We have a restaurants and food department, with a team that works specifically with hospitality businesses — people who understand covers, repeat diners, delivery margins and why a slow menu costs you customers. That specialisation sits alongside everything else we do, so you get sector knowledge without a generalist agency learning on your budget.
Restaurant marketing questions, answered straight
What does a restaurant website actually need?
How do I get more customers into my restaurant?
Do restaurants need social media?
How important are reviews for a restaurant?
Should I use a third-party ordering platform?
How fast can you build a restaurant website?
Do I need online booking?
What photos do I need?
How do I show up on Google Maps?
Who owns the website and accounts?
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What does a good restaurant website actually need?
Menu as real text, current hours, a booking route, location with directions, and speed. That is the entire list, and a site doing those five well beats a beautiful one that does not.
The menu is where most restaurant sites lose. A PDF menu cannot be read easily on a phone, cannot be found by search engines, cannot be quoted by an AI assistant answering a question about where serves a particular dish, and cannot be updated without a designer. Putting the menu on the page as text is the highest-return change available to most restaurants and it costs nothing but the decision.
Why do menus in PDFs cost you customers?
Because a hungry person on a phone will not pinch-zoom a document. They will go to a competitor whose menu is on the page. The same PDF also hides every dish name from search, which is how people look for food.
What does the rest of the site need to get right?
Hours that are correct everywhere, a booking path with no friction, and photographs that look like your actual food.
Hours
On the site, on your Google listing, and on delivery platforms — the same. Wrong hours cost more goodwill than any other error a restaurant makes online.
Booking
One tap to your booking system. If you take bookings by phone, make the number tappable and put it in the header.
Photography
Your food, your room, your people. Stock photography of someone else's dish reads instantly and undermines everything else.
Location and directions
Address, map link, parking and transit. Obvious, frequently buried in a footer.
Speed
Restaurant sites are opened on mobile data while standing outside. A heavy background video is a customer walking away.
Ordering
If you take orders directly, make that path shorter than the delivery apps' — it is the only structural advantage you have over them.
How does a restaurant site relate to Google and AI search?
Most discovery happens before anyone reaches your site — in Google's local results, in maps, and increasingly in assistants answering questions like where to eat nearby. Your site feeds those surfaces, which is another reason the menu has to be machine-readable text.
Keep the listing and the site consistent, mark up hours and menu in structured data, and make sure the dishes you are known for appear as words on a page rather than as pixels in a PDF.
What restaurant sites spend on versus what customers use
| Element | Typical spend | Customer use |
|---|---|---|
| Full-screen video hero | High | Low, and it slows the page |
| Menu as real text | Low | Highest |
| Hours, accurate everywhere | Low | Very high |
| Booking link in the header | Low | Very high |
| Own-food photography | Moderate | High |
| About and story pages | Moderate | Low |
| Mobile speed work | Often skipped | Very high |
Frequently asked questions
What makes a good restaurant website?
A menu as real text, correct hours, a one-tap booking route, clear location, and a page that loads fast on mobile data.
Should my menu be a PDF?
No. PDFs are hard to read on phones, invisible to search for individual dishes, and awkward to update. Put the menu on the page as text.
How much does a restaurant website cost?
Less than most restaurants expect for the version that works. Cost rises with custom photography and direct ordering, which are usually worth it.
Do I need online ordering on my own site?
If you take orders at all, yes — it is the only place you avoid platform commission, and the path should be shorter than the apps'.
How important is mobile for restaurant websites?
Decisive. Most visits are on a phone, often on mobile data, often while standing outside deciding.
Should I use stock photos of food?
No. Stock food photography is recognisable and it undermines trust in everything else on the page.
How do I keep my hours correct?
Update the site, the Google Business Profile and any delivery platforms together. Inconsistent hours generate more complaints than any other online error.
Does my restaurant need a blog?
Rarely. Effort is better spent on the menu page, photography and the Google listing.
How do people find restaurants online now?
Mostly through maps and local results, and increasingly through assistants answering nearby-and-open questions. Your site feeds those surfaces, so the menu has to be readable text.
Should the menu show prices?
Yes. A menu without prices creates hesitation, and people assume the worst.
What about reservation widgets?
Use the one your booking system provides and keep it above the fold. Extra steps cost bookings.
How often should a restaurant website be updated?
The menu whenever it changes and the hours immediately. Everything else can sit for a year.


