How to Build a Restaurant Website: 4 Simple Steps

According to MGH, more than 77% of diners check out the restaurant's website before going to dine in or order takeout or delivery. Another survey says, 68% of people get discouraged from visiting a restaurant if its website is unorganized. 

As a restaurant owner, creating a strong online presence for your restaurant is crucial for attracting and retaining customers.

So, in this blog, I'll show you how to build a restaurant website step-by-step that showcases your menu, promotes your specials, and allows customers to make reservations or place online orders. 

Let's get started!

Steps to Build a Restaurant Website

I will cover every step you need to take to learn how to make a website for a restaurant and bring it online.

You'll get everything from choosing a domain name to selecting a website builder for convenient designing and publishing your website. 

Let's begin with selecting and buying a domain name for your website that will help you to create a unique identity.

1. Select Your Brand and Domain Name  

Choosing a domain name for your restaurant website is a step that you can't avoid to establish your online presence as a brand.

The domain name is the address that people will use to find your website, and it should be easy to remember and representative of your brand.

I can break down the process of choosing a domain name for your restaurant website into a few key steps:

Keep in mind that a good domain name will help potential customers easily find your restaurant online. It’ll also make it easier for you to promote your restaurant through social media and other online channels.

2. Choose a Website Builder

Choosing a perfect website builder is not an easy task but there are ways to accomplish that. Like, you can read our ultimate list of top website builders in the market and find out who is offering what to make your decision-making process easier.

When choosing a website builder for a restaurant website, there are several key features to look out for.

Keeping those features in mind, you must choose a restaurant website builder from the vast list of available options.

Let me put your mind at peace and save you from hours of research by recommending the perfect website builder for this job.

Dorik no-code website builder offers you the features mentioned above to build a restaurant website and more.

Let’s look at some extra features that you can enjoy with Dorik.

3. Designing Your Website Using Dorik

Let's start our guided journey to create awesomeness. We will explore everything related to designing and publishing a restaurant website.

Step 1: Visit Dorik and click the “Try Dorik Now” button to get started without registration.

You can try this option if you want to explore the website builder. But if you wish to publish your site or keep it saved to customize later, you must Sign Up to Dorik.

I recommend taking the sign-up route, as it will unlock many features for you.

Once you sign up, you will land on the Dorik Dashboard. There you can manage all your projects and control your own website settings.

Dorik offers you two options for building your website. They are: 

If you want to create a static site, you can create a new website from the Dorik Classic option.

But if you plan to publish blogs, write descriptions about every menu, and share videos, you must click on the Dorik CMS option in the dashboard.

Then click on New CMS Site. It would be best to use the CMS for a restaurant website as it offers more functionalities and flexibility.

Here, CMS means Content Management System if you didn’t already know.

Step 2: Let’s say you click on “New CMS Site,” which will take you to your starting point, where you will see a list of templates you can select for your website and start customizing it as per your need.

Besides, you will also see the option to import JSON files, which is related to coding, so I'll skip that.

You can also start from scratch, where you have to design everything by yourself. I am ignoring those routes as I want to show you the easy way by using a restaurant website template.

But feel free to explore them if you feel like it.

For this blog, I am selecting the "Foodery Restaurant Template" as we want to build a restaurant website. This template has all the features you will need to use on your restaurant website.

When you click Select, you'll see a pop-up window asking you to set a name for your project and a domain name for the website.

Here, the free domain name will be published as a sub-domain of Dorik's main domain, as I'm giving you a tour of Dorik's free plan. 

You can connect a custom domain to your website with a Dorik premium plan, and I'll talk about the "how" part later in this blog.

Step 3: Now that we have our template, it’s time to check out the website builder where you will customize your website. You can enter the builder after setting up a project and domain name.

Inside the builder, the first thing you can do is check out all the available options to make yourself familiar with the territory.

You will see options to set the page settings, check your website responsiveness, save the progress, publish the website, and many more.

Explore them on your own to make yourself familiar with every available option.

You can drag and move, edit, and delete the existing elements or add new elements. All you have to do is just hover over any element, and the options will become visible.

Play around with them to get the hang of it. Change the information and replace it with your restaurant's info.

