In the world of restaurants, there are many ways a guest can make a booking. It could be via social media, a booking channel like Tripadvisor, or via the restaurant’s website.
While each channel has its perks, websites are known to build brand authority. Aside from social media, websites are often the first point of contact between a guest and a restaurant.
In addition, restaurant websites make it possible to remove the middleman when collecting online bookings.
Restaurants often struggle to build direct relationships with their guests, especially when the data from reservations is held by the third-party booking platforms. A restaurant website helps navigate those problems and brings F&B brands closer to their guests.
In this article, we’ll cover the importance of having a restaurant website and strategies to increase bookings via your website. We’ll also show you how to track and improve your performance as a restaurant owner or marketing executive.
Your restaurant website: More than just a page
While collecting online reservations is a great reason to have a website, it shouldn’t be the only one.
Restaurant websites can help you build and improve your brand’s online presence, share essential information like menus, working hours, locations, news,…etc. They can also help you save money on commissions and third-party fees.
Here are the top benefits of creating a restaurant website:
Build your brand identity
Think of your website as your digital storefront. It’s how you represent your brand. From showcasing your brand’s unique atmosphere, style, story, culinary philosophy, and more.
A restaurant website helps you create a distinct and memorable brand identity for your audience.
Central information hub
Besides branding, a restaurant website acts as an information hub. It’s where guests can get all the ‘official’ information about you.
Here’s a list of information you can add to your website:
Number of branches and locations
Working hours
Contact information such as landline, mobile number, WhatsApp Business
Restaurant menu, including seasonal menus
Reservation widget and deposits
Location(s) on Google Maps
If you manage multiple restaurants or venues, you can use your website to showcase those locations with images from each. Make sure you share images of the food as well, in both your menu and website to entice guests to make online bookings.
Cost-effective customer acquisition
An important restaurant metric is customer acquisition cost (CAC), which measures the value you pay to acquire each guest.
While a restaurant website may require a small initial investment, it can save you money you would otherwise have to pay in the form of commissions for online bookings.
Most third-party booking channels require restaurants and guests to pay a commission per booking.
Another benefit of a website is that it allows you to build a direct relationship with your guests.
Better marketing opportunities
Your website is your ultimate marketing hub. It connects your restaurant or bar locations to guests everywhere.
Building a website should be part of your restaurant’s marketing strategy as it can contribute to various marketing operations.
Events and promotions
Use your website to highlight special dining events and offers.
For example, many concepts run Valentine’s Day promotions to fill up seats.
You can do this for other special days or events like Mother’s Day, Christmas, and even Halloween. Pair the event with a limited-time menu, like a Halloween menu, to increase restaurant reservations and ramp up excitement.
Similarly, if you run mid-week offers to increase foot traffic to your restaurant, make sure you highlight it via your website.
Website SEO
Use search engine optimization (SEO) best practices to optimize your website for search engines. That way whenever a guest writes your name in search, your website with all your information pops up first.
Use local SEO for restaurants to get more views from visitors and customers closest to you.
Social media
Another benefit of restaurant websites is you can add links to your social media pages. Facebook and Instagram are often the best platforms for restaurants, bars, and entertainment venues.
You can also encourage guests to follow you on social media by letting them know you run special online giveaways.
Giveaways, like dinner-for-2, are among the top restaurant marketing ideas and tactics you can use if you’re just starting out.
Email marketing
Besides being a central information hub, your website is an opportunity to collect guest emails. You can use them to build an audience for your restaurant newsletter and various targeted email campaigns.
Make sure you use catchy but not clickbait email subject lines to increase your open rate.
Further reading: Improve Your Conversions with This Guide to Restaurant Email Subject Lines
Data collection and personalization
You can add free tools like Google Search Console and Google Analytics to track website performance, traffic sources, and more.
Doing so allows you to gather valuable insights into where guests are coming from, your most visited pages, guest preferences, and behavior.
You can combine your website data with your restaurant reporting features to get a 360-degree view of your guests.
Strategies to get guests to book directly via your restaurant’s website
Now, let’s look at ways to get guests to make reservations via your website.
Make it easy to ‘Book Now’
If you want guests to make an online booking via your website, start by adding a clear, clickable “Book Now” button.
Add the button to your main pages, like your homepage, reservations page, and others.
Pro tip: We suggest having your “Book Now” button as a fixture in your website’s header, known as a sticky navigation bar.
