The restaurant website checklist.
Most people visit a restaurant website for about a minute, usually on a phone, to answer one question: should we go, and how? Here are the twelve things they look for, and how to check your own site in five minutes.
The 12 things guests look for
- Are you open right now? Hours on the first screen, including today, holidays and early closings.
- The menu, as real text. Not a photo or a PDF. Guests search for dishes, and Google reads text, not pictures.
- Prices. People decide where to eat with a budget in mind.
- Where you are and where to park. A tap-to-open map and a line about parking.
- How to order. Pickup, delivery or catering, clearly, without a hunt.
- How to get a table. Reservations, a waitlist, or "walk-ins only", said plainly.
- A phone number you can tap. And make sure it is the right one.
- Photos of the real food and room. Not stock photos.
- What you are known for. The dish, the ritual, the story. Give people a reason to pick you.
- Dietary notes. Vegetarian, gluten-free and allergy information where it matters.
- Events and private dining, if you offer them, with a way to ask.
- Speed on a phone. If it takes more than a few seconds, many people leave.
A five-minute test
Pick up your phone, open your site on cellular data (not Wi-Fi), and try to answer three questions: are you open tonight, what does the burger cost, and how do I order pickup? Time yourself. If any answer takes more than ten seconds or a pinch-to-zoom, your guests are feeling it too.
Common mistakes
- Menus as images or PDFs that nobody can read on a phone.
- Hours that were never updated after a schedule change.
- Pop-ups and mailing-list boxes that cover the menu.
- Ordering, gift cards and waitlists that each send people to a different-looking site.
- Template leftovers: placeholder text, demo phone numbers or fake staff pages still live.
- Huge photo files that make the page slow.
Where to go from here
Most of these can be fixed on the site you have. If the site fights you on all of them, that is when a custom restaurant website earns its keep. See restaurant website design for what that looks like.
Questions
Should my restaurant menu be a PDF?
Ideally not. A PDF menu is hard to read on a phone and harder for Google to understand. Put the menu on the page as text, with prices, and keep a PDF only as a printable extra.
Do I need online ordering on my website?
If you offer pickup or delivery, yes, and it should be one tap from the homepage. You can keep the ordering platform you already use; the website just needs to lead there clearly.
How often should I update my restaurant website?
Any time hours, prices or the menu change, and before every holiday. If that is hard to do, the site should be set up so you can do it from your phone.
Got something worth scrolling?
Tell me what you're building. I reply to every message within a day, and every project gets a written quote after a short call.