What makes a good restaurant website?

7th August 2009, 10:37am

Online marketing is one of the most powerful, measurable marketing tools you have at your disposal, and a good website is the starting point for any online marketing campaign. Paul West from Ignite Hospitality gives us an overview of how to get the most from the world wide web.

A good restaurant website will drive bookings, collect customer data, present your restaurant in the best possible light and provide your customers with the information they require quickly and easily.

In today's Dot Com world it is pretty much imperative that if you provide a service or sell anything at all then a website is an essential tool enabling you to communicate to customers, both current and potential.

Your website is often the first impression that someone will see of your business, the perfect opportunity to present your brand in the way you would like it perceived and to communicate your brand messages effectively. That's one of the benefits of your website - you control it.

For hospitality businesses, the internet offers unrivalled possibilities for showcasing, in the best possible light, the idyllic environment you've created, the products you supply and the customer service you offer, enticing and enchanting the customer. It is, however, important that you never lose site of the reasons why somebody is visiting your website, which is often simply to quickly gather a specific piece of information such as a phone number.

A good website is functional: easy to navigate and provides all the information the user is looking for in a clear, organised manner. The more people that find your site, the better, because it will lead to more customers for you, so make sure it's as visible as possible and incorporates the search optimisation techniques discussed below.

Website Development Process
The starting point for the development of any business website is to ask yourself 'Why have a website?' This simple question can present some surprising answers and valuable direction in the development process.

Is it to extend a brand online? Drive sales? Increase awareness? Communicate product attributes? Collect data? Really think about this, and although you might find all of these reasons attractive, prioritise them. But the primary objective for all restaurants or hotels should be: Drive Bookings!

Once you've nailed down your core objectives, produce a written brief that you can discuss with your website designers. The brief should include:
 
• Design benchmarks – Other websites you like in terms of design and content, explain why.

• Objectives – What is the primary purpose of the website? (as previously identified) 

• Design Guidelines – What type of style do you like? What colours? 

• Website Structure – What content needs to be included on the site?

Your designer should help you develop these points, encouraging you to expand on your thoughts, especially in terms of content. Most hospitality businesses don't require anything too complicated and simple is usually best.

Restaurant Website Content
A good restaurant website should aim to drive bookings. Ignite Hospitality finds Livebookings (www.livebookings.co.uk) is an ideal solution for online restaurant bookings as they allow people to not only book on your website, but also through third party websites. This supports the point I made earlier about increasing awareness and visibility leading to increased sales.

You should also display your menu clearly, provide your phone number, address and a map so people can contact and find you easily. Use great images and write your copy in a fun, attractive manner, in brand, so it reflects your restaurant's personality.

Try and drive as much traffic as possible to your bookings page by prompting to book online throughout the site with a prominent button. Your website is also the ideal tool for building a database and the perfect place to promote special offers, which you should then be able to integrate with your online booking system.

Search Engine Optimisation
Once you've launched your fabulous new online presence you'll want people to find you easily. It's also important to ensure that your website designer delivers a site that is 'search engine friendly' - that is, it is built in such a way that it is very visible to Google.

This means it contains information in the programming (called meta-tags) that search engines look for, and contains relevant words in the text that search engines can find, such as "We are a Thai Restaurant in London" if you want people to be able to find you by searching for 'Thai Restaurant London'.

Try and ensure these are relevant to your site: you should use keywords and descriptive text that will help people find your site i.e. where you are located, type of food you provide etc.

Try and avoid using too much Flash (which is online animation) for your written content as search engines are unable to read Flash files and subsequently cannot take into account these aspects of your site to help with your ranking.

Search Engines will also examine the content of your website such as menu copy or the descriptions you have written about yourself and rank you according to the frequency that certain words appear.

For example, if you are a Thai restaurant in London, the more you mention that you serve great Thai food in London, the higher your search engine ranking if someone is searching for "Thai Restaurant in London". The more relevant the text on your website is, the better ranking you'll generate.

We've employed these tips for our client YumYum Thai Restaurant (www.yumyum.co.uk) and, if you search for them on Google UK, you can see they are on the first page of results for the term 'Thai Restaurant London', which delivers 1 million results. 

Measurability
The other great thing about the internet is that it is measurable. By looking at your website's statistics, you can quickly find out:
• Total unique visitors
• When your visitors went to your site
• Which Search Engines referred your users
• What words were used to search for your site
• Where else visitors came from

We recommend you use Google Analytics to provide your website statistics as it is free and extremely good. This helps you to easily monitor the effectiveness of your online marketing, for example you'll know exactly how many people have followed a link from your local information site to your website.

The key is to be creative with your approach to the internet. For example, if you have a major tourist attraction nearby, convince them to link to you in a return for a link from you to them. This is called reciprocal linking and is a great way of creating a free online network. Relevant, high quality links also help you with your search engine results, as Google is impressed if you have plenty of good links pointing to your website and moves you up the ranking accordingly.

A Virtual Shop Front
Always remember that your website is a marketing tool, and could be the first view of your business that a potential customer will see. As such, you should put as much thought and energy into it as you did your interior design. Make sure the design is stylish and backs up your branding, and avoid tacky effects as much as possible!

Throughout the design & production process never lose sight of what your customers will want and the marketing advantages provided by what you're doing. If you get this right, you're website should yield an impressive return on investment.

Paul West is the managing director of Ignite Hospitality Consultants. Further articles by Paul can be read on the Ignite website www.ignitehospitality.com

Related PDFs:

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• 21 Aug 2009 - Michelin-starred restaurants help Livebookings pass two million covers

Click here to submit a comment!

Tom Beck

07 August 2009 at 6:21pm

Great write-up. Very clear and concise. Check out www.menumill.com. We have addressed some of the hurdles associated with creating and maintaining a "great" restaurant website.

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