A step-by-step build for a restaurant website: choosing between commission and direct online ordering, adding reservations, structuring the menu, and the local SEO details that get you found.
To build a restaurant website that drives orders and reservations, put three things one tap away on every page: the menu, an "Order online" button and a "Reserve" button. Choose your ordering and booking tools first, because they shape the site, then build a short set of pages around them and make sure your hours, address and menu are text that Google can read.
This guide walks through the build in the order you should actually do it.
This is the biggest decision, because it affects your margins on every order.
| Option | How it works | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marketplace apps (DoorDash, Uber Eats, Grubhub and similar) | Link out from your site | Their drivers, their app audience | Commission on each order; the customer relationship belongs to the app |
| POS-linked direct ordering (e.g. Square Online, Toast Online Ordering) | Orders flow into your existing POS and kitchen | Lower fees than marketplaces, one system for the kitchen | You arrange delivery or offer pickup only |
| Standalone commission-free ordering services | Embed or link a branded ordering page | Often flat monthly pricing, you keep customer data | Another tool to manage and connect |
| On-demand delivery add-ons | Your direct orders dispatched to third-party couriers | Delivery without marketplace commission on the food | Per-delivery fees; check current pricing |
A common setup: direct ordering for pickup and delivery on your own website, with marketplaces kept for discovery. Then give website customers a reason to order direct, such as a slightly better price, a loyalty reward or a free item on the first direct order.
Whatever you pick, confirm it can:
Pick based on how you seat guests:
Embed the booking widget on a dedicated Reservations page and also link to it from a header button. Test it on a phone, since embedded widgets sometimes break layouts.
Small restaurants can put most of this on one long homepage with anchor links. Larger ones, or multi-location groups, need separate pages.
| Page | Must include |
|---|---|
| Home | One strong food photo, a one-line description (cuisine + neighbourhood), Order and Reserve buttons, hours today |
| Menu | Text menu, prices, dietary labels, sections that match how you serve |
| Order online | Direct link or embed, pickup and delivery details |
| Reservations | Widget, party size limits, large group policy |
| About | Chef or owner story, sourcing, what makes you different |
| Location and hours | Address, embedded map, parking and transit notes, holiday hours |
| Private events and catering | Capacity, packages, enquiry form |
| Gift cards | Link to purchase, if you sell them |
For multiple locations, give each one its own page with its own address, hours, phone, menu differences and booking link. That helps both customers and local search.
The menu is the most visited page on most restaurant sites. Get these details right:
Most people look up restaurants on a phone, often while deciding where to go right now. Design around that:
Photos matter more for restaurants than for almost any other business. Use real photos of your own dishes and room in good natural light. Stock photos of food are easy to spot and undercut trust. For a sense of how other hospitality sites handle this, see our coffee shop website design guide.
Restaurants are found mostly through local search and maps. Cover these:
Restaurant markup with address, hours, cuisine, price range, menu URL and reservation acceptance. Test it with Google's Rich Results Test.The on-page SEO checklist covers titles, headings and images in more detail.
A restaurant site is mostly a handful of well-structured pages plus links or embeds to your ordering and booking tools. We.Inc builds that from a description such as "family-run Oaxacan restaurant in Pilsen, text menu with brunch and dinner, order button linking to our Square page, OpenTable reservations," then you refine the photos and wording in the visual editor. Hosting and SSL are included. Browse templates for starting points.
Either link or embed a commission-free ordering system (many POS providers such as Square and Toast offer one, and there are standalone services), or link to marketplace apps. Put an "Order online" button in the header on every page and make sure it goes straight to the menu, not a landing page.
It depends on your market and how you run the floor. OpenTable and Resy are widely used for discovery and table management, while tools like SevenRooms and Tock focus on guest data or prepaid bookings. Compare per-cover and monthly fees against your volume, and check current pricing since plans change.
No. Put the menu on the page as text. Text menus load faster on phones, can be read by screen readers, are easier to update, and can be understood by search engines. You can offer a PDF as an extra download for printing.
Home, menu, order online, reservations, about or story, location and hours, and contact. Add private events and catering if you offer them, and a gift card page if you sell them. Many small restaurants put several of these on a single scrolling homepage.
Keep your Google Business Profile complete and consistent with your site, list the same name, address and phone number everywhere, add Restaurant structured data, put your cuisine and neighbourhood in page titles, and make the menu readable text.
How we research, test and update this page: our editorial policy. We.Inc is our own product.
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