Restaurant website design that turns visits into bookings and orders

Why the website still matters when guests find you on maps and apps

Most guests check you online before they decide. In TouchBistro’s 2024 survey of more than 1,500 U.S. diners, 85% said they look at the menu online first when choosing a new restaurant, 80% view the restaurant’s website and 64% run a Google search.

Map listings, review sites and AI assistants send guests toward you. Your website is where they confirm the details and act, so it has to load fast and answer the questions they arrived with.

What belongs on the first screen

A guest on a phone should see these without scrolling or opening a file:

• Your name, cuisine and neighborhood, in words, not only in a logo.
• Today’s hours, including holiday and seasonal changes.
• A menu link that opens a readable page, not a photo or a download.
• One main action that fits how you serve: reserve, order pickup or call.
• Your address with a map link, and a phone number that dials when tapped.

Build the site for the way you serve

A dining room that lives on reservations needs a different first action than a walk-in counter. Asking guests to book when you don’t take bookings costs trust. Match the main button to your service model.

Direct ordering next to marketplace apps

Delivery marketplaces bring reach at a price. DoorDash lists Marketplace commissions of 15% (Basic), 25% (Plus) and 30% (Premier) on delivery orders and 6% on pickup orders.

Many guests will order direct when it’s easy. In the same TouchBistro 2024 survey, 29% of diners said they order takeout by calling the restaurant, 24% through its website and 19% through its own app or platform. A clear “Order pickup” button on your site gives those guests a direct path. Keep the marketplace listings for reach; make your own site the easiest place to order.

Speed, accessibility and structure

Fast pages, readable type, real headings and descriptive image text help every visitor, including people using screen readers and the software that reads pages for search and AI answers.

Schema.org defines a Restaurant type with properties such as servesCuisine, hasMenu and acceptsReservations, so you can describe those facts in a form software can parse. Google says no special markup is needed to appear in its AI features; a page has to be indexed and eligible to show with a snippet in Google Search.

New site or upgrade?

If your current platform lets you edit menus and hours yourself, loads quickly on a phone and connects to your booking and ordering pages, upgrading it is usually enough. If every change needs a developer or the site is slow and hard to use on a phone, a new build is the better path. Our website paths section compares both.