You’ll get the most important settings in the sidebar of the builder. You can see all the pages of this template and add, remove, and customize them as much as you want.

Then, you can set some global styles that will be applied to all the pages once set. 

Besides that, you can also play with the site settings and add multiple integrations to make your website feature-rich and more user-friendly.

You can see this short video on Dorik builder's basic introduction to learning about the fantastic things you can do inside this builder.

Step 4: Let’s assume you made the necessary modifications and customizations to the template and are ready to publish it. All you have to do is click "Publish," and your site will be live.

You can see the live version by clicking the upward arrow icon beside the publish button.

Now, let’s look at how the Template looks when you publish it. You’ll get a gist of all its features and what you can do with them.

You can see the header with navigational links and buttons. Besides the homepage, this template comes with an About, Online Menu, and Contact page. These are the must-have pages for any new restaurant website.

However, if you want to create an engaging homepage, check the below blog post.

You can showcase some of your restaurant menu items on the homepage to let your customers know what you have in stock. This way, they can decide what to eat before coming to the restaurant.

You can show some customer reviews to build credibility and trust among other visitors. You can also keep a section to announce your specialties. You'll get a separate page to show the details of each menu item when clicked.

You can publish blogs from your site to attract more traffic. The blog topic can include the achievements, nutrition details of the foods, your restaurant’s background stories, etc.

Step 5: Let’s talk about adding that custom domain now, shall we? First, you need to opt-in for a premium CMS plan. You will find out that all of the Dorik pricing plans are very budget-friendly.

After purchasing a plan, go to the CMS dashboard.

There you’ll find the option to add a custom domain. To own a domain, you must buy one from a domain registrar like Namecheap or GoDaddy.

You can watch this video tutorial to learn how to add a custom domain on Dorik.

Step 6: In this step, I’ll talk about how you can improve your knowledge about using the Dorik website builder and the best practices to create a visually enticing restaurant website.  

Read the advantages of landing pages to boost your site’s conversion rate. You’ll find all the tips and tricks in this ultimate guide.

Also, check web design principles and laws that guide designers to bring-forth quality and standard products. 

4. Keep Your Site Updated After Publishing It

Now, you might ask, “How often should I update the content on my restaurant website?”

Well, the best practice is to update your restaurant website regularly, at least once a month, to keep the information on the website up-to-date and to maintain the interest of potential customers.

Additionally, updating your website with the new restaurant menu, specials, and events is important to keep them informed and engaged.

It’s also a good practice to update your website with changes to your opening hours or business hours, contact information, or location.

Moreover, you can update the website with new photos, videos, and testimonials from satisfied customers to gain trust and credibility.

Besides, you should also work on website maintenance. 

Regularly updating your restaurant website is vital for several reasons.

Tips to Promote Your Website

Okay, now that you know how to create a professional restaurant website and publish it, it’s time to start thinking about how to drive more traffic to your website to increase sales.

Here are some tips based on research and expert opinions to promote your website.

Optimize Your Website for Local SEO

Optimizing your restaurant’s website for local SEO is crucial because it can help increase your restaurant's visibility in search engine results when people search for restaurants in your area. 

When people search for "Restaurants near me," in Google, it displays a list of local restaurants, along with their contact information and reviews.

 Optimizing your website for local SEO can increase the likelihood that your restaurant will appear at the top of this list, making it more likely that people will find your restaurant and visit it.

Here are a few ways to optimize your restaurant for local SEO:

With these strategies, you can increase your visibility in local search results, resulting in more traffic to your website and more new faces in your restaurant.

You can also learn how to get your website noticed on Google searches with our comprehensive guide on SEO. 

Utilize Social Media

Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are powerful tools for promoting your restaurant and website. You can use them to post updates about your menu, specials, and exclusive offers and to share photos and videos of your food and restaurant.

You can also encourage customers to leave reviews on platforms like Yelp and Google in your posts, which can help to build your reputation.

Create and Distribute Engaging Content

Sharing high-quality content, such as photos and videos, will improve the user experience of your website. You can use them to showcase your menu, restaurant atmosphere, and staff members.

