Hello, my name is Lilly Ghahremani and I'm a Web Strategist for Tiny Frog Technologies. I wanted to talk today about the top mistakes restaurants make with websites.

You know, when we're hungry or planning a night out, it's common to check a restaurant's website and, in fact, it's kind of a joke in the industry that restaurant websites don't offer just not these services. Bad restaurant websites are everywhere and you've probably encountered them yourself. So today I really want to talk about how to avoid these pitfalls and how to make your restaurant website extremely strong.

On your restaurant's website, people are looking for two things: First, they're looking for information to determine if they want to eat there. Second, they may be looking for information because they've already decided they're going to eat there and need a little more information. The must-have features for your restaurant website that will make the difference between a good website and a bad one:

First, you want your menu to be displayed up there. You want it to be clear and straightforward and ideally not take a lot of time to download. Sometimes restaurant menu websites are beautifully designed, but due to the web service they offer, it doesn't download properly or takes a long time. People are hungry, they want to see what you offer, make it easy.

Second, you want information about your hours and information about takeout options if that's possible. If you're offering takeaway or delivery, it's important to make this clear and make sure you have the right integrations, that is – to move away from web-speak – to make sure you have the functionality on the site, that if they click, they leave. to a system that helps them do this easily and that's where it will be so important to have a strong team that can do web development and integrate these types of features so that they work well on your site Web.

Next, if you're hosting events, you need to think about how that translates to the website. Do people want to see what this space looks like? Do you need a photo gallery? Do you need information for party planners? Determine whether this information should be included on your site. One of the most important things restaurant websites need on their site is a phone number that you answer. You'd be surprised how many have a phone number that just rings and rings. Once people make the decision to move from your website to phones, you want to make sure someone is there to receive
deals.

Mobile compatibility is another issue for many restaurant websites. Luckily, the sites we create here at Tiny Frog are all mobile friendly, meaning that no matter whether they're searching on a phone or tablet, they'll be able to have the web experience you want them to have .

Finally, if you have great restaurant reviews, don't hesitate to link to these review sites or encourage website visitors to review you so you can continue to grow your business. Once you have a good website, the secret sauce is to check it from time to time, to make sure it still accurately reflects what your business does and what you offer. So I would recommend that from time to time, say every quarter, you set a little reminder on your phone to check the website, check the menu. Are you still serving all these things? Are the times always accurate? And so on. You want to make sure your website is up to date and as beautiful and wonderful as the meals you create.

To get the most out of your restaurant website, the process really needs to start with careful planning and thoughtful strategy. To that end, I'm Lilly Ghahremani, Web Strategist for Tiny Frog Technologies and if you're looking to build a new restaurant website, we'd love to talk to you.

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