This is a bit of an opinion piece when it comes to restaurant websites. Feel free to disagree.
With the launch of .bar and .rest I thought it the perfect time to talk about restaurant websites. A .rest domain name really shows you are with the times and a forward thinker. It would also help set you apart from the crowd.
When you’re creating a restaurant website it’s very easy to get caught up in having a very flashy experience and while it can look great it can also be a pain to navigate not to mention taking an age to load depending on your net connection. Did I mention the automatic music that starts up that most people find highly annoying? Visiting the site again and well it’s now just getting plain silly and any initial wow factor has quickly turned to irritation factor.
As a potential customer of your restaurant I’ll generally want to know 2 or 3 things. Chances are you’ve been recommended to me by friends or a review I’ve read.
- Are you open or not?
- Your phone number so I can make a booking / check you’re open or place an order ( if you have a takeaway service )
- Directions
- Your menu and pricing or at least a sample menu if your menu varies day to day
going on to other things that wouldn’t hurt
- Nice photos of your food. No not generic stock imagery.
- Who you are. Hey I’m interested in knowing a bit about your chef’s background not to mention why you started the restaurant.
- Reviews from the likes of TripAdvisor
- Links to your social media channels … Updating your main website might not be so easy but in this day and age everyone can post a photo to their Facebook page or Twitter account. A lot of people love being able to ask a quick question. Can you do a vegan meal? Do you have any special offers? Do you have a wine license and so on
Unfortunately so often is the case you find a restaurant website and it’s just not easy to find these things.
So ready? Check if your preferred .rest domain is available.
Did we mention in a poll 6 out of 10 people regularly use the internet to research bars and restaurants.
