Let’s say you have succeeded in constructing your very first lunch place in Hobart. The next logical step to take is to think about how to get customers coming in. One of the most fundamental ways to market any type of businesses today is to create a website and getting in the appropriate online content to get your potential customers interested. Organizing your restaurant website content may bring headaches even to web developers, so don’t feel overwhelmed just yet. We got you.
Concepts like SEO for ranking in Google and client leaks seem like a hassle and there are complicated website builders on the market with templates that make it appear simple at first before turning into a restaurant owner’s nightmare.
We’ll cover All that and more throughout our useful how to section but let us start with the fundamentals:
Select your www individuality
First things first, prior to content comes your site’s address or URL.
We can’t stress enough how important it is to select a restaurant website URL that is not hard to type from the browser’s address bar whenever you are a little hungry and you’re thinking about putting an order or looking at the menu.
Your www speech should be readily identifiable with your new, easy to pronounce and even simpler to recall by clients.
Consider it this way… would it pass on the radio test?
Make the most of your restaurant website articles
This needs to ring a bell. Whenever you search for something online, locate a web site which appears to be what you were searching for and when you enter a said site, you can not seem to discover the info that you needed. The content appears cluttered, the navigation appears to be complicated and all you wanted is to find the contact page (for example) and you can only find it after spending too much energy and time. Furthermore, you clicked on some buttons hoping that it would turn out to be the page you were looking for but you were faced with a non-working page.
Now think about this: would you be more inclined to give up to reach that particular contact page?
The same applies to everything.
Website visitors just don’t have the time or the patience — why struggle to find something on your webpage that is not there from the start when they can simply click the browser’s Back button and go somewhere else? This is exactly why you want a business IT support to maintain the validity of your website.
It is important to put yourself in the shoes of their users and imagine what information they need. And, ask yourself this — how will your customers find your site?
It might appear a little bit backward but there are 2 main situations here.
Your site visitor’s mindset affects the content
Scenario 1: They already know Your Company
A potential customer used a search engine to find your restaurant by name (e.g.: “restaurant pronto”) — this implies that the consumer already understood about your company, your own brand.
This is important because now we must think about customer behaviour, which is an integral part of online marketing, as your network consultant would say.
What is this person looking for?
We guarantee it is not pictured out of your own kitchen or shots of their staff. Typically, these are customers who are looking for either your ordering button to get a delivery/takeaway, the menu or a means to create a table reservation.
Scenario 2: They are searching for something generic
Let us say users reach your site while searching for “fine dining restaurant at Hobart”.
If they wind up on your own webpage, you need to make them feel as if they have found exactly what they were looking for. This usually means you ought to make it clear out of your headline what’s your specialty — in this scenario, fine dining — and where you are — Hobart.
So now you verified your restaurant is what the user wants out of your headline, and we started thinking about the customer’s mindset, what is the next step?
Here it is a bit different than the first situation.
These people aren’t yet prepared to reach out to you, they are still in the research phase. Next logical step for them would be to have a look at the menu and also take a look at the dishes and, obviously, that the costs.
Should they download a PDF document or an image to see the menu, you already lost some points.
It is disruptive and the opposite of user-friendly. We’ll cover more on this topic and others below.
The recipe for structuring your content
We know you are all about recipes and this one is no different than the magic you do in the kitchen. You offer dishes that you know clients would adore. Why would your site be any different?
Make it so the possible customer only wants to think about your dishes, not in which the menu might be hiding. There are significant sections your restaurant’s website should have and others which are just extras and both you and your prospective customer can easily be without.
- What could you write on your business card? Can you write an elaborate intro along with description?
- Just how many people would read it?
Exactly the same applies here. At a web page design, the protagonist is the top part of the webpage, the very first thing the customer sees. It serves to inform the visitor what the webpage is about and sometimes includes a button — the call to action (e.g.: Download today, Purchase now, Order today, etc.).
Like we mentioned previously, it’s important to give the users the information they need. That is why an effective website design must contain:
- Who you are — your restaurant title
- What you really do — kind of cuisine (Italian, Chinese, etc.)
- Where you’re — town, maybe even district or place
Navigation menu Ought to Be intuitive
A pro tip would be to make sure the most important sections of your site are accessible from the navigation menu (also referred to as a header) – the very best bar at the beginning of your page that has your own emblem , button (in some instances ) and important links you want the user to click on.
We showed earlier the importance of getting access right away into the menu, location and contact details or online ordering button so your navigation should definitely incorporate people.
Set the restaurant in a visible place
We talked about the reason why a visitor came on your page so we know by now that these users come to take a look at the menu, quite possibly to check if you do delivery or at least pick up too.
This usually means that the menu needs to be as large as possible from the page — perhaps in the hero region or the navigation menu, based on the plan.
It must clearly reflect what dishes you serve, the price, menu of the day (if it applies), any special promotions or loyalty rewards and for additional juice, some mouth-watering images of your dishes.
Show your customers your location and how to get to you
Maybe you already added your city or district’s name at the enthusiast of your webpage but what about the speech? We would recommend not adding the entire thing in your headline but instead a bit lower in the page but still keeping it visible and readily accessible.
Additionally, we recommend adding a map for your clients so they can see just where to find you.
Pro tip: you receive bonus points if you add a location pin and include a Google Maps integration. Not only is it helpful for SEO (search engine optimization), hence ranking higher in search results but in addition, it suggests that customers arriving by car will have the ability to easily navigate there.
Include a picture gallery of your dishes
Have you ever noticed most people are utilized by today with ordering from a menu without actually knowing what to anticipate from the dish? The interesting reality is that wouldn’t purchase a pair of jeans without even knowing what they look like, right?
When you are inside a restaurant, you don’t normally give it a second thought because of this — you’re already there. Nevertheless, in regards to an online distance, the consumers still have plenty of opportunities to give up putting an order or reserving a table. A good way to remind them why they are on your webpage and what they’ll get is by using a gallery on display with your best-selling menu items. These galleries are easy to make especially with the sophisticated technology of today’s cms website builder.
Make it Simple for clients to reserve a table
Whether you include a contact type or record your telephone number(s), it is important to let the customers readily reach out to you to make a reservation.
We’d personally recommend adding a link for the contact page or section even on your header — this is super helpful for potential customers that are looking into your website online just so they could reserve a table.
You might even use a tool so that anybody can check automatically if there’s any room left for their celebration. This means that you also save precious time your staff is now able to use on something else instead of answering the telephone and checking every single time somebody calls.
If this appears to be a hassle, don’t despair or give in to expensive solutions that may cover just your hosting and template. If you’d like your site up and running and already structured nicely with the information you fill out, we cover and more!