ICON_PLACEHOLDEREstimated reading time: 6 minutes
If you are running a restaurant without a restaurant website, you definitely got off on the wrong foot! You’d better evolve or die according to the National Restaurant Association in the United States.
They reported that “more than 80% of U.S. adults have gone online in 2018 to research and compare products — including restaurant services. Today’s consumers now Discover, Evaluate, Buy and Engage in purchase decisions differently than they did before. Your restaurant needs to take advantage of the digital tools consumers use.”
PR NewsWire reported on August 29 2019 that “nearly 70% of U.S. diners say a restaurant’s website has discouraged them from visiting. And 62% of those surveyed said a website has impacted their decision to order delivery or takeout from a restaurant.”
Besides, at the time of writing, we are being haunted by the coronavirus pandemic. On April 20 2020 in an article, the National Restaurant Association suggested shifting your sales strategy to online.
They said, “Social distancing has increased the adoption of online ordering as people spend more time at home. Having an ecommerce presence has never been more important to close the distance between you and customers.”
Why Do I Need A Restaurant Website?
First, a restaurant website including contacts and locations allows your potential customers to find you more easily. Even when they already know about you through referral because it is likely that they will Google you in advance.
Secondly, a reservation page on the website allows your customers to book tables 24/7.
Thirdly, an online ordering system on the website allows your customers to make orders and payments online 24/7.
Fourthly, folks can find customer reviews and testimonials on your restaurant website.
Fifthly, a restaurant website with the right content can keep your site at the top of search results pages i.e. higher SEO ranking on search engines like Google.
Sixthly, a restaurant website allows you to build credibility, corporate image, and brand awareness.
Additionally, you can share your posts on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, etc. This can funnel your social media visitors and followers back to your website.
Lastly, a website can tell your audience a lot of information like working hours, locations, foods that you serve, special events on your calendar, ambiance you offer, etc. It can educate, qualify, and convert leads into customers.
What Options Are Available?
Deciding which content management system (CMS) to use to create a restaurant website is the very first and yet the most critical step. However, there are tons of options available. Below is a summary of the most popular CMS you may use to create a restaurant website.
- Hosted platforms like Wix, Weebly, Squarespace and WordPress.com where you can find restaurant website templates
- Self-hosted platforms like WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal
Top Restaurants Use WordPress
WordPress is the world’s leading content management system (CMS) trusted by over 35% of all the website users worldwide.
The following restaurant franchise businesses use WordPress to power their websites.
- Boston Market, headquartered in Golden, Colorado, is a chain of fast casual restaurants at 332 locations in the U.S.
- Daddys Takoyaki is one of the best-selling takoyaki franchises in Indonesia.
The following are among the World’s 50 Best Restaurants using WordPress to power their websites.
- Celebrity chef Enrique Olvera is credited with proving that rustic Mexican flavours deserve as much attention as any other haute cuisine in the world. And Pujol has been his pedestal to make that point via a tasting menu of refined and elegant plates built from indigenous ingredients that pay tribute to Mexico’s rich culinary history. This year, his vision is brilliantly justified as he wins the award for The Best Restaurant in North America 2019.
- Chef Zaiyu Hasegawa began his career at age 18 in the kitchen of a ryotei (exclusive traditional Japanese restaurant) in Tokyo’s Kagurazaka geisha area, where his mother worked. Eleven years later he opened Den, which moved to its current location in late 2016. They won the Art of Hospitality Award 2019, sponsored by Legle.
- Frantzén is back with a bang. From humble origins as a bijou dining room in Stockholm’s old town, Frantzén shut up shop in 2016 to relocate to larger premises. Set across three storeys of a spruced-up 19th-century townhouse in the Norrmalm district, the restaurant re-opened a year later to justified rapture.
- Under the umbrella of their El Barri group, Ferran and Albert Adrià command a total of five restaurants, all in Barcelona’s el Paralel neighborhood. The group offers everything from modern Mexican to Japanese-Mediterranean and 40-plus course progressive Spanish. In 2015, Albert Adrià was voted The World’s Best Pastry Chef.
- Chef and co-owner Julien Royer may look like he’s barely out of his teens, but he has serious pedigree. Having apprenticed under Michel Bras in his native France, Royer worked in the Caribbean and London before arriving in Singapore a decade ago. He established himself as the region’s rising star while at Jaan, before opening Odette in late 2015 at the grand National Gallery Singapore. This year, he cemented Odette’s status by winning The Best Restaurant in Asia 2019, sponsored by S.Pellegrino & Acqua Panna, at Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants in Macao.
- The Clove Club’s interpretation of ‘modern British’ is refreshing and full of surprises, with fresh produce from all over the UK reinvented in creations that put forward natural flavours and playfully mingle with tradition.
- Alain Passard has retained three Michelin stars at Arpège for more than two decades during times of great personal and culinary change, and in 2019 he was the recipient of the Chefs’ Choice Award, sponsored by Estrella Damm, at The World’s 50 Best Restaurants awards in Singapore.
- Housed within Bilbao’s Guggenheim Museum, Nerua Guggenheim Bilbao’s chef Josean Alija draws from Basque ingredients to create culinary masterpieces worthy of the location. His professional path hasn’t been easy: after recovering from a motorcycle accident that left him in a coma for 21 days in the year 2000, Alija had to relearn how to recognise flavours.
- Elkano Restaurant in Getaria, Spain: Aitor Arregui’s father used to say that to buy the best fish, you have to look the animal in the eyes and see that it still retains the brightness that means it is fresh. Today, his son and family run the most prestigious grill in the Basque Country.
A WordPress restaurant website has the following main features.
- Simplicity
- Flexibility
- Publish with Ease
- Publishing Tools
- User Management
- Media Management
- Built-in Comments
- Fully Customizable
- Browser Compatibility
- Multilingual Blogs
- Own Your Data
What Should A Restaurant Website Have?
First, to serve the aforesaid purposes, a restaurant website should include the following pages.
- Home
- About the restaurant
- Menu
- Gallery
- Reviews & testimonials
- Reservation & Ordering
- Contact for each location
Secondly, you may consider using content to market your services. They include blog posts, videos, podcasts, whitepapers, case studies, eBooks, webinars, guides, checklists, and quizzes.
Last but not least, you should also ensure the following in your restaurant website.
- Good UI/UX in terms of design, colors, fonts, and navigation
- Short and concise calls-to-action that stand out with compelling words
- Website performance optimization
- Mobile-friendly responsive design
Conclusion – The Best Solution
Which is the best solution to create a restaurant website? If you are just starting up with zero marketing budget, you may try DIY hosted solutions like Wix.
If you are serious about your restaurant business and looking to get a website or revamp the current one, you may want to scale up your web project with customizations and add-on features using WordPress. This makes search engine marketing, social media marketing, and content marketing a lot easier later.
