Must-Have Restaurant Website Features
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The restaurant business is notorious for being difficult, fast-paced, and incredibly competitive. If you own or operate a restaurant and are looking for ways to make sure that your establishment is top-notch, you need to have a great restaurant website. Creating a website for your restaurant is more than just uploading pretty pictures and appetizing descriptions of your food, though. For many restaurant patrons, the functionality is the most important feature of a restaurant’s website. You can make sure that your is up to date and functional by including these must-have features in your restaurant’s web design.
Must-have Info
The most important thing you should include in your restaurant’s web design is an easily-accessible and viewable page dedicated to current contact information as well as links to social media platforms for your business. This should include the restaurant’s current and working telephone number, days and hours of operation, specific location, and widgets for different platforms (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.). Under the location, you should also include detailed directions on how to get to your restaurant directions so potential diners can find it easily while on the road or if they are lost. You can even include a link online to a maps feature that will guide them to your building from a specific location, such as their own home or whatever their starting point is. The other piece of must-have information for your website is a current menu with pricing. People want to know what their dining options will be and they want to know how much their meal with cost, so make sure that your menu is current with current pricing. Having an out of date menu on your website can be very harmful to your business. Certain sites such as just-eat.com will advertise your menu and pricing, acting as a convenient mode of information for hungry viewers, potentially driving up sales.
Must-have Features
One of the great features available for restaurants website design is the ability to link to other websites that can make reservations for your patrons. You can link to these sites through your own webpage, allowing customers to see what dates and times are available and then make reservations online. Many people are so used to using the Internet to conduct their business that they might be reluctant to even make a restaurant reservation by telephone, so including an online reservation feature is a must if you want to stay current. Many restaurants already offer this, so you should too, if you want to keep up with your competition. Another great feature that you should include is a contact email form that allows customers to enter their email addresses and then the text of their message to you, then submit it on your website without having to go through their own outside email accounts. If people want to make special reservations, host events or large parties at your restaurant, or make any sort of inquiry about your food or services, this will allow them to do so easily and conveniently.
Even though the restaurant business can be difficult, having a great website design can boost your reputation with potential and loyal patrons. If you make it easy for people to know what you serve, find your location, and make reservations and requests online, you will make it easy for them to choose your restaurant as the place to dine.
