The 10 essentials for a restaurant website!

The website is one of the most important tools in a restaurant's digital communications strategy, and you need to give it top priority to ensure that visitors to your site get a good first impression. But that's not all! Having a website is also very important for your online visibility. So how do you create a website for your restaurant? What templates should you use? What are the best practices for attracting customers? Design isn't enough: your website also needs to be useful, practical and easy to access. Here are our 10 tips to make its ergonomics a source of customer generation for your restaurant.

Why create a restaurant website?

"Having Instagram, isn't that enough?" If you're a restaurateur asking yourself this question, you've come to the right article!

Having a website is essential for several reasons:

1. ‍GiveInternet users the desire to discover your establishment. Just like a shop window, a website gives an image of your restaurant. Essential for converting web users into customers;
2. Reservations are just a few clicks away;
3. Convey a professional, legitimate image. Having a website reassures potential customers and sends a positive signal to search engines;
4. Get your restaurant to the very top of Google results. That's what we call SEO!

Today, 8 out of 10 French people use the Internet to find a restaurant. As a result, search engine optimization local search engine optimization has become the sinews of war for restaurateurs. The aim is to ensure that your establishment appears when people search for related keywords such as "brunch Paris 9" or "Indian restaurant Lyon".

Among the best practices for improving your SEO, having a website sends a positive signal to the Google algorithm and reinforces the idea that your establishment exists, is serious, up to date, and so on.

👉 To find out more, take advantage of our SEO Guide for restaurant owners! In it, we summarize all the tips to help you be as visible online as possible.

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Which website to choose for a restaurant?

It doesn't have to be complicated! A website for a restaurant needs to be as simple as possible , since it serves more as a business card. So there's no need to spend a lot of money or call in an agency if your establishment is of average size.

Our recommended tools:

• Squarespace (very easy, works with "squares" to create and move around);
• Wix (full of templates designed for restaurants);
• Wordpress (slightly more complicated for beginners, but rich in options);
• Shopify (ideal if you also sell online).

Good news: free versions are available for all these options! For the paid versions, expect to pay less than a hundred euros a month.

10 tips for creating your restaurant website

1) Include practical details on the first page

No time to lose!

While 88% of French people use the Internet, they're not without their faults. Their impatience is one of their main characteristics, and this weakness needs to be taken into account for your website!

‍Allinformation and practical details must be mentioned, and above all highlighted, otherwise they'll leave your site in seconds. I

ndicate your address, your opening hours, the restaurant's phone number and email, access (metro, bus...), as the Teppan Daily restaurant did.

Similarly, Le Havre's Happy Dock restaurant displays essential information directly on its home page:

2) Showcase the best of your establishment with quality photos

Visual content is always the first thing that catches the eye. Show beautiful photos of your dishes to make your prospects salivate, highlight the interior of your establishment to make them want to discover it!

For example, if you visit the Happy Dock website, you'll see some great shots of the different dishes on the menu.

The same goes for Sardegna a Tavola, which not only presents high-quality photos, but also tells the story of its dishes:

Out of inspiration?

To create your restaurant's storytelling , answer the following questions:

• When was your restaurant founded? By whom (family history, friendship);
• In which region? (register in a heritage or tourist area)
• Is there an anecdote linked to the creation of your establishment? Or your name?
• What are your specialties? Why or why not?
• What's the "little extra" you bring? (Revisite, home cooking)
• Where do your products come from?
• Who are your teams (portrait of the boss, etc.)?

Never underestimate yourself: every restaurateur has a story to tell.

3) Include reviews or widgets to boost your e-reputation

Tripadvisor offers you the possibility of adding widgets to your website, such as the "Attestation d'Excellence" if you've received it, or "Avis élogieux" which scrolls through your best reviews. Here we explain how to install these widgets on your website in just a few clicks.

A "widget" is a small application you can add to your site. For example: to display comments, integrate a video, a Google Maps...

By adding these widgets to its website, the Happy Dock restaurant is reassuring Internet users. The widgets testify to the trust placed in the restaurant by those who have already visited:

The right idea: create a page dedicated to the quality of your establishment! You can include press articles praising your restaurant, quotes from customers, labels you've won, etc.

4) Add widgets social media to grow your audience

We're not telling you anything: social media have become indispensable for any restaurant.

We highly recommend adding widgets for the accounts you have on social media : Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google Plus... Don't hesitate to mention them, you'll be encouraging your website visitors to follow you on these networks!

Some sites also display previews of your Instagram feed. Perfect for always having up-to-date photos appear automatically.

5) Integrate an interactive Google Maps map to make it easier for your customers to find you.

As the Algerian restaurant Le Vent de Sable has done, we recommend installing an interactive Google Maps on your website, as well as the Citymapper widget for Parisian restaurants:

They help your prospects find out where you are. This precious time-saver may just convince them!

What's more, adding these widgets to your site helps improve your local SEO. In fact, by pinpointing this useful information, Google increases the visibility of your website in search results for prospects in the vicinity of your establishment. So it's in your interest to integrate them into your site!

6) Set up an online booking module to generate direct bookings - commission-free

Today, 1 in 2 French people reserve a table before dining out! The figure speaks for itself: it's essential to have an online reservation platform on your establishment's website. This platform enables you to facilitate and centralize reservations. What's more, it enables your customers to make reservations even outside your opening hours, which is not the case for telephone reservations!

It also allows you to avoid No-Show with the use of the bank imprint, or to manage waiting lists online for your busiest services.

To secure a table at L'enclos de Ninon restaurant, simply indicate the date and time of your visit, along with your contact details on the website form:

7) Clearly display your offer, menu and prices

One of the decisive criteria in choosing a restaurant is its menu and prices.

Don't forget toinclude your permanent menu in PDF format, so that your prospects get an idea of the cuisine you offer and its price range.

‍L'Enclos de Ninon gives access to its menu and presents on the same page how its menu works. In this way, Internet users are well informed and have no unpleasant surprises when they arrive at the restaurant :

8) Introduce yourself and your team

Describing the restaurant and its team helps tohumanize the virtual showcase that is your website. Tell the story of your establishment, introduce the members of your team, talk about how you see your kitchen... This "backstage" content appeals to Internet users and lets them find out more about your establishment.

The restaurant La Villa Marx understands this, and presents its chef Thierry Marx and his team:

9) Make sure the site is responsive

Make sure that your website is "responsive", i.e. that it is equally suited to the screen of a computer, cell phone or tablet.

‍Checkthat all photos are visible and that the PDF menu is readable on computer, tablet and mobile.

10) Regularly update information

Finally, regularly update the information about your establishment. For example, don't forget to remove the Christmas menu once the festivities are over!

Don't forget to update any changes to your establishment's practical information (changes to opening hours, menu, etc.), so that your prospects aren't misled.Today, to win new customers, working on your local SEO remains a priority.

When you search for a restaurant on Google, the top of the page is occupied by a Google Map, followed by 3 business listings that correspond to Google My Business profiles (Google Business Profile). Thus, making your business listing appear higher on your keywords allows you to reach new customers.

Further down the page, the first links will always be those of aggregators, platforms or media (Tripadvisor, La Fourchette, TimeOut, Figaroscope etc.). Making your restaurant's website SEO compete with one of their urls remains complicated. Working on your local SEO and putting a simple but complete and optimized website online will help convert web surfers into customers!