Is Your Restaurant Website Missing These 5 Must-Haves
Websites are a viable medium for establishing virtual connections with customers, especially for businesses that offer online services. That is why the website of a restaurant business too plays a significant role in attracting customers. As the launch of new eateries keeps adding to the competition, the website enables to establish and maintain a good relationship with customers and ensures loyalty.
This blog discusses the core components required for your restaurant website to boost business.
Common Restaurant Website Errors
Some of the common website mistakes made by restaurants that may hinder their growth and popularity include:
Slow Loading Speed
Neglecting site speed can cost your business, and many restaurants experience customers abandoning their sites for this reason.
Poor Mobile Optimization
The unavailability of seamless accessibility to restaurant websites can frustrate customers and choke their user experience. Restaurants that don’t invest in a responsive web design adaptable to vivid screen resolutions and sizes limit their customer footfall.
Outdated Website Design and Backdated Information
Not keeping your restaurant business up-to-date often confuses customers. This keeps customers oblivious to the latest promos, offers, and menu updates, thus giving no reason to visit your site.
Absence of Reviews
In a world where just product reviews can either encourage or dissuade a customer from buying anything online, restaurant websites should also take note. Be it customer reviews, testimonials, online feedback forms, ratings, or rankings, missing a social proof platform can limit the scope of your restaurant’s good reputation.
Missing Call-To-Action
A call to action encourages site visitors to take appropriate action. A crisp and clear CTA on your restaurant website can create the right exposure required for your business sales.
You can redefine your business’s success by simply introducing a few changes on the website. Let’s explore the must-haves that can ensure effective restaurant marketing.
Key Features Required in a Restaurant Website
A well-crafted restaurant website not only provides online visibility to your business but can emerge as a robust platform for communication with customers, helping in receiving feedback, managing online ordering, and propagating social media engagement.
1. Cutting-edge User-Experience
Customers will visit and return to a site that loads speedily and is easily navigable. A site jammed with endless popups or complex login processes can deter customers from flocking to the site. Hence, it is important to have a user-friendly website design. This will help you put forth all necessary information, updates, launches, offers, etc. to your customers in an organized manner and foster access to your site to a larger audience.
Besides tweaking the website design, you need to ensure that your site gives away important and relevant information to customers. For instance, you can include a link and map of your restaurant on your homepage. Time of operation, a glimpse of the menu, and highlights of specialties or promotional offers are integral to your food and beverages business’s online credibility.
Customers today are mindful of what they eat. Not only do they value the quality of food served but also ensure to check its nutritional attributes. This makes it inevitable to include details of nutritional percentages allergy warnings, etc. for all your offerings on the site. As most restaurants are focused on takeout and delivery business, such businesses need to mention the delivery services, charges, and any other relevant data.
Balancing the layout and ensuring smooth accessibility of data on the site can turn the tables for your business for the better. Instead of featuring large files that consume more loading time, you can add videos and images that don’t disrupt the speed or overall experience of the site.
2. Relevant Professional Content
The content of your restaurant business is a reflection of your business’s insights. From photos to videos, texts, and all that your website contains can make or break your impression. You can always hire professionals for content management of your website. This will help in creating meaningful and attractive content for your website and social media handles that resonate with customers and their demands.
Marketing via social media has become an intrinsic part of ensuring online presence. These forums enable direct interaction with customers who can further share information within their social circle. Moreover, social media platforms can help announce promotions and offers to attract customers. Hence, featuring relatable and high-quality content is a smart way to drive the desired attention from customers.
3. Optimization
In the era of smartphones, almost everything from research on restaurants, order placements, review submissions, etc, are done via mobile phones. Hence, it is imperative to have your business website compatible with all major operating systems. Whether you have a separate restaurant mobile app or a site accessible via a mobile browser, make sure it is responsive and optimized for iOS and Android devices alike.
4. Visibility
The website is the go-to testimonial for your business’s online presence. It serves as an umbrella destination for customers seeking information about your restaurant. While managing your social media for restaurants is indispensable for better visibility, you can rely on other professional/ business listings and Google Maps as an effective marketing tool. Make sure that you claim these listings and keep them updated with the latest information in real-time. For instance, if you change the happy hour offer timings or introduce a reservation entry offer, make sure customers looking up your site or listings have this information handy.
An efficient reservation system is a must-have for dine-in restaurant services. A nifty interface can keep showing the real-time availability of tables to customers, allowing an undeterred reservation experience.
5. Purchase Options
A credible online payment service and ordering system for your restaurant website can enhance your site’s reliability. Enabling an automated payment and ordering process can minimize your staff’s efforts, helping them focus on other areas of business growth, and simultaneously reduce manual errors.
Hiring third-party ordering applications like OrderEm can streamline the entire purchase process and provide better order management ability. From experiencing hassle-free order placement, online payment, and getting the right food order delivered timely to the doorstep, a well-designed order and delivery management system can go a long way in depicting repeat business potential.
It is crucial to enable efficient ordering mechanisms on your restaurant website. UX can simplify the navigation of your site, allowing customers to smoothly browse the menu, select items, and subsequently place orders.
Additionally, email or newsletter marketing can be a great way to keep customers posted on any menu changes or newly launched offers.
How Can OrderEm Condition Your Site For Better Business Performance
OrderEm offers a comprehensive online ordering experience that encompasses all the above-discussed must-haves for your restaurant website. Their customizable ordering, pick-up, and delivery services enable customers to easily place orders through your website, social media pages, or even through your dedicated mobile app. Moreover, they can help you build a website that can host flexible payment features for both pickup and delivery services.
OrderEm can provide responsive and user-friendly customizable templates that can help you build your website without any special skill or knowledge of coding. They can facilitate the compilation of customer emails for marketing purposes and update events or offers as required on the site. OrderEm focuses on enabling easy navigation to improve the online sales potential of your restaurant business. From elevating your brand identity to ensuring a functional restaurant website, OrderEm can make your business website highly appealing to customers, thus boosting revenue channels.