Photo: freepik
Take note Food and Beverages business: your website needs to be properly prepared before serving.
Web design is far more than just making nice websites. It’s about serving a purpose, getting to an aim. We will share some best practices when designing a website specifically for food and beverages businesses.
77% of diners (surveyed by MGH) visit the website of a restaurant before dining or ordering out. Nearly 70% of them were discouraged to become customers because of its website. This is most likely due to bad and outdated design, which is exactly what we hope to avoid.
If you want a website built for a restaurant, cafe, bar, or of the sort, keep reading.
Define the objectives
Designing a website is not only thinking about what it looks like on screen. A website should answer these fundamental questions:
- Why does your website exist?
- What is its purpose?
- Why would people want to visit your website?
- What is your desired outcome of people visiting your website?
In the case of a restaurant usually the responses are as follows from the visitor’s perspective:
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To make reservations
This would be the closest move that would take your site visitor to being a customer. If you accept reservations on your establishment, then we highly suggest adding this feature to your website. The bare minimum would be to show a phone number to call on your website. But it’s even easier for those who aren’t keen to pick up the phone to have a reservation option online. This also applies to ordering the food you serve online, if you have such an offering.
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To view menu
– Maybe someone wants to know what you serve, to decide ahead of time. Anyone can have specific dietary requirements or preferences. Or perhaps they want to see what your latest specials are. Businesses usually present their goods and services on their website, after all. For a restaurant, a menu would be the equivalent of that.
– An Angelsmith survey showed that more than 80% of people were searching for online restaurant details before choosing to go there.
– That tells us that you should give them the details they want, starting with your menu. -
To see the ambience
It’s possible that your potential patrons would research you just to see what the interiors look like. For a special event they may be looking for a spot to put their family or loved ones. That means they want to dine somewhere in decor that fits their expectations.
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To decide whether or not to be a customer
This generally applies to any B2C website. People want to research before buying, and that would be the main intent for your first-time site visitors.
Determine the path to fulfill said objective
Each part of the process will outline the website’s must-haves, to match the previously established visitor’s intent. It’s about what you need and how the website turns up.
1. Place the Call-to-Action button on top
As soon as the website loads, visitors can see the button online to make a reservation or request, without having to scroll down. That is because you want to close the distance as closely as possible between visitor and customer. It may also be their second or third visit to you, too. They won’t need to see the rest of the contents of your web for them.
Place the button in the bottom, too. “Reserve Now” will be a call to action to close it off for those who take the time to browse the material on your website.
2. Make the menu easily accessible
Some restaurants make the mistake of uploading into their web a PDF version of their printed menu. This translates into very bad ease of use. No one should have to open a separate file just to see text and photos. Just have your entire menu populated natively on your site for easy reading.
3. Have lots of pictures
If your interior design is part of your outlet’s appeal and beauty, be sure to show several beautiful pictures of them. If you have a big premise with several parts, then build a section of the gallery on your site to show off all of them.
If your menu items are the bigger attraction, then show pictures of those instead.
Nearly 60% of 18to 24-year-olds and 55% of 25-34-year-olds specifically look for pictures of food on a restaurant’s website in the same survey by MGH.
4. Add content to attract customers
As your potential customers research you, you want to give them as many reasons as possible to become one. If you have any of these, show them prominently:
- Ratings from platforms like TripAdvisor, Yelp, or Google Maps
- Testimonials from past patrons
- Photos of celebrities who have been customers before
- Awards and press coverage
The rest is art
Only after you have accomplished your website’s goals, you can start to care about its look and feel. You can now decide things such as colours, fonts, visual elements and even the writing personality. Which should all be consistent with your other marketing materials and branding.
These are just a few of the things your restaurant website needs to consider. Other items can be special to your business, requiring interaction with web designers.
We will help you design your restaurant website to serve a real-world purpose.
