Cafe Website

Design a Successful Cafe Website

Every business today needs a website. Restaurants, cafes, bars, and delicatessens all need a website. People use the Internet today as a primary form of information and communication.

Be a presence on the Internet by designing a website devoted solely to your restaurant. Include your restaurant’s website address on your business cards, yellow page listings, paper flyers you may have for special events, and on every email you send.

First Steps for a Cafe Website

Make it easy for strangers to find your website on the Internet. Choose a simple and straightforward name for your website, such as the name of your establishment followed by the word “restaurant.” For example, name your website “Jane’s Place Restaurant,” “Cafe Rhone Restaurant,” or “Ladle in the Sky Restaurant.” Search engines find you easily when the word “restaurant” is in your website name.

Key and necessary information your website must have on its home page:

• Physical address
• Phone number
• Email
• Hours of operation
• Clear directions to your restaurant

Make your website interesting and entice people to come visit you for a meal. Include photographs of the outside of your restaurant and the inside. The best photographs include smiling employees or customers. Include photographs of your most interesting and beautiful dishes. These photographs are marketing tools with which you advertise your business on the Internet.

A Website is a Powerful Marketing Tool

A website is a marketing tool. When an Internet user finds your website, you have the opportunity to entice and bring her in, or lose her forever. Make your website interesting, easy to navigate, and include all pertinent information so that the user has no unanswered questions.

A website does not have to be multiple pages; simple and easy to understand is best. If you do want multiple pages, repeat the key and necessary items above on each and every page. Do not make readers search for information. Write the most interesting things about the history of your restaurant, for example, the historical building you are housed in, or your Chef’s career in France, on an “About Us” page. If you offer catering services, write a separate catering page.

Update your website on a regular basis. Post your menus for people to peruse, but change the website as soon as you change the menu. Post special events, for example, advertise a wine tasting on your website. If you receive a positive review, post the article and a link to the original.

You need a website to announce to the world who and what you are, and why people must come eat in your establishment. People browse the Internet on a daily basis; do not miss out on the opportunity to allow them to discover all about you and decide to make a reservation.