Creation of a website for a restaurant

A well-designed website is key to attracting new guests, building loyalty, and creating a seamless experience. In this blog post, we'll explain some key steps you can take to create an irresistible website for your restaurant all on your own! And you can do it without having to do any coding yourself.

Make a list of the features you want to provide on your website

Before you start creating your website, determine what you want to accomplish. Do you want to enable online reservations, present a menu, or maybe even set up an online store? Make a list and think about what is most important to you in this regard. Remember that you can always add more features to your own website later. This will make it easy for you to get started quickly with an online presence in the beginning.

In this initial orientation phase, also choose a good domain name for your website that best matches the name of your restaurant. Restaurantzeezicht.nl or even zeezicht.nl are some examples. It is often wise to register your domain name as soon as possible. After all, you might find that it is already taken.

WordPress and how it builds the foundation for your website

You no longer have to build a website from scratch with lines of code. You can easily do that, even as a layman, with a content management system, WordPress being the most popular. And it's easy to install via our customer panel with just a few clicks. After that, you can start setting up your website with a theme.

Theme selection within WordPress

The design of your website should match the style and character of your restaurant. You take care of that in WordPress by installing a theme. There are thousands of themes you can use to design your website. The easiest way to do this is to do a quick search after installing WordPress. Then look around to see what best suits your needs. You can also make this step a little easier by considering a paid theme. For a small third party investment, you can save yourself a lot of work as paid themes often have a lot more already set up for you.

For free, however, there are plenty of options you can choose to create your restaurant website, in the mother theme Astra for example, you can choose a lot of free layouts that have already been made specifically for restaurants.

Highlight your menu

One of the main reasons why people visit your website is the menu. Make sure your menu is clear and easy to read. Include descriptions of the dishes and mention any special options. Make the menu appealing and provide it as a PDF file or make it available directly on a page of your website. You can also opt for both options.

You can then display the menu in several places in the menu of the website itself and in other places where it will quickly catch your eye.

Add images and impressions

Pictures speak louder than words, especially when it comes to food. Post high-quality photos of your dishes and the atmosphere in your restaurant. This will give visitors a better idea of what to expect. And of course, you can convince them to eat or order from you and not your competitors. Keep in mind that photos alone are not the deciding factor. Describe your dishes and the atmosphere through text and other media as well. After all, a website without text isn't worth much.

Enable additional features with plug-ins

Think about what features you want to integrate. These can be online reservations, a newsletter subscription, a blog for news and updates, and even integration with social media. Each of these features can contribute to a better user experience. With a plugin specifically for restaurant reservations, you can easily link this to WordPress. However, this may come at a cost. If you are just starting out and want to keep the investment as low as possible, a simple phone number with a dedicated email address for reservations is a good option. Email addresses are also included unlimited in your hosting package at MijnHostingPartner.nl. Gone are the days when you had to use a free and therefore unprofessional email address. You can create email addresses with your own domain name.

Make sure it is mobile friendly

It should come as no surprise that many people use their cell phones to search for a restaurant nearby. So check your website for Mobile-friendliness and if everything is working properly. WordPress and the chosen theme will have already taken this into account by default, but but always check this yourself as well.

Keep your website updated with relevant information

One important pillar to keep in mind with a website for your restaurant is to keep it updated with new information. So, every new menu item or change in the menu, the current opening hours and the kitchen date should be mentioned there. If a customer enters your restaurant because the website says that the kitchen is still open until 9 o'clock. But this has been changed to 8 o'clock. Then you can create an unnecessary negative experience, which of course often translates into (important) reviews on Google.

So update your website and also give some employees access to it, with WordPress you can also assign limited roles to your employees. This way you can let them work on your website at their leisure. And you don't have to be hands on with every change.

Start your restaurant website now and use the hosting of MijnHostingPartner.nl for a small budget!