Every business, is understanding the importance of online presence and expanding the reach, so are the restaurants. Now a days, with the online availability of list of restaurants one can find nearby nice restaurants, read reviews, know about the menu details, whether dining at a particular restaurants will be heavy on your pockets or not.
More and more restaurants websites are popping up to provide the best possible information related to location, contact information, dishes available, price, reviews and much more.
While getting your restaurant website designed or designing a website for some restaurant (if you are working on the project), one needs to focus on the visual appeal. However, I here am not at all saying that one can compromise on the visual appeal of the web designs of businesses other that restaurants. But yes, extra emphasis need to be laid visual appeal of the restaurant web design to attract the customers.
Imagine opening up a restaurant website that is not well designed with no good images of the delicacies, food that the restaurant serves. What would be your reaction? Your answer says it all. Now, consider coming across a restaurant website with superb pictures displaying the food in such a visually cool manner that you mouth starts watering.
Eyes they say send signals to the mind whether to go for something or not and in the case of restaurant business, first comes the visual appeal only then one would want to give it a shot and decide whether the food is good or not. That’s the second stage!
Restaurant business owners now a days are not just hiring the best designers but photographers with superb skills too are being hired to click best images of the food served.
Enough being said on what role the visual appeal plays in making the restaurant websites. For our designer friends who already are aware of what should be the end result, here we have come up with some useful tips to help you design eye-catching restaurant websites. Call them tips, elements or whatever you wish to, on this that is assured is the information provided below would prove to be helpful for all you designers to.
1. Menu
Restaurant website without a menu sounds weird and incomplete. The visitors of your website would anyday what to know what’s on the menu. Create a web-based version of the menu. Make it as interactive as you can. Include descriptions of menu items, photos and prices in the menu to let the viewers know what they can expect.
2. Pictures of Delicacies
Not everyone with a camera in hand know how to take the best pictures of food. While some people are good at taking best shots of the nature, there are others who take pictures of people, food or other things the best. Food photography is fast becoming the area of interest of lot many people.
There are professional photographers who already doing a great job in this field. You can hire one! Hiring a professional photographer for taking amazing shots of the food your restaurant serves is a wise idea.You simply need to tell the photographer you hire to take the pictures and if one is good at it, you can heave a sigh of relief. Ensure the images up on your restaurant websites are nothing but the best to attract the consumer.
3. Visually Appealing Colors
The colors that you use should be bright, stunning complementing to each other to make the website visually appealing. The colors you pick while designing a restaurant website should complement the logo and color palette. The color palette should be chosen with extra care.
4. Reviews/Ratings
Reviews, ratings and testimonials are an important part of any restaurant website for the fact that users wish to check out what others have to say about your restaurant, its ambience, the food served, service and other things before they finally make their plan to visit your restaurant.
5. Provide Route Guide
It is suggested to integrate mapping tool into the restaurant website you are designing. There should be physical address for different locations, geo-location tools on mobile versions and a Google map. It should be easier for users to figure out the expected time to reach the restaurant from their location.
6. Making Use of Online Tools
Besides the mapping tool, you should integrate user-friendly tools to help visitors the best way. Provide as many options you can for the viewer like option of ordering the food online, delivery/pickup, reservations, events calendar to attract as many viewers as possible.
7. Nice Content Adds to the Charm
Agreed that in restaurant website designing, images play a vital role. So does the content. How? The reviews, descriptions and everything you put up there on the website if made engrossing is sure to leave viewers magnetized.
8. Responsive Website Design
While creating the restaurant website design ensure you focus on its responsiveness for more and more number of people are using various gadgets besides laptops and desktops to check out things on the web. If your website is designed such that users are only able to access it properly on their systems and not mobile, tablet or other gadgets how then do you expect increase in number of visitors (to the website and restaurant).
9. Make it Lively
Besides all the above listed elements, one important factor that contributes in making any restaurant website success bringing in more customers is how lively one feels while cheeking out your website and feels the urge to visit your restaurant. Make the website as lively as possible.
10. Authenticity
Whatever is up there on your website should be true and authentic; whether it is a review, testimonial, charges and everything you believe your customer should know.
The above listed elements surely contribute in making any restaurant website a success and directly helps in increasing the sales but yes one can never afford to compromise with the quality of food. If the food that is served in your restaurant is able to satisfy the taste buds of the visitors, your restaurant is sure to witness growth and development.
All in all, in a restaurant business, even the minutest mistake is noticed thereby effecting the overall business. So, ensure to add every element that you as a viewer feel will be engrossing enough to make the viewer get that urge to visit your website.