Ensure a mobile-friendly website
Nearly half of the world’s web traffic comes from mobile phones. In the last quarter of 2024, mobile devices (excluding tablets) accounted for 62.5% of global website traffic.
Besides SEO, you can get a boost in search results by having a mobile-friendly, fast-loading website. SEO, website speed, and mobile-friendly indexing are all Google Ranking Factors.
Offer exclusive website deals
One way to increase direct website bookings is to offer website-only offers for guests.
Offers can include a special instant 10% off for making a reservation via the website or a free dessert or beverage. It can also include a 2-for-1 special on appetizers or something else.
You can extend the offer to your email, SMS, or WhatsApp bookings. For example, if a guest gets your contact information via your website and sends you a WhatsApp message asking for more information, you can extend the offer to those channels as well.
Show off your restaurant
Make sure you use realistic but catchy photos of your venue(s) across your website. These should be on the homepage and reservations page, along with relevant pages.
If you have several venues, you can include the location under the image to entice guests to visit your restaurant.
Visual imagery is important in the F&B industry. So, make sure you avoid stock photos or images, and use real ones instead.
You can also add a video featuring a virtual tour of one or more of your venues.
That way, even if guests don’t make a booking today, they can explore your dining concept at another time.
Streamline online bookings
To increase restaurant website bookings, make sure the process is fast and seamless. This means not asking for lots of information upfront, while providing guests with a booking confirmation.
If you’re using a reservation widget, like those offered by restaurant reservation management systems like Servme, you can speed up the booking process.
You can ask for a guest’s name and mobile number to make the booking and send them an automated SMS or WhatsApp message once the reservation is confirmed.
Further reading: Discover the Ultimate Guide to SMS Marketing for Restaurants
Make the most of positive reviews
Make sure you collect your guests’ reviews after the dining experience. You can do this with an automated but personalized SMS, email, or WhatsApp message.
For guests who make bookings via your website or any other platform, collect reviews using automated guest surveys.
Then, use these reviews across your website as testimonials and across your social media platforms to increase social proof. These testimonials can help you get more reservations via your website, which can translate to more restaurant sales.
Promote your restaurant website and offers
While you can get your website to rank higher on Google with SEO, you should consider running some ads to drive website traffic.
This can help build brand awareness and conversions.
Pro tip: If you decide to follow tip #3 and run website-exclusive offers, make sure you mention that in your ad.
Track and improve your restaurant website
Like most marketing operations, building a website isn’t a one-and-done thing. While you don’t have to make big changes to your website, the information on it should be up-to-date.
You can also improve your SEO and track data to improve your website’s performance and your conversions.
Monitor website booking data
The number of bookings is an important conversion metric for your website. It tells you the number of people who clicked the “Book Now” button and completed the form to make a reservation.
You should compare this data to the actual number of people who arrived to your restaurant for their bookings.
You can do this manually or with a reservation management platform, like Servme.
Get feedback on the booking process
It’s important to see if your booking process is smooth for guests or not. One issue may be that guests don’t get a confirmation message, so they don’t know if the booking was successful or not.
Another common issue is that guests forget they made a booking. That’s why we highly recommend sending reservation reminders via SMS or WhatsApp Business.
Use a reservation system for CRM and deposits
Consider using a restaurant reservation management system like Servme to streamline bookings, from your website, social media, and other platforms.
For example, Servme helps you get direct bookings from Facebook and Instagram, collect commission-free reservations via your website, and get listed on Reserve with Google (if it’s available in your country).
You can also use Servme to collect guest data and add it to your restaurant CRM, which you can later use for personalized messaging campaigns.
Servme also helps you collect reservation deposits to reduce the number of no-shows and increase your revenue.
Conclusion
Driving more bookings through your restaurant's website hinges on creating a seamless and user-friendly online experience.
By optimizing your website for mobile devices, showcasing high-quality visuals of your menu and ambiance, and making the reservation process as easy as possible, you remove friction and encourage conversions.
Don't underestimate the power of social media, engaging content, and managing your online reputation to enhance your website's booking potential.
By prioritizing the abovementioned strategies, you can transform your website into a powerful tool for attracting diners and filling your tables.
Discover what Servme’s reservation management system can do for your website. Book a personalized demo to learn more!
Nada Sobhi
Marketing
