What a restaurant website needs

The facts here come from primary sources: Google Business Profile Help's Tips to improve your local ranking on Google and Manage online ordering options; Google Search Central's Mobile site and mobile-first indexing best practices and File types indexable by Google; the U.S. Department of Justice's Guidance on Web Accessibility and the ADA; and the W3C's Easy Checks. Where we give our own advice, we say so.

The short answer

A restaurant website needs a menu written as real text on its own page, the same hours, address and phone number as your Google Business Profile, clear links to order and to book, pages that load quickly on a phone, your own photos, and the accessibility basics: alt text, readable contrast, headings and forms that work with a keyboard. It does not need many pages. Most restaurant sites do well with a home page, a menu page, a page for each location, and a page for private events or catering if you offer them.

The menu as text on a page

The menu is the page guests open most, so it should be easy to read on a phone and easy for you to change. A scanned image of the printed menu fails on both counts: it cannot be zoomed cleanly, it cannot be read aloud by a screen reader, and every price change means a new image.

A PDF is better than an image, and Google can index it: Adobe Portable Document Format (.pdf) is on Google's list of file types it can index. Even so, our view is that the main copy of the menu should be an ordinary HTML page, with the PDF kept as a printable extra. An HTML page fits any screen without pinching and zooming, loads faster than a large file, and can be edited in a minute. Write each dish as text: the name, a short description, the price, and dietary or allergen labels spelled out in words, not only as coloured icons. Use a heading for each section (starters, mains, drinks) so guests can jump to what they want.

If you have several menus (lunch, dinner, brunch, drinks), give each its own heading or page and say when it is served. Remove dishes you no longer offer: an out-of-date menu is the quickest way to disappoint a guest who came for one thing.

Hours, address and phone that match Google

Many guests see your Google Business Profile before they see your website, so the two must agree. Google says that "Businesses with complete and accurate info are more likely to show up in local search results", and asks owners to provide information such as business hours, including special hours. If your site says you open at 11 and Google says noon, guests do not know which to trust.

On the site, put the address, phone number and hours on every page (the footer works well) and on each location page in full. Make the phone number a tap-to-call link and the address a link to a map. When hours change for a holiday, change them in the profile and on the site the same day. Our tip: keep one written list of your official name, address, phone and hours, and copy from it everywhere, so small differences do not creep in. Our guide to Google Business Profile covers the profile side.

Ordering and reservations

Make ordering and booking one tap from the home page and the menu page, with plain labels such as "Order for pickup", "Order delivery" and "Book a table". You can link to your own ordering system, a delivery app, a booking service, or a mix.

Google's food ordering settings show how these connect to your profile. Third-party providers who state they have an authorized relationship with your business are listed automatically, and you can choose whether each shows for pickup or delivery. You can mark a provider as preferred for pickup or for delivery, and you can add a link to your own website or ordering page. Changes, Google says, typically publish on Search and Maps within a few hours.

Own ordering versus delivery apps is a business choice, not a website rule. Our view: if you use both, say so on the site and point guests to the option you prefer, and make sure the menu and prices on each match your own menu page. Our guides to online booking (deposits, reminders, accessible booking forms) and DoorDash ads go further.

Built for phones, and fast

Google uses the mobile version of a site's content for indexing and ranking; it calls this mobile-first indexing. Its best practices ask you to make sure your mobile site contains the same content as your desktop site, and not to lazy-load primary content upon user interaction, because Google won't load content that requires swiping, clicking or typing to appear. For a restaurant, that means the full menu, hours and address must be on the phone version too, not hidden behind a button that only loads them on tap.

Speed matters most on a phone with a weak signal outside your door. The usual culprits on restaurant sites are huge photos, autoplay video backgrounds and pop-ups that cover the menu. Our guides to Core Web Vitals, image optimization and hosting and CDNs explain how to measure and fix it.

Photos

Real photos of your food, room and people sell better than stock images, and guests notice when the picture does not match the plate. Our view: a few good, current photos beat a large gallery. Use photos you took or commissioned and have the rights to; our guide to website photos and image licensing covers stock licences and photos with people in them. Compress every image before it goes on the site, and give each one alt text.

Accessibility basics

The U.S. Department of Justice's web guidance says the Americans with Disabilities Act applies to businesses open to the public, and its examples of such businesses include "Food and drink establishments". The guidance lists practices businesses should follow, including sufficient color contrast between text and background, text alternatives ("alt text") on images that are "short and descriptive", captions on videos, labelled forms with keyboard access, text that can be zoomed, real headings, and keyboard navigation.

For a restaurant site, the places that most often go wrong are the menu (an image with no text), the booking and ordering forms (fields without labels, errors that are only shown in red) and light grey text on photos. The W3C's Easy Checks are a quick first test anyone can run: page titles, headings, color contrast, a skip link, visible keyboard focus, zoom, captions and form labels. Our guides to website accessibility basics and accessibility laws go further.

The search side

This page is about the site itself. Getting found on Google Search and Maps (the Business Profile menu editor, ordering and reservation links, Restaurant structured data and reviews) is covered in our guide to SEO for restaurants.

A short checklist (our view)

• The menu is an HTML page with prices and dietary labels in words, and it is current.
• Hours, address and phone match the Business Profile, on every page and every location page.
• Order and book buttons are one tap from the home page and the menu.
• The phone version has the full menu and details, and the menu page loads quickly on mobile data.
• Photos are your own, compressed, with short alt text.
• You have run the W3C Easy Checks on the home, menu and booking pages.

If you would rather have it built for you, our website development service builds custom WordPress and static websites made to load fast, rank well and be easy for your team to edit, so updating the menu does not need a developer. For what goes on the pages, see our website content checklist; law firms and salons have matching guides in what a law firm website needs and what a salon website needs.

Frequently asked questions

Should my restaurant menu be a PDF?

Use an HTML page as the main menu and keep a PDF only as a printable extra. Google can index PDFs, but an HTML page reads better on phones, works with screen readers and is quicker to update.

What pages does a restaurant website need?

A home page, a menu page, a page for each location with address, hours, phone and a map, and a page for private events or catering if you offer them. Ordering and booking links should be reachable from all of them.

Do restaurant websites have to be accessible?

In the U.S., the Department of Justice's guidance says the ADA applies to businesses open to the public and lists food and drink establishments among them. Its examples include alt text, color contrast, captions, labelled forms and keyboard access.

Should I use my own online ordering or a delivery app?

That is a business choice. Google lets you list third-party providers, mark one as preferred for pickup or delivery, and add a link to your own ordering page, so you can offer both and point guests to the one you prefer.