Guide · Restaurants
What a Restaurant Website Actually Needs
A restaurant website has one job: answer the four questions a hungry person has before they decide. What do you serve, how much is it, when are you open, and how do I get there or order. Almost everything else is decoration. The single most common failure is publishing the menu as a PDF, which breaks the first two questions on the device nearly everyone is using.
By Carlos Boluda · Updated · 7 min read
The menu must be text on a page, not a PDF
This is the most consequential technical decision on a restaurant website and it is usually made by accident, because the designer already had a PDF from the printer.
A PDF menu fails in several ways at once. On a phone it opens in a separate viewer where the reader has to pinch and drag around a page laid out for paper. It is slow to load. It cannot be searched within the page. And when someone asks an assistant "does anywhere near me do a gluten-free pizza", a PDF is far less likely to be read and used than dish names in ordinary HTML.
The same applies to menus published as images, which is worse still — an image of text is invisible to anything reading the page, including screen readers.
The fix is unglamorous: type the menu out as text, with headings per section and prices next to each dish. Keep the PDF as a download if you want it for printing, but the readable version has to be on the page.
Hours, and why wrong hours cost more than no hours
Hours are checked more than any other piece of information on a restaurant site, usually on the way there. They need to appear on the homepage without clicking anything, and they need to match what your Google Business Profile says.
Where sites go wrong is the exception days. Holiday closures, kitchen-closed-but-bar-open, a different Sunday schedule, the week you shut for annual leave. A site that is silently wrong on a holiday sends someone to a locked door, and that produces a review you cannot delete.
Both your website and your Google profile have a place to set special hours in advance. Filling those in for the year takes ten minutes and is the highest-value ten minutes on this page.
Ordering: your own system versus the marketplaces
Third-party delivery platforms typically take a substantial commission on every order, and the exact rate depends on the deal and the market — check your own contract rather than trusting a number you read somewhere, including here.
The practical point is that the commission applies to orders you would have received anyway. A regular who looks up your website and is funnelled into a marketplace link is an order you paid a commission on to keep a customer you already had.
The reasonable arrangement for most restaurants is both: keep the marketplaces for discovery, and give your own ordering or reservation route the prominent position on your own site. Your website is the one place where you set the terms.
Photographs of the actual food
Stock photography is recognised instantly and it works against you, because the implicit message is that the real thing did not photograph well.
Phone photos of real plates, taken near a window in daylight, outperform stock images. They do not need to be styled. They need to be honest, because the comparison the diner makes is between your photo and the plate that arrives.
Include the room as well as the food. A significant part of choosing a restaurant is deciding whether it suits the occasion, and that judgement is made from pictures of the space, not the plates.
Built for a phone held in one hand, outdoors
Most people reaching a restaurant website are on a phone, frequently while walking, often with poor signal and in bright sunlight. That context should decide the design.
Concretely: the phone number is a tappable link that dials, the address is a tappable link that opens maps, the text is large enough to read at arm's length, and the page loads on a weak connection. A large hero video is the opposite of all four.
Test it the honest way. Stand outside, on mobile data, and try to find the menu and the closing time in under ten seconds.
Structured data restaurants specifically benefit from
Schema.org has a Restaurant type, and it accepts the things that matter here: cuisine served, price range, opening hours including exceptions, whether you accept reservations, and a link to the menu.
This is read directly by search engines and assistants, so it is how a machine learns that you close at eleven on Fridays without having to interpret your layout.
One warning that applies generally: structured data is taken literally. If it says you open at nine and you open at ten, the wrong answer is the one given confidently to everyone who asks.
What diners check, and where it usually goes wrong
| What they want | Where it should be | Common failure |
|---|---|---|
| The menu | Text on the page, one click from home | A PDF or an image |
| Prices | Beside each dish | "Prices on request" or buried in the PDF |
| Opening hours | Homepage, no click needed | Missing the holiday exceptions |
| Address | Tappable, opens maps | Plain text you have to copy |
| Phone number | Tappable, dials | An image, or in the footer only |
| Book a table | Homepage, above the fold | Buried behind a contact form |
| Order online | Your own route first | Only a marketplace link |
| Photos of the food | Real, recent, yours | Stock images |
| Photos of the room | Alongside the food | Absent entirely |
| Dietary information | Labelled on the menu itself | Left to the waiter |
How to fix a restaurant website, in order of impact
- 01
Retype the menu as text on a page
Section headings, dish names, descriptions and prices as ordinary text. Keep the PDF as an optional download. This is the single highest-impact change on most restaurant sites.
- 02
Put the hours on the homepage and set the exceptions
Visible without clicking, matching your Google profile exactly. Then fill in holiday and special hours for the next twelve months in both places.
- 03
Make the phone and address tappable
A tel: link that dials and a maps link that opens navigation. On a phone this is the difference between a customer and a closed tab.
- 04
Give your own booking or ordering route the best position
Keep the marketplaces for discovery, but on your own site put your own route first. It is the one place where you set the terms.
- 05
Replace every stock photo with a real one
Phone photos of real plates near a window beat styled stock images. Photograph the room as well, because people are also choosing an atmosphere.
- 06
Label dietary information on the menu itself
Vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free and the common allergens, marked per dish. This is a frequent search and a frequent reason a group picks one place over another.
- 07
Add Restaurant schema with hours, cuisine and menu link
It tells search engines and assistants your hours and cuisine directly. Check every value against reality before publishing it.
- 08
Test it outside on mobile data
Stand on the street and try to find the menu and the closing time in ten seconds. If you cannot, neither can the person deciding where to eat.
Frequently asked questions
Should a restaurant menu be a PDF on the website?
No. A PDF is slow on a phone, requires pinching and dragging, cannot be read by screen readers, and is much less likely to be used by search engines and AI assistants answering questions about dishes. Publish the menu as ordinary text on a page and keep the PDF as an optional download if you need one for printing.
Does a restaurant need a website if it has social media and Google?
A Google Business Profile covers hours, location and reviews, and often handles more traffic than the website. The website is where you control the full menu, take bookings and orders on your own terms, and provide the detail an assistant needs to answer questions about your food. The profile is not a substitute for that; it is the other half.
Should I take online orders myself or use a delivery platform?
Both, in different places. Marketplaces bring discovery from people who did not know about you. Your own site should lead with your own ordering route, because commission on an order from an existing regular is a cost with no acquisition behind it. Check your own contract for the actual rate.
What photos does a restaurant website need?
Real photographs of the food you currently serve and of the room itself. Phone photos in daylight are better than stock images, which diners recognise and discount. The room matters as much as the plates because part of the decision is whether the place suits the occasion.
How do I make sure my opening hours are right everywhere?
Set them on your website and in your Google Business Profile so the two match, then fill in special hours for holidays and closures in advance in both. Being listed as open when you are closed is the failure that reliably produces a bad review.
What structured data should a restaurant website use?
Schema.org's Restaurant type, which accepts cuisine, price range, opening hours including exceptions, whether you accept reservations, and a link to the menu. Verify every value against reality first, because this data is read literally and reported confidently.