7 Essential Web Design Features Every Restaurant Website Should Have

A restaurant’s website is every guest’s most trusted source of information. It’s where we go to find out every detail of our upcoming dining experience, and while every restaurant should have a website, it’s possible you might not be optimising your site to its full potential by just having a website.

By incorporating these 7 simple web design features into your site, you can create a better user experience for potential guests, reduce the number of man-hours spent on customer enquiries AND capitalise on guest data to utilise for future marketing! Keep reading to discover our 7 essential web design features, every restaurant should have.

1. Up-to-date Menus

We know we’re not the only ones to scope the menu before committing to a reservation. Working out if the menu suits dietary requirements and budget, before mentally picking out the yummiest-sounding dishes is one of the first steps of your customers’ dining journey. Making sure that all menus are available and up-to-date ensures guests won’t face the disappointment of finding out the dish they’ve spent two weeks dreaming about, went off-menu three seasons ago.

NB Menus should have their own clearly labelled navigation in your website’s main menu, if you have multiple menus for lunch, dinner, etc, make sure each is clearly labelled within a dropdown folder.

2. Reservation Widget

After eyeing up the menu, it’s time to make a booking. Housing a clearly visible reservation widget creates a quick and seamless booking experience, allowing guests to browse the restaurant diary and secure their booking, without the need to open a new page. Widget contents and availability are updated automatically so you can install and forget about it even if you make updates to your reservation diary.

NB Reservations can be installed anywhere on your website, consider the customer journey and the pages which might convert a booking, i.e. the homepage, the menu page, group booking information page. 

3. General Information

Address, phone number, email contact and hours of operation all seem like pretty obvious information to display about your business, and yet time and again we find ourselves scouring pages for a contact email to update our reservation. Our favourite spot to display general contact information is in the website footer, that way it is visible wherever the guest navigates and only ever needs to be updated in one place. 

4. Social Links 

After scanning a website, diners will often turn to social media to seek up-to-date and accurate information. Making sure your social handles can be easily found within the website’s main navigation or footer, streamlines the customer journey. Successfully capturing your web users and converting them to social media followers opens up a new line of communication where you can organically talk to guests multiple times per week. 

5. Email Sign Up

The current industry average booking conversion rate on a restaurant website sits around 5%, this means a whopping 95% of website visitors leave without securing a reservation. While you’ve got their attention, utilise the opportunity to establish a long-term relationship by prompting an email sign-up. This way, if a guest doesn’t convert today, you have created a direct channel to remind them of your offering and perhaps offer an incentive to book i.e. Complimentary cocktail on arrival for your next visit!

NB Email sign-ups are most successful when easy to find, easy to use, and incentivised. Feature the sign-up on every page by embedding it in the website footer, make it easy to use by capturing minimal information, and incentivise a sign-up with captivating copy i.e. “Be the first to hear…” “Sign up for a free round on us”. 

6. High-Quality Editorial Photography

What works on socials, doesn’t necessarily work on the web. Think of your website as a professional portfolio of your offering, although iPhone shots and BTS tidbits work great on socials, your website should showcase professional, high-quality imagery of the end product. Invest in a food photographer to take stylised photos of the menu and dining space to let diners know what they can expect. 

NB Photography should accurately portray the venue and offering – if the venue is a light and airy rooftop space, make sure your imagery captures the light and colour.

7. Private Dining Showcase

If private functions and events equate to a significant chunk of your marketing strategy, make sure you are effectively showcasing your offering with a dedicated Functions & Events page(s). For each available space, provide an overview of capacity and functionality, a short description of what’s on offer, a selection of high-quality imagery that accurately reflects the space, and details of how to make an enquiry. 

NB The more information you can include, the less time you’ll spend responding to general enquiries. Make sure information is clear and easy to find with concise bullet point lists.

If you’re thinking about tidying up your website and you’d like to hear personalised recommendations for your venue, reach out to our team of specialists – hello@darlingcrackles.com.au