Thoughts on Restaurant Web Site Design

Here are some thoughts on restaurant web site design. To be more specific, here are some non-technical thoughts. A separate post will focus on implementing these thoughts using WordPress.

The front page should be very simple. It should give a flavor of what kind of restaurant this is. It should provide the address and phone number, perhaps opening hours, and a few other things. There may be a lot at the site, but this other content should be linked to from the front page, rather than included on it.

I’m in favor of simplicity because when people go to a restaurant page, they often have questions such as: is it near here? is it open right now? They are often on a mobile device, and with limited screen space and bandwidth. (That’s as technical as this post is going to get.)

It’s a good idea for a restaurant web site to include a journal, or blog. Although it shouldn’t be the main page, it’s useful to keep the site fresh, to encourage readers to return, and to provide something to which people can subscribe.