You know that all businesses have an online presence because customers check the website & online reviews before visiting a restaurant or café. You are excited to launch your website and contacted a web development agency to build a stunning website for your business.

Someone told you the simple steps to build your brand online and grow your business

• Launch a Website
• Create Social Media accounts on Facebook and Twitter
• Spend Money on Google Adwords, Facebook Page promotion, and Twitter Ads.
• Customers will flock to your website
• Your business will grow double in few days

This dream can come true if you avoid few mistakes while building your website for your restaurant, café, pub or retail store.

#1. Unresponsive Design for Mobile

More than 50% of your customers would be checking your website on the mobile phone rather than on a laptop. You have to make sure that your website design is optimized to display text and images properly on mobile phone. Search for responsive themes when picking your website design.

You can find hundreds of responsive designs over the internet, but my favorite restaurant website themes are curated by Theme Forest.

#2. Too much information on the front page

Good design is a minimalistic design. You have to impress your visitors in first few seconds so that they can explore your website for more information.

If you put all of the information on your front page, then your visitors will get confused & lost. You should keep as low information as possible to describe your product & services.

Mention the specialty of your restaurant or bar, showcase some testimonials of your customers, tell your customers what deals you have to offer.

#3. Low Quality Images

Images are the best way to showcase your products to your customers, especially in the food business. If you are running a business related to delicious food, then display high-resolution pictures of your restaurant dishes.

Hire a professional photographer and get a photo shoot of your real dishes along with your chef and staff. When customers visit you, they will have the similar experience of food that they would have imagined on your website.

#4. Colors that do not appeal to eyes

You can have a good design of the website with high-resolution images, but the poor color combination will spoil the user experience. Flashy colors do not appeal to eyes, and too many colors will not convey any message.

Do you know that every color tells it’s own story. Colors of the website should match with your product theme. Orange is the color of social communication; Blue is trust and Black conveys the message of hidden secret. Learn more aboutcolor psychology before finalizing your website theme.

#5. Too many distractions

Customers are visiting your website, looking for best options for food and drinks. Don’t piss them off with unnecessary popups and Ads.

Your primary business is selling you food products, not earning income by showing advertisements of other companies. Clean up your website and let your potential customer learn about your business.

#6. Missing Call to Action

Often, website makers put all their energies on the design, content and images but forgot to highlight the Call-to-Action.

You customer is impressed with the information on your site but clueless about the next steps. You should think yourself, what you would like your customer to do on your website.

Should he call you, leave his information by filling contact form or email you directly?

Highlight your call to action on each section/page where you think that customer is going to make a decision (of contacting you).

#7. Force Menu Download

Many restaurants post a downloadable link to their menu instead of displaying it on the page. Lots of times, either the menu cannot be downloaded because of operating system issues or security settings on their computers.

Even in cases when it’s downloaded, they either do not have the right software on their computers or tablets that support opening such files. The problem is worsened when they try to open the downloaded menu on their mobile phone.

There’s a reason Dominos, TGIF and all the major restaurant chains display their menu and not force a download.

#8. Not optimized for SEO

Only good content is not sufficient to make a successful website. You can have brilliant content, but a few people to read, then what is the point of putting so much effort?

You must create content for humans and machines, that means you should learn the basics of Search Engine Optimization so that search engines like Google and Bing can display your website to users in their search results. I have a brilliant SEO guide for beginners to share with you.

#9. Old contact information

You did everything perfect, and your potential customers start hitting your website. But you forgot to update your contact number!!

Your customer will never turn up to your business if they fail to communicate with you. Make sure you always have correct and updated contact information on your website.

#10. Complicated Contact Forms

Make things simple for your customers. Don’t ask unnecessary information in the contact forms.

Ideally, you should ask Name, Email and Phone so that you can stay in touch with your customers. If you need to ask more information, then make it optional in the contact form.

I am sure, you don’t want your genuine customers to leave your website without filling up the contact form.

#11. No Social Media Integration

Everyone is on social media today, and your business should leverage the power of social media. Make your presence on popular social media where your target audience hangs around.

Integrate your social media with your website and promote your business on relevant social media.

For more detailed insights, we suggest you read some of the excellent free guides.

Conclusion

You can improve the effectiveness of your restaurant website by fixing simple things mentioned in this article. I am sure you will have more customers in your restaurant, café or bar.

While we are not web designers, we would love to refer any business’s looking for the right web design company. Just contact us.