The short answer is: it depends. The only reason not to have one is if your place is so packed that you have customers lined out the door. If you have empty tables, then you need a website and some proper digital marketing. But that won’t solve all your problems. If your food isn’t great, no amount of online presence will save you. However, if you have fantastic food, excellent service, and a decent location, yet you’re not reaching full capacity during lunch or dinner, then you’re missing out on something.
Let’s take a look at our client Gregory’s case study. We helped them with much more than just building a website. While we did create a new website that ranked #1 on Google and had a mobile-responsive menu, we also redesigned their printed in-house menu, and business cards, and even helped them implement the red napkin strategy. They even went the extra mile and asked us to set up a new POS system which we of course helped them with and now we are assisting them with expanding their restaurant with a new patio, increasing their table capacity by 16 to reduce the line at the door.
Our Digitized Idea Of How They Can Expand And Add More Tables For Minimal Cost…Time To Pass This On To The Professional Architects
A website can benefit your restaurant in numerous ways. It allows regular customers to view your menu online and share it with others. It also helps visitors to your town find your restaurant. Locals who are not aware of your restaurant can discover you through your website, but it’s up to you to provide them with an amazing dining experience and keep them coming back. This is where the red napkin strategy comes into play. If you’re not familiar with this tactic, don’t hesitate to hit that consult button, and I’d be happy to share it with you.
The bottom line is, if you want more customers calling in orders and dining in, you need a website that ranks at the top of Google. We understand that some restaurant owners may not like the idea of throwing down a few grand at a website. Especially when there are some $799 type options out there, but let me ask you this, if you need a grill for your kitchen do you buy the grill that costs $799 but it never gets hot enough to cook or do you buy the grill that costs $4k that actually allows you to cook food? I know that analogy sounds silly but that is literally what you are doing with a cheap website, it will exist and it will be there but if it doesn’t rank at the top of google it’s the same as that grill that doesn’t get hot, it’s absolutely useless, you are better saving your money.
We are not the right fit for everyone, and we don’t accept every project due to a fairly small team, we take on about 5-6 projects per month, but we strongly encourage you to take action. We’ve witnessed too many locally-owned restaurants fail because they didn’t take the right steps. My favorite wing spot went out of business that way. The owner served the best wings I’ve ever had, but I’ll never get to have them again.