Restaurants
What does a restaurant website actually need?
I've looked at a lot of restaurant websites, and the ones that work have very little on them. Someone is standing on a sidewalk, or sitting in a car, deciding where to eat in the next twenty minutes. They want to know what you serve, what it costs, whether you're open and how to get there. Everything on the site should help with that.
What are the six things every restaurant website needs?
- Your menu, as text. Typed out on the page, with prices.
- Your hours. Near the top, including holiday changes when you have them.
- Your address and a map. One tap should open directions.
- A call button. On a phone, your number should dial when tapped.
- Links to where people order or book. Toast, DoorDash, OpenTable, Resy, whatever you already use.
- Five to fifteen good photos. Your best dishes and the room.
That's the whole list. It fits on one scrolling page, and for most independent restaurants, cafes and food trucks, one page is enough.
Why does the menu matter more than anything else?
Because it's the thing people came for. In TouchBistro's 2024 diner survey, 85% of American diners said they look at a restaurant's menu online before trying it for the first time. In an older survey by the agency MGH, a menu that was hard to read was one of the main reasons diners gave for skipping a restaurant after looking at its website.
So the menu shouldn't sit three clicks deep. Put a "Menu" link at the top of the page that jumps straight to it.
Why shouldn't I just upload a PDF menu?
A PDF is a printed page squeezed onto a phone screen. People have to pinch and zoom and scroll sideways, and on a weak signal it can take a while to open at all. Some phones download it to a files folder instead of showing it.
A text menu loads with the page, reads at the right size and is easy for search engines to pick up. Google's own help pages say it may copy menu items from your website onto your Google Business Profile. A typed menu gives it something clean to copy. A scanned PDF doesn't.
If you love the design of your printed menu, keep the PDF as a "download the menu" link underneath. Just don't make it the only version.
Where should hours and location go?
At the top, or one tap away from it. These are the two things people check first, usually while they're already on their way.
Make sure they match your Google Business Profile and Yelp page word for word. When your website says you close at 10 and Google says 9, people don't know which to trust, and neither does Google.
Does my restaurant website need online ordering?
It needs a way to order, which isn't the same thing. If you already take orders through Toast, Square, ChowNow or a delivery app, a big "Order online" button that goes there is all most restaurants need. It costs nothing extra and there's nothing new for your staff to learn.
Building ordering into the site itself is a different kind of project. It connects to your POS and payments, and it needs looking after. It can be worth it for a busy takeout spot that's tired of paying delivery app commissions, but it's not where a first website should start.
What can a restaurant website skip?
- Autoplay video or music. It slows the page and annoys people in public.
- A long "Our story" page. Two or three sentences near the top do more than five paragraphs nobody scrolls to.
- A blog. Unless you'll actually post. An empty blog looks closed.
- A live Instagram feed. Link to your Instagram instead. Embedded feeds slow the page down and break when Instagram changes something.
- Pop-ups asking for an email. Someone deciding where to eat in twenty minutes will close the tab instead.
One page or several?
Start with one page unless you have a reason to split things up. Good reasons:
| Your situation | What fits |
|---|---|
| One menu, dine-in and takeout | One-page site |
| Food truck or small cafe | One-page site |
| You do catering or private events | 3-5 pages, with its own catering page |
| Separate lunch, dinner and brunch menus | 3-5 pages, so each menu can be found on Google |
| You want to tell the story behind the place | 3-5 pages, with an about page |
How does this work with Website in a Week?
What you get, in plain terms
The one-page site is $795, and it covers everything on the list above: menu, hours, map, call button, ordering and reservation buttons, photos and a contact form that goes to your email. The 3-5 page site is $1,295 and adds separate pages, like catering or an about page, plus one page of your choosing. Both are $25 a month for hosting and include one round of changes.
These are simple, fast sites. There's no login to edit them yourself, so menu updates go through email and are quoted. Built-in online ordering, reservation systems, gift card stores and anything else that connects to other software aren't part of the two packages. If you need one of those, ask, and we'll quote it as an add-on.
Other questions owners ask
Should I put prices on my online menu?
Yes. People use prices to decide whether you fit tonight's budget, and a menu without them sends them to Yelp photos of your menu board, which may be two years old. If prices change often, round them or update them a couple of times a year.
My menu changes every week. Does a website still make sense?
Yes, but plan for it. Put the dishes that never change on the site, and point to Instagram or your ordering page for the weekly specials. With Website in a Week there's no editor to log into, so changes go through email and are quoted. If you need to edit the menu yourself every few days, tell us up front and we'll talk about an add-on for that.
Do I need my own online ordering system?
Usually not. A button that goes to the ordering you already use (Toast, Square, ChowNow, DoorDash) does the job. A built-in ordering system is a bigger project with ongoing costs, and only pays off at real order volume.
Do I still need a website if I'm on Google and Yelp?
For most restaurants, yes. Google and Yelp help people find you, and the website is the one page you control. There's a full answer here: Does a restaurant need a website if it has Instagram, Yelp and Google?
Sources
- TouchBistro, 2024 U.S. Diner Trends Report - 85% of diners look at the menu online before trying a new restaurant
- MGH survey via NACS, "Online Menus Impact Customer Decisions" (2019) - menus that were hard to read and sites that looked out of date put diners off
- Google Business Profile Help, "About the menu editor" - menu link field, and Google transcribing menus from your website