What a restaurant website needs

People open a restaurant site with one or two questions. Are you open? What's on the menu? Where do I park? If they can't answer those in a few seconds on their phone, they go back to Google and pick somewhere else.

Put the basics at the top

Hours, address and phone number should be the first things on the page. Not in the footer, not on a separate contact page. If your hours change on Sundays or holidays, say so there.

Make the phone number tap to call and the address open in maps. Most people looking at a restaurant site are on a phone, often already out.

Make the menu a real page

A PDF menu is hard to read on a phone. People have to pinch and zoom, and Google can't read it well either. A plain menu page with dishes and prices works better for everyone.

Keep it current. Nothing annoys people more than showing up for a dish you stopped making a year ago. If prices change often, it's fine to leave them off, but say "ask about prices" so nobody feels tricked.

Show the food and the room

A few good photos do more than a paragraph about your story. Use real photos of your food and your space. Phone photos in good light are fine. Stock photos of food are easy to spot and make people wonder what yours actually looks like.

Make ordering and reservations easy

If you take reservations or orders online, link to it near the top. If you're on a delivery app, link that too. One clear option beats five buttons that all go somewhere different.

Answer the small questions

Parking, outdoor seating, whether you take walk ins, if you do catering or private events, if you have vegetarian or gluten free dishes. A short section with these saves your staff from answering the same questions on the phone all day.

Keep it fast

Big videos and heavy slideshows make a site slow on a phone. A simple page that loads quickly will get more people through the door than a fancy one they close before it loads.