Tips On How To Build A Good Restaurant Website
What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you’re looking for a fine restaurant to go on a date? Where do you look for a restaurant to eat out for lunch? The internet. Do you still place orders on the phone? No, you do it on the internet, on the restaurant’s website.
Internet marketing is crucial to a restaurant’s success, and the first step to internet marketing is to build a damn good website. Here are some tips and common practices so you don’t make a fool of yourself – and your restaurant – online.
1. Slice the responsibility into manageable sizes. Think of building a restaurant website as a huge 17-inch Yellow Cab pizza. Don’t even try to finish the whole thing yourself.
Building a website seems like easy work, but it’s actually more time-consuming than you think. I suggest you find someone to build and maintain your website, and keep that person around to make some necessary changes and keep the website active. I hate to see an outdated restaurant website go down the drain. I’ve seen it too many times.
2. When Flash isn’t flashy. The word “Loading…” has never been more infuriating than when you’re hungry and the restaurant website you’re looking up takes 20 seconds to load every other page. When I visit a restaurant website, I only want to know a few basic details: where’s it located, what’s their contact number, what’s on the menu, etc. Give me that and I’ll give you my orders.
Interactive web design elements are great and make everything look more professional, but is it really helping out?
3. Scratch their backs, and pray they’ll scratch yours. The idea is to provide links to other websites on your website. After all, the internet is known as the World Wide Web for a reason. Integration is key.
As a way to promote tourism, many cities now offer membership to restaurant directories absolutely free. Yellow Pages are also interesting, as well as other restaurant websites. If you make their names visible on your own website, they might be inclined to return the favor and mention your restaurant in theirs. It’s a way to boost online presence.
I’d like to know your opinions on other ways to improve your restaurant’s reputation online. Whether time-tested or theoretical, I’m all ears. Let’s hear them out by leaving a comment below.