Additionally, creating a blog or a newsletter can be a great way to engage with your customers and, at the same time, keep them informed about what's happening at your restaurant.

Email Marketing

It is a powerful tool for promoting your restaurant’s up-to-date info and staying in touch with customers. You can use it to send updates, share recipes, and offer discounts and promotional coupons to those who sign up for your email list.

However, you can utilize some email marketing automation software to smoothen your process. 

Consider Offering Online Reservations and Online Ordering 

Online ordering and takeout/delivery options can make it easy for everyone to order food from your restaurant, even if they can't dine in. It’s a great way to entice customers looking for a convenient way to order food.

You can provide your contact details on the Contact Us page to allow the customers to make an advance reservation. Just make sure that you have a working system to manage res to receive online orders, Dorik offers a live chat feature that you can integrate into your site.

To handle the delivery part, you can collaborate with a local food delivery service.

With Dorik, you can also use a Payment button to receive online payments via Paypal, Stripe, Gumroad, Venmo, or Paddle. You can easily learn how to integrate a payment button into your website.

Collaborate with Influencers or Bloggers 

Collaborating with influencers or bloggers in your area is another great publicity medium. Influencers and bloggers can showcase and review the food items and put in a few good words for your restaurant.

Run Online Ads

Running online ads on platforms like Google Ads or Facebook Ads can be a great way to drive traffic to your website and your restaurant.

Create a Loyalty Program 

Creating a loyalty program for repeat customers can help keep them returning to your restaurant. You can offer rewards or discounts for those who dine with you frequently.

Make Your Website Mobile-Friendly and Easy to Navigate 

With more and more people accessing the internet on a mobile device, it's essential to make sure that your website is mobile-friendly and easy to navigate.

A mobile and navigation-friendly website will make it easier for customers to find the information they need and place orders on your website.

Keep a Blog Page

Blogging can be a great way to promote your restaurant and website. Here are a few ways you can use blogging to promote your restaurant:

You can check out Dorik's blog page for inspiration on how to design your blog page. You don't need to be fancy, just keep it simple.

Read this Go-to-Market strategy guide that will teach you how to drive growth. Learn how to create and scale products, reach new customers, and build a profitable income stream.

You can also read how to start a blog step-by-step to learn the process of starting a blog with Dorik.

5 Best Restaurant Website Design Examples

Here, I am sharing 5 amazing restaurant websites as examples that you can take inspiration from and apply to your website.

1. Urbanbelly

I like the simple user interface, clean fonts, and header section containing the necessary navigation links. Visitors won’t feel lost upon visiting the Urbanbelly website.

2. The Hungry Family

I like how it presents the foods in a way that instantly catches the visitor’s eyes and invokes a feeling of hunger. The Hungry Family used a hamburger menu (the three straight lines at the top right corner) for the navigation to keep the space clean. 

3. Back Door Donuts

I like the header navigation bar as it has all the necessary links to explore the site. Plus, the visually enticing banner image carousel gives Back Door Donuts a nice visual appearance. 

4. Disco Cheetah

Another example of good practice for the header navigation bar. You can see the navigation links to access required information about Disco Cheetah without scrolling down. 

5. Adachi

My first impression when I saw this was it has a sophisticated vibe with the food presentation and the font selection. I was curious to explore other sections of the page just for the top part, and that’s an example of good web page design from Adachi.

How can I make my restaurant website visually appealing?

You can make your restaurant website visually appealing with eye-catching visuals. Try using high-quality images of food, drinks, and interior design. Use a clean and simple layout with a consistent color scheme and font.

Use white space to create a clean and uncluttered design. Avoid using too many elements on a single page. Use videos to give a virtual tour of the restaurant. Make sure the website is mobile-friendly and easy to navigate.

Conclusion

Now that you know how to build a restaurant website using Dorik quickly and conveniently, do you think you’ll give it a try? I can’t tell you enough about how important it is to have a website to scale your business. A website can be a game changer for your restaurant.

I can guarantee you that you will enjoy the experience of creating a website all by yourself within hours. On top of that, you can learn about how other restaurants grow their business using their website.

So if you want to boost your restaurant business, start building the best restaurant website today to stay ahead in the race.