The restaurant industry is undoubtedly one of the most competitive industries in the world. Restaurants are constantly looking for new ways to set themselves apart from their competition and provide a memorable experience to keep customers coming back for more. Unfortunately, with all of these newcomers, it can be hard to stand out from the crowd.
For many restaurants, the website has become an essential part of this marketing strategy. A website is an excellent way for your business to provide information about you quickly and easily. The problem? It’s hard to know where to start when it comes to setting up your restaurant’s website.
In this article, we’ll go over some key elements that will help your restaurant website convert better and get more customers at the door!
Get restaurant insurance
When you think of restaurant insurance, property damage expense like roof leak repair cost comes to mind. However, restaurant insurance can also help protect your website and can offer liability coverage if a large company sues you for copyright infringement on your website.
This is useful because it’s better to prevent than wait until the problem occurs. In addition, insurance can help you avoid lawsuits and liability issues in the future, and, for a convenient option, you can also get restaurant business insurance online. This enables you to avoid the hustle of going to a brick-and-mortar insurance agency, which usually takes appointments and can sometimes be extremely time-consuming, something you don’t have enough to spare as a restaurant owner.
Have a clear, concise menu
This is the most essential element for any restaurant website and should always be included! Without a menu, your potential customer has no idea what you’re even offering, so it never hurts to have one.
For example, if someone knows they want a burger, they know to go to the Burger section of your website. On the other hand, if someone wants more information about a specific type of food, it’s easy for them to filter through different categories and find what they’re looking for.
Displaying your menu helps customers save time and understand the types of food you serve. In addition, it saves customers from the hassle of contacting you for a menu, which could potentially turn them off.
Include photos and videos of your food
A photo speaks a 1000 words, and a video tells a story. Photos and videos are the best way to show off your food in an enticing, appetizing manner. This helps people see exactly what they’ll be getting in just a few clicks, which will increase their trust in ordering from you over other competitors.
Photos and videos of your food provide customers with quality information about what they’re ordering before even stepping foot inside your restaurant! It gives them more room to explore on their own time without feeling pressured or overwhelmed by staff. Additionally, it’s an excellent opportunity to show customers favorites and specialties.
Make it easy for customers to find information about you through search engines
While having a website is a great first step, you should take local SEO into consideration too! Make sure your keywords are relevant and accurate so that potential restaurant-goers can easily find you on the internet.
You should incorporate these keywords into your website’s metadata, title tags, headline text, and more to make the most of this opportunity. This helps your website rank better and increases the likelihood of being found through search engines.
However, it’s essential to find the right set of keywords to target. For this, you can leverage a keyword research tool. In these tools, all you have to do is enter a primary search term and the tool will provide you a list of relevant keywords. From these, you can choose the right one for your brand.
Add a contact form
It’s crucial for customers to have a way to contact you. So add an easy-to-find, prominently displayed form that is simple and quick for them to fill out. This way, if they have questions or comments, they can easily reach out to you for help.
It would help if you also let them know how much time it’ll take to get a response from your restaurant with the contact form, or a number they can call if they prefer to talk to a real person instead. This can be good for older customers who aren’t very tech-savvy. Again, this is an excellent way to increase customer interaction with your restaurant’s website.
Add an online ordering system for takeout or delivery
Offering an online ordering system is a great way to increase customer convenience and make it easy for customers who are on the go to get their food.
Adding an online ordering system also a great way to increase customer satisfaction and retention. It eliminates the need for customers to go through the hassle of making phone calls or going into your restaurant just to place orders. Also, it would be best to use auto scheduling app for your restaurant employees and customers to run your restaurant effectively.
Make the website easy to navigate
Your priority when it comes to your website is that it needs to be easy for customers to navigate. Providing a menu that includes tabs, categories or sub-sections is an excellent way of organizing your content and making it easier for the customer to find their information quickly and easily without having to do too much searching.
Have a prominent ‘Call Us’ button at the top of your website that connects directly to your business phone system so that customers can call you with any questions before visiting.
Additionally, your website should be fast to load and should not have any major design issues. A simple, straightforward design is the best way to make your website easy for customers and potential clients to navigate. Be sure to check for spelling and grammar errors before publishing the website as well!
Provide customer reviews
Reviews act as social proof and provide an excellent opportunity for customers to give restaurant feedback. This is also an excellent time to offer incentives, such as discounts or freebies, in exchange for leaving reviews.
Apart from this, customer reviews also help build trust and are an excellent opportunity for you to engage with your customer base. They also highlight areas of improvement and help you identify areas that need to be focused on. Lastly, reviews help your site show up higher in search engine results pages (SERPs), which can translate to more traffic and revenue for your business!
Have protection in place
A lot of the information on your website is private and sensitive. So make sure to secure all the important points with security measures like SSL encryption for any page that collects sensitive data like payment information (e.g., “checkout”) or login credentials (e.g., “sign-in”). It’s the easiest way to ensure your customer’s data is secure as they continue to browse your website.
This is especially important if customers are asked to submit personal information like credit card numbers for online ordering. In addition, not having protection makes your website susceptible to cybercrimes and identity theft, which can lead to significant business implications.
Final Thoughts
Building an excellent website isn’t easy; it takes time, resources, and a lot of effort. Additionally, it’s challenging to keep up with the constantly changing landscape of web design.
It’s worth the investment, though, as it can help your restaurant stay afloat in this competitive industry. By incorporating the key elements above, you can make a website that is effective and secure.
