Why create a website for your restaurant?
According to a Forbes article, “97% of consumers use the internet to find local businesses and three in four people who use their smartphones to search for something nearby end up visiting a local business within a day.” Restaurants are no exception to this. Google’s search allows users to look for restaurants near their location through its local search feature and delivers geographically relevant results. These figures confirm how critical it is for your restaurant to have a robust online presence.
Even if your restaurant is already on social media, Google business listings, food delivery apps, or other sites (Tripadvisor, Yelp), having your own website can help consolidate your brand by communicating your value proposition with more freedom than with third-party platforms. With the help of an experienced restaurant website designer, you can have a beautiful, custom-made website that expresses your brand identity through color, photography, and form to recreate the ambiance of your eatery and have potential customers anticipate the on-site experience.
Besides using your restaurant website to improve your branding and marketing strategy, you can also use it to improve your business operations and provide convenient tools for your customers. Following are some website tools and integrations that can help your restaurant grow.
Useful tools to integrate into your restaurant website
- Online Reservations: Appointment and booking plugins help streamline your restaurant workflow, reduce employee workload (and potential errors), and may allow you to collect data like e-mails for newsletter marketing.
- Online Ordering: For takeout and delivery. Convenient for managing simultaneous orders; no more busy phones.
- Current Menu: Investing in a professional food photographer is worth it. Having a professionally taken photo of your dishes with an appetizing description in a picture reel is better than a PDF menu.
- Location Information: Ensure your customers get to your place by integrating Google Maps and including other contact information like phone, open/close hours, and e-mail.
- Social Media Integration: Add buttons to popular social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter where you can engage your followers by posting promotions, events, gift cards, and other news. Make sure that your social media platforms link back to your website.
Finally, a survey found that “nearly 70% of U.S. diners say a restaurant's website has discouraged them from visiting.” Besides not caring about the menu’s items, the reasons for discouragement included difficult website navigation, old or out-of-date appearance, and hard-to-read menus. To ensure all of these issues are addressed when creating or updating a restaurant website, it is best to leave it hands of a professional. Thankfully, your restaurant website designer in Syracuse, NY is ready to help.
