your surroundings, age group, and their preference to find out your target audience.

Once you define your target audience, you can start the creation of your restaurant website. If your restaurant website is for students, opt for a bright design. But if it is to attract business people, pick an elegant or professional style.

You can also include “happy hours” or other discounts to draw customers. You can create a separate page, slider image or pop-up to give details.

Here are a few websites that have mentioned happy hours to keep their customers well-informed.

the Butcher Shop

Transfer Pizzeria Cafe

2. Select Design for your Restaurant Website, Hotel Website

Typically, your restaurant website must cover the basics, i.e. company name, contact information (email, phone, and address), and a short explanation on what you do and for whom you do.

Further, the URL should be easily linked to your business, and use dot com (preferable) or dot net suffix.

Beyond this, what you include on your website must reflect what you’re trying to accomplish. If you are confused and don’t know where to start, you can get help from a restaurant website designer.

Try to keep your restaurant website as simple as possible.

There is a design principle followed by the US Navy known as KISS (Keep it simple, stupid). Make sure you follow this principle.

If a user doesn’t find what he is looking for, then it’s bye bye for good.

Check out these simple restaurant website designs and try to create something similar to it.

Also Read

Top Restaurants In Coimbatore Digital Marketing Audit – ColorWhistle

G2g

Culinaria Mediterranean Kitchen

Egg Slut

3. Focus on Color Scheme to Create a Simple Restaurant Website

Color palettes that are commonly used in restaurants are brown, white, red, black, yellow and green.

But, you can see a selection of other color spectrum’s used in restaurant websites. But these colors are preferred for a reason.

Restaurant website examples- Color Scheme

Red and black

Red determines strength, power, and determination. Black is associated with power and elegance.

Here are some websites that have used the best color combinations. 

Chinwa

Delicatessen

Brown symbolizes wholesomeness, reliability, and honesty.

Marianne

White determines safety, purity, and cleanliness.

OliveGarden

Green is associated with freshness and safety.

Lemonadela

Yellow determines freshness, happiness and joy

4. All Restaurant and Hotel Websites Must Have an Easily Accessible Menu

A menu will tell everything you need to know about a restaurant. Basically, the menu will show you the types of food available and how much you pay for each one.

Properly designed restaurant site menu can direct the attention of users to specific items which in turn will increase the likelihood of those items being ordered.

Even though you cannot control a user’s decision, you can effectively direct them and not leave it to random chance of selections.

Your restaurant site must include all these information,

• Attractive photos of the food
• Detailed description
• Dietary information
• Price
• Recommendations and specials
• New items added

Here are some websites that have mouth watering menus.

Giraffe

Cream Centre

5. An Outgoing Restaurant or Hotel Site.

Earlier advertising and marketing a restaurant was simple. It took radio spots, newspaper ads, and few occasional TV commercial.

Today, internet and mobile devices are connecting everyone. So you can successfully advertise your restaurant website through social media marketing.

By being active on social networking websites, users can follow your news and updates.

Through social media, you can drive traffic to your website, interact with customers, and give people a chance to address their complaints. Plus you can host various contests on your social media sites and encourage customers to participate.

Here are some restaurants that have a highly active social media presence. 

Tacobell’s – Instagram Page

Wendy’s Twitter Page

6. Quality Images is a Must For a Restaurant Website and Hotel Website

Everything on your restaurant website serves a purpose, from design, navigation, and even images.

It is said that 90% of the formation in the human brain is visual.

A picture is worth 1,000 words. If you have outdated or poor images on your restaurant site, you will be telling the wrong story to your visitors.

Large background photos are an amazing choice to create an attractive restaurant website design. Also, add high-quality images to your menu to demonstrate how delicious your dishes are. And add some interior photos to showcase the cosy atmosphere in your restaurant.

Through food photography, you must awaken the desire of users to try the dish.

Here are some restaurant websites that use stunning images.

Auchevalchicago

Also Read

Online Boutique Food Store Websites for Inspiration

7. Every Restaurant or Hotel Website Must Have a Cool ‘About Us’ Page

The primary purpose of a restaurant website is to win people and top your competitors.

Your ‘About Us’ page introduces your business to your website visitors, tell them what you do and hopefully convert them into customers.

‘About Us’ page is like speed dating with your visitors, you only have a few minutes to win them over.

Books and magazines are read differently from web information. And people select the key points for themselves. Highlight the important points in italics to help users take in information and also index better for search engines like Google.

Here are some restaurant websites that have innovative ‘About Us’ pages. 

GreenLabel

MellowMushroom

Bonus Design Tips For your Restaurant Website, Hotel Website

1. Logo Placement

Most of the websites logo is placed in the top left corner of the page and there is a scientific reason behind it.

When a user opens a website, their view runs from left to right because they are used to reading that way.

So it is recommended to place the logo on the top left corner of the page.

2. Optimize Images for SEO

Images are considered to be one of the main sources of traffic. According to a study conducted for traffic generated through images, up to 60% of web traffic can come from a user finding your images.

Keep these points in mind when optimizing images:

• Use relevant images that go with the content.
• Set the right file name for images.
• Reduce file size for quick loading.
• Use image alt text.
• Image measurements should match the displayed image.

3. Mobile Friendly Designs

More than half the population uses smartphones. That’s millions of people browsing the web to find information about products on the go.

Through a well designed mobile responsive website, you can easily move ahead of your competitors. It is also an opportunity to showcase your creativity, and more importantly your business to a wide pool of mobile users.

Make sure your restaurant website is mobile-friendly to impress users on a positive note.

4. Set Up a ‘Google My business’ Page for Local Search

‘Google my business’ is an easy way to freely list your restaurant website on Google. Through it, users can find all the information in one place such as business hours, location, contact information, reviews, and busy times.

With all these information, customers can decide if they want to visit your restaurant or not. If you don’t set up this page, you will lose the chance of featuring in the top of search results.

5. Showcase Special Services

If you offer catering services, or a banquet room set up a separate webpage for these services. Add photos of buffet tables, and the room you set up for different events (wedding, meetings and parties).

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Now You’re Ready to Create a Restaurant Website!

When creating a restaurant website, it is easy to concentrate on flashy and shiny elements rather than special features required.

What a person sees while entering your restaurant’s physical front door is as important as what they see when landing on your restaurant website.

So don’t let an outdated website be the reason to undermine all the hard work you put in.

Find a way to display what people will find inside your restaurant- flavour and experience.

There are a lot of other factors to be considered when creating a restaurant website. But these tips are some of the must-have common traits.

Take these ideas and run with them to create a lip-smacking restaurant website.

There are millions of restaurants to choose from. How to make your restaurant website design stand out? Contact us today and we’ll help you create a yummy website which will draw people in.