The restaurant website checklist

What does a restaurant website actually need to do?

A restaurant website has one job: help someone decide to come in, and make it easy. That means showing what you serve, whether you are open, where you are and how to book or order, quickly, on a phone, on a weak signal.

Most guests arrive from Google, Maps or Instagram with one question in mind: what is on the menu, are you open, can I get a table. Every item below is about answering that question faster than the guest loses patience. Open your own site on your phone, outside, and work down the list.

What belongs on the first screen?

Before any scrolling, a guest on a phone should see what kind of place you are, whether you are open now, where you are, a way to the menu and one obvious button to book, order or get directions.

• A plain top line“Neighbourhood pasta bar on Main Street” says more than a slogan.
• Open now and today’s hoursThe most asked question, answered without a tap.
• The menu, one tap awayA clear link, not buried in a hamburger menu.
• One main buttonBook, order or directions, whichever matches how guests really come in, with a smaller second option.
• One real photoA dish people actually order, not a stock image.

Each of these is explained in what a restaurant homepage needs on the first screen.

Is your menu a real page?

Your menu should be a normal web page with the dish names as text, not a PDF or a photo of the board. Guests can read it on a phone without pinching and zooming, and Google can read the dishes and match them to what people search for.

1. Sections people expectStarters, mains, sides, desserts, drinks, or whatever matches how you serve.
2. Dish names and a short line eachIn your own words, the way your staff would describe them.
3. Prices, if you show themKept in step with the till.
4. Dietary marksVegetarian, vegan, gluten free, the ones you can stand behind.
5. A way outBook, order and directions at the bottom, so the guest who has decided can act.

Why this matters so much is in why PDF menus hurt restaurant SEO.

Does it load fast on two bars of signal?

A restaurant website should open quickly on an ordinary phone with a weak signal, because that is where most guests are when they check it: outside, on the bus, standing on the street. A slow site loses them to the place next door.

• No video that blocks the pageIf there is video, the words and the buttons come first.
• Pictures sized for phonesLarge photos made smaller for small screens, so the page does not wait on them.
• No pop-ups over the menuNewsletter boxes and cookie walls that cover the page send people back to Google.
• Test it the honest wayOpen it on your own phone, on mobile data, away from the restaurant wifi.

Are your hours and details the same everywhere?

Your name, address, phone number and hours on the website should match your Google Business Profile, Apple Maps and your social pages exactly. When they disagree, guests turn up to a closed door and Google is less sure which version is true.

• Address you can tapIt opens directions in the guest’s maps app.
• Phone you can tapIt calls straight away.
• Holiday hoursUpdated before the holiday, on the website and the Google listing on the same day.

Keeping all of this in step is covered in the restaurant local SEO guide and the Google Business Profile checklist.

What helps Google understand your site?

Google understands a restaurant website best when the important words are real text, each page has a clear title, and your details are also labelled with structured data. None of this changes how the site looks to a guest.

• A clear page titleYour name, what you are and where, like “Bistro Fennel, neighbourhood bistro on Main Street”.
• Words locals searchThe dishes, the cuisine and the neighbourhood, written the way you would say them out loud.
• Structured dataLabels that tell search engines you are a restaurant, with your hours, cuisine and menu. See menu structured data, explained for owners.
• Text, not pictures of textSpecials, hours and menus written as words, not baked into images.

Who keeps it up to date?

A restaurant website is only as good as its last update. Someone has to change the menu when a dish changes, the hours before a holiday and the photos when the room changes, and that someone needs to be able to do it quickly.

If that someone is you, keep a short list by the till of what to check each week: menu, hours, specials, the booking link. If it should not be you, that is what our restaurant website service does: we build or fix the site around what guests come for, then keep it and your Google listing in step every week. Get your plan and we will tell you plainly what we would change first.