Presenting your restaurant in the best light means including a professional, appealing online presence, and that starts with your website. Not only should your site be easy to find and simple to navigate, but your online menu should entice guests to visit and diners to order when they see how delicious your dishes look. 91 per cent of guests check a restaurant’s website before ordering, and 75 per cent of guests want to see a menu and order online. Prioritizing the look and ease of your online menu can help you raise sales, increase traffic, and build customer loyalty.
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There are some simple steps you can take to improve your online menu to boost the bottom line:
- Make your menu straightforward with easy-to-read fonts, contrasting colours, and concise language so it’s simple for them to locate the information they need. 69 per cent of guests say they are less likely to place an order with a confusing or poorly designed website and 75 per cent of guests say that they have been deterred from ordering at all after a bad online ordering experience, so optimizing the process will help you retain customers and attract repeat orders.
- Make ordering directly from your website quick and easy. Some guests will check out your menu online before visiting, but many expect to see a browsable menu (75 per cent) and have the ability to order online (64 per cent of guests).
- Take the best photos you can by natural light, keeping the table décor simple, and adding colourful garnishes to dishes that don’t pop on their own.
- Mix up your shots by photographing from different angles, including wide, close-up, and from overhead, to capture your dishes at their best. This also adds interest to your page as potential visitors scroll through.
- Highlight specialty dishes, LTOs, or high-margin items to help draw attention to those items and encourage guests to give them a try.
- Make dietary items easy to find. This can mean adding specific menus like gluten-free or vegetarian, or adding symbols to the menu so guests can easily tell if they are allergen or dietary-friendly. The easier you make finding that information on your website, the less likely visitors are to get frustrated and click away from your website.
- Keep your menu simple and concise. Too much scrolling through your menu may cause visitors to lose interest and leave your site. Similarly, describe the dishes accurately but without too much wording. You want to interest readers, not bore them into leaving.
- Over 80 per cent of people viewing your website are looking at your menu from their phones, so testing and ensuring that your menu is mobile-friendly is a vital part of the ordering process.
- Optimize your menu’s online presence with better SEO. Use searchable words that will appear on Google so potential customers can be directed to your menu when they use words like “oysters” or “pizza.”
- Often, guests want to see whether the dishes on your menu are popular, so it may be helpful to include testimonials or reviews under popular dishes so they don’t have to leave your site for a customer recommendation.
- Market your menu wherever you can: include links to your website on your social media channels, table cards, and include the information on packaging or inserts with your takeout orders. Stay top of mind with your customers so they know your menu is only a click away.
- Make checkouts uncomplicated by avoiding the need to fill in pages of information. Install a payment system that helps guests complete their transactions easily and quickly. Test out your system once in a while to ensure that it is functioning the way you want it to and that the experience flows seamlessly for your customers.
Your online presence can help grow your brand, increase traffic, and boost your sales, and a well-organized, appealing menu can mean the difference between a visit to your restaurant or someone else’s. Spend the time to create a thoughtful, simple, accessible online menu to entice guests to visit and return.
