| There are tens of thousands of restaurant | | | | 1. Features and "stickiness" - build in features |
| websites in the world. There are many more | | | | which will make your visitors "stick" to your |
| restaurants which aspire to have their own | | | | website. Have a anniversary greeting feature. Or |
| websites. | | | | have a Google Friend connect feature. Provide a |
| The question is - Do these websites work for the | | | | Feedburner link. Have a newsletter subscription. |
| restaurants? | | | | There are hundreds of features which can be |
| My estimate is that 95% of these websites do | | | | added to make sure that you are getting the |
| not deliver any value to the restaurants' | | | | most from visitors to your site. |
| customers. Therefore, these websites do deliver | | | | 2. Current and accurate information - Many |
| for the restaurants. | | | | websites simply don't have current information. |
| Common flaws in restaurant websites | | | | You could find a "special event" which happened in |
| | | | 2004! Make sure that your websites have a |
| 1. Flash Fascination - Study restaurant websites | | | | powerful and easy to use content management |
| and you will notice that most home pages have a | | | | system (CMS) so that you can have the latest |
| flash page with lots of music and images. Search | | | | information available for your customers. |
| engines hate flash and don't understand these. | | | | 3. SEO Friendly - Ask your web designer to |
| Even more frustrating for a visitor to a flash page | | | | include Search Engine Friendly (SEF) features. If |
| is the fact that the page takes time to load. | | | | you already have a website, get it audited for |
| Internet users are very fickle and impatient and | | | | SEF features. Make sure that your website has |
| are likely to wander off to another site before | | | | dynamic Title Tags, SEF URLs, Meta Data |
| even the page loads. | | | | descriptions and other critical features. |
| 2. To hell with search engines - Sadly, most | | | | 4. Traffic analysis - Study your visitors. Find out |
| restaurant owners do not get the benefits of | | | | what they like, how much time they spend on |
| search engines and free traffic. So even basic | | | | your site and where they come from. Free tools |
| Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is not included in | | | | such as Google's Analytics and Webmaster Tools |
| the design by web designers. As a result, most | | | | can help you do this. If you don't have the time, |
| restaurant websites don't even appear in the first | | | | you can outsource this for a small fee. |
| two pages of search results. | | | | 5. Aesthetics and design - Notice that I kept this |
| 3. Your website is not about you but about your | | | | for the last. Aesthetics are important but not as |
| customers - most websites talk about how great | | | | important the other four features that I have |
| they are. They forget that their website is to | | | | mentioned. Make your site visually attractive and |
| attract new customers and increase loyalty of | | | | easy to navigate. Information should be easy to |
| existing customers. Most often, exciting offers, | | | | find and pages should be quick to load. |
| special deals, happy hours, loyalty programs, | | | | Remember, a large number of unformatted |
| anniversary specials and other such details are not | | | | images make the pages slow and search engines |
| mentioned in restaurant websites. This kind of | | | | don't like images. |
| information is important to customers. Instead | | | | All these features are easy to implement and are |
| most restaurant websites have a few standard | | | | not expensive. If you are getting your |
| pages. | | | | restaurant's website developed, make sure that |
| Top 5 features for a successful restaurant | | | | your designer understands your business, your |
| website: | | | | customers' behaviors and can deliver to you |
| | | | quickly without being expensive. |