THE WEBSITE 1×1 FOR RESTAURATEURS AND CATERERS
Ask yourself: What do my guests want to know? Prospective customers are probably travelling with their smartphone and primarily want to know where they can eat right now. Your opening hours, email contact and address should therefore be clearly visible on the homepage, as should the telephone number for reservation enquiries.
Ideally, however, you should incorporate a reservation system directly on your website, as potential guests who mainly use the internet to search for restaurants particularly appreciate the option of online reservations. This not only saves you countless phone calls, but also allows guests to make reservations around the clock – even at 2am.
Even if the basic information is available, you should follow a concept. Do you want to upload information, menus and events at short notice? Or should the website function as a consistent business card? After all, nothing is worse than Christmas events that are still advertised at Easter. Of course, recommendations and news in the menu whet the appetite for more, but a good website should always be well updated or consistent.
As readers only scan texts for the essentials anyway, lengthy descriptions are unnecessary. A few clear texts about the kitchen, the concept and the team are completely sufficient – but they are essential. This is also because this content is important for the positioning of the website in search engine rankings. Put simply: good, short texts with the most important keywords lead to better positioning in search engine searches, which in turn brings more potential guests to your website.
But be careful! Please do not copy texts from other websites. This not only annoys the authors, but can also have a negative impact on your position in the search engine results pages. And, of course, the website should always be carefully spell-checked. Nothing looks more unprofessional than if your own dishes have been spelt incorrectly. Even the most beautiful design won’t help!
If you still decide in favour of a more extensive website, you should pay particular attention to the structure of the menu. The user must be able to find their way around the restaurant website easily. If you don’t understand the website, you won’t stay on it for long.
THE MENU AS A SHOWCASE
Quite a few guests want to know what culinary delights await them before entering the restaurant – and the same applies to the website. The menu should be placed in a prominent position and give hungry guests an insight into what is on offer. Very important: Make the menu available as an HTML page and never as a PDF document. PDF content is not indexed by Google and is therefore not displayed in searches. In addition, very few visitors bother to download the file on their smartphone.
Digital media is already largely used via mobile devices. Anyone who does not present their website in a smartphone-friendly way must therefore fear losing potential guests after a few seconds. Responsive design is indispensable, especially in the catering sector. The mobile optimisation of your website is not only more user-friendly, but also increases your chances of being found on Google, as the ranking takes the mobile-friendly design into account. This means that contact with guests also works on the move.
APPETISING PHOTOS? JUST GET THEM!
It’s clear that guests ultimately come for the food! So a few well-placed photos of the dishes are almost indispensable. However, anyone who has ever tried to photograph their own food knows that taking appetising photos of food is not that easy. It’s better to invest a little more in a good food photographer: After all, your cookery coast is your business card!
And if in doubt, it’s better to have a few nice pictures of the restaurant and ambience rather than unfavourable photos of each individual dish.
Even if it’s cheaper to create a website for your own restaurant yourself: If you have high standards for more than just your own restaurant, you should seek professional advice when creating your own website. In addition to a professional CMS for managing the site, agencies also offer various tools such as online booking systems, take care of hosting or help with search engine optimisation. Use inviting photos to whet the appetite for your food and drinks and provide the menu and website in several languages to appeal to international tourists.
RESPONSIVE DESIGN EXPLAINED:
The desktop version of your website responds in such a way that it is easy to see and use on smaller screens such as smartphones and the like. This means that no additional version of the desktop version is required and you will only have to maintain one website in future, which is less prone to errors thanks to the elimination of redirects.
Die Speisekarte als Aushängeschild
Nicht wenige Gäste wollen vor dem Betreten des Lokals bereits wissen, was sie kulinarisch erwartet – genau das Gleiche gilt auch für die Website. Die Speisekarte sollte an exponierter Stelle platziert sein und den hungrigen Gästen einen Einblick in das Angebot verschaffen. Ganz wichtig dabei: Die Speisekarte als HTML-Seite zur Verfügung stellen und keinesfalls als PDF-Dokument. PDF-Inhalte werden von Google nicht indexiert und somit nicht in der Suche angezeigt. Zudem machen sich die wenigsten Besucher die Mühe, die Datei umständlich auf dem Smartphone herunterzuladen.
Die Nutzung digitaler Medien erfolgt bereits grösstenteils über mobile Endgeräte. Wer seine Website also nicht Smartphone-gerecht präsentiert, muss also fürchten, potenzielle Gäste nach einigen Sekunden wieder zu verlieren. Gerade im Bereich der Gastronomie ist Responsive Design unverzichtbar. Die mobile Optimierung Ihrer Website ist nicht nur userfreundlicher, sondern steigert auch ihre Chance, bei Google gefunden zu werden, da das Ranking die mobilfreundliche Gestaltung berücksichtig. So klappt der Kontakt zu den Gästen auch unterwegs.
Appetitanregende Fotos? Nur her damit!
Und im Zweifelsfall lieber ein paar schöne Bilder des Lokals und Ambiente statt unvorteilhafte Fotos jedes einzelnen Gerichts.
Auch wenn es günstiger ist, die Website für die eigene Gastronomie selbst zu basteln: Wer nicht nur an die eigene Gastronomie hohe Ansprüche hat, sollte für die Erstellung der eigenen Website professionelle Beratung hinzuziehen. Agenturen bieten neben einem Profi-CMS zum Verwalten der Seite auch diverse Tools wie Online-Buchungssysteme, kümmern sich um das Hosting oder helfen bei der Suchmaschinenoptimierung. Mit einladenden Fotos machen sie Appetit auf Ihre Speisen und Getränke und liefern die Speisekarte wie auch die Website in mehreren Sprachen, damit auch internationale Touristen angesprochen werden.
Responsiv Design erklärt:
Die Desktop-Version Ihrer Website reagiert so, dass es auf kleineren Bildschirmen wie Smartphones und Co. gut zu sehen und einfach zu bedienen ist. So wir keine zusätzliche Version der Desktop-Variante benötigt und Sie pflegen künftig nur noch eine Internetpräsenz, die dank wegfallender Weiterleitungen weniger fehleranfällig ist.
HERE ARE A FEW TIPS TO HELP YOU GET THE BEST OUT OF YOUR WEBSITE:
- To guarantee a good reading flow, choose a pleasant font size and typeface. Continuous text is easiest to read in a sans serif font and a font size of 14 px to 16 px is recommended.
- Too many different fonts, font sizes and font colours create a restless and confusing effect.
- Stick to your chosen colour scheme for your restaurant and your website. This helps to convey a uniform image of your business.
- Essential information, such as opening hours or the menu, should not be more than 2-3 clicks away.
- Check the visible area on the smartphone screen. As soon as the website has to be scaled, Googlebot will not recognise it as mobile-friendly.
- Ensure that your images load quickly and are optimised for mobile devices.
