Translation Exercise 4
**CONTINUED FROM Translation Exercise 3.
3. Analyze Competitors
It pays off to research other restaurants in your area and see how they’ve built their modern restaurant websites, what type of information they included, and more. Consider observing restaurants that serve the same or similar type of cuisine and customers, restaurants that are on the opposite end of the spectrum, as well as those that are outside of your immediate area.
Not only will you get a better sense of what information you should have on your website, but you can also see what information is missing and use that to your advantage.
It’s worth mentioning that while doing this research, you shouldn't try to emulate the look of your competitor’s restaurant website, otherwise this exercise becomes moot.
Design Tips For Modern Restaurant Websites
If you’ve been following this series from the start, you know we already covered a number of design tips such as using a responsive template, ensuring your images are high-quality, and more. Here are a few more ideas to apply to your website’s design:
4. Don’t Upload JPG or PDF Versions of Your Menus
The menu will probably be one of the most popular pages on your restaurant site--even more popular than your About page. Because of this, your menu should be responsive, usable, and encouraging. You should avoid uploading a JPG or a PDF version of your menu because the contents will be harder to read on a smartphone or a tablet.
Another point to consider is that a file version of your menu, be it an image or a document, cannot be indexed properly by the search engines. In other words, uploading an image or a PDF menu can negatively affect your search engine rank.
Make sure all the dishes on your menu are re-typed onto your restaurant website so the text can scale and be parsed by search engines. If possible, keep the menu visible on one page without adding extra clicks to ensure visitors on mobile devices have an easy time accessing your menu.
5. Simplify Contact and Feedback Forms
It goes without saying that your restaurant website should have a page with a contact form. However, you want to make sure that the contact form is easy to fill out. Don’t ask for unnecessary information such as requiring them to leave their phone number or address. A few simple fields for email, name, and a message are all that's required out of the most basic contact form. It’s quick and it makes it more likely that customers will reach out to you.
Similarly, you’ll want to simplify feedback forms that ask your customers or visitors to leave a review. Here, you can ask for their name, a star rating, and a brief explanation of their review. Remember, the simpler the form the less intimidating it looks, so there's no need to spend time creating elaborate forms for simple tasks.
6. Display Your Location and Hours
When it comes to your modern restaurant website’s design, don’t forget to include a map of your physical location as well as your hours. This will allow potential customers to not only see where you are, but also to get directions to your venue instantly. And with that information easily accessible, you’ll improve the conversion rates on your websites.
You can use Google Maps to embed a map with your location and there are plenty of themes and templates that come with this functionality in place. Consider including your telephone number surrounded by <tel> </tel> tags as well to make it easier for customers on mobile devices to immediately call you.
You can display this information on your About page, Contact page, in the footer of your website, or in all those places. The goal is to make this information as easy to access as possible, especially if you don’t have an online booking form.
(преземено и адаптирано од tutsplus.com, за образовни цели)