Restaurant websites: what you need to attract customers

If you have a restaurant and don’t have a website that works well, you’re giving customers away to the competition. We’re not exaggerating: 77% of diners check a restaurant’s website before deciding to visit. In this article, we’ll explain exactly what your restaurant website needs to convert visitors into reservations.

Why a restaurant website is different

A restaurant website isn’t a digital brochure. It’s the front door to your business. People arrive with very specific questions:

• What do you serve? → They want to see the menu
• Where are you? → They want the address and directions
• Can I book? → They want to reserve now, not tomorrow
• What’s the atmosphere like? → They want real photos

If your website doesn’t answer these questions within 10 seconds, the customer leaves and looks for another restaurant. It’s that simple.

The 8 elements every restaurant website needs

1. Digital menu in HTML (never PDF)

This is the most important element and the one most restaurants get wrong. The menu must be real text, not a PDF or scanned image.

Why?

• Google indexes text, not PDFs: if your menu is HTML, you’ll appear when someone searches “black rice in Tarragona” or “tasting menu in Barcelona”
• It reads well on mobile: a PDF on mobile is a terrible experience — zooming, horizontal scrolling, tiny text
• Easy to update: when you change the menu, you update the text in minutes

A good restaurant website displays the menu organized by sections (starters, mains, desserts, wines) with clear prices and allergens marked.

2. Integrated booking system

Restaurants with online booking receive 30% more reservations than those relying solely on phone calls. The reason is obvious: people want to book at 11pm while scrolling on their phone on the sofa, not call during business hours.

Options that work:

• Custom form on the website (simplest and most affordable)
• TheFork integrated (if you already use it)
• Google Reserve linked to your Google Business profile

What does NOT work: a button saying “Call to book” as the only option.

3. Real professional photographs

No stock photos of perfect burgers that look nothing like your actual dish. Photos must be:

• Real: of your dishes, your space, your team
• Professional: good lighting, good angles. A 2-hour photo session completely changes perception
• Optimized: WebP format, compressed, with descriptive alt text (“Black rice with cuttlefish at Cal Pere restaurant, Vic”)

4. Opening hours and location with map

It seems obvious, but 40% of restaurant websites have outdated hours or no map. You need:

• Updated hours for each day of the week
• Closing days clearly marked
• Integrated Google Maps with the exact pin
• Access instructions if it’s not easy to reach (parking, public transport)

5. Page load speed under 3 seconds

53% of mobile visitors abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load. For a restaurant, where the decision is quick and emotional, speed is even more critical.

Most restaurant websites built with WordPress + Elementor load in 5-8 seconds. At serpixel, we build with Astro, which generates static pages that load in under 1.5 seconds — Lighthouse score of 100/100.

6. Local SEO configured

46% of Google searches have local intent. This means nearly half the time someone searches for something, they’re looking for something nearby. For a restaurant, this is gold.

Your website needs:

• Schema.org Restaurant: structured data telling Google you’re a restaurant, where you are, your hours, and what cuisine you serve
• Geolocalized content: natural mentions of your city, county, and region
• Google Business profile synced with the website
• Content in the local language: if you’re in Catalonia, Catalan content has virtually zero competition

7. Responsive design (mobile-first)

72% of restaurant searches are done from mobile devices. Usually the person is walking down the street or in the car deciding where to go. Your website must work perfectly on a 375px wide screen:

• Large, easy-to-tap buttons
• Menu readable without zooming
• Clickable phone number (one tap and you call)
• Address that opens Google Maps directly

8. Multilingual (minimum Catalan + Spanish)

If your restaurant is in Catalonia, your website should speak like your customers. This means:

• Catalan as the primary language: virtually zero SEO competition, immediate local trust
• Spanish: for national tourism and non-Catalan-speaking customers
• English (optional): if you have international tourism

At serpixel, all websites are multilingual from day one. It’s not an add-on: it’s the foundation.

What a restaurant website does NOT need

Just as important as what you should have is what you should avoid:

• Background music: no. Never. Nobody wants it
• Flash animations or video intros: slow, heavy, irritating
• PDF menu: as we’ve already explained, it’s the worst possible format
• Slider with 10 photos on the homepage: a strong hero with one impactful photo works better
• “Under construction” page: if it’s not finished, don’t publish it

How much does a professional restaurant website cost?

If you go to a traditional agency, they’ll charge between €3,000 and €8,000 to build your website. Then they’ll abandon you, and within a year you’ll have an outdated website with no maintenance.

With serpixel, the model is different:

Phase	Duration	What’s included
Creation	Months 1-4	Custom design, digital menu, booking, local SEO, multilingual
Growth	Month 5+	Maintenance, monthly SEO content, menu updates, monitoring

Monthly subscription. Zero upfront investment. Code ownership transfers after 4 months. No lock-in. Get a quote tailored to your business.

Time to act

Every week without an optimized website is a week where the competition catches the customers who were looking for you. The good news: with today’s tools, having a professional website for your restaurant is faster and more affordable than ever.

At serpixel we can have your restaurant website ready in under 4 weeks, with digital menu, online booking, local SEO, and content in Catalan and Spanish. Shall we talk?