How to Drive Traffic to your Restaurant Website that gets Customers Through the Door

Your website is a virtual business card and it holds far more information about your business than a piece of paper or small card. In addition it can be accessed from any country, city or household in the world with an internet connection and computer.
Getting customers to your website is a little harder than handing out business cards. The best way of driving traffic to your site, and ultimately through the door, is to use the following multiple proven methods:

1) Print it

Perhaps, the simplest way to drive traffic to your restaurant’s website is through a printed card placed at each table. List your site and encourage visitors to go to it. Every piece of your marketing material should include your website address.

2) Social Media

Drive traffic to your website with social media. This can be achieved in multiple ways. For example, you can use social media to attract attention to a ‘scavenger hunt’ on your website to find the latest entree your restaurant will serve. You can jump on Twitter trending topics. If they like what you have to say, they may follow you and even visit your website. Moreover, social media promotion is only limited by your imagination. There are many ways to promote businesses and their products that have yet to be discovered.

3) Coupons

Coupons are an immensely successful tool to drive traffic to your restaurant’s website. Everyone loves free stuff! Coupons can be used for a free appetizer or dollars off. They do not have to have a high value amount. They only need to be high enough to encourage your customers to visit your restaurant instead of your competitors. Restaurants can make use of a PDF file or image placed on their website or a service, like coupons.com to make the coupons printable. Always place the coupon on your website to make that the first stop for prospective diners.

4) Giveaways

Giveaways do not need to be elaborate. A fabulous prize and an entry form is all that’s required. Make your website the only place where customers can enter. Combine social media marketing and print to make the giveaway more successful.

5) Blog About It

A restaurant’s website should utilize the blogosphere with a blog on their site and guest posting. A blog on your website keeps your site updated which satisfies the rules of search engines to maintain the site’s ranking in the search results. It also establishes the restaurant as an expert in its field and provides a reason for site visitors to keep coming back. Guest posting is when your restaurant (or a freelancer writer/ghostwriter hired by you) creates a blog post for another blog that promotes your business and establishes the restaurant further as an expert. Guest posts include a link back to the website, so readers can learn more about your restaurant.

6) Fill Your Site with Information

While filling your site with relevant and detailed information sounds a bit elementary, many restaurants forget that all sites need the basics; a detailed menu, ‘About Us’ page, promotions, and other personal details, for customers to read and obtain a better sense of your business. Without these, what exactly is the intent of getting people to your restaurant’s website? A website is a restaurant’s virtual business card and it should reflect the business’s image.

Driving traffic to your website begins with a good website and a marketing plan. A combination of the above methods will bring customers to your website and hook them into coming back. Continue with these efforts to keep traffic at optimal levels.

What methods do you use to get traffic to your website and subsequently through the door of your restaurant?

Is Your Restaurant Website Mobile Friendly?

Consider the needs of the consumer, and your product will generate strong brand loyalty. This bit of solid advice finds application in every aspect of business, but especially in a restaurant’s website. The Internet has unarguably replaced the telephone directory as the primary source of commonly sought information. Customers visiting a restaurant’s website are seeking specific information. The customer needs you to tell them what they want to know without having to hunt for it. You need to reward your customer for taking the time to visit your restaurant’s website.

Factors to Consider:

Restaurant websites rank among the top categories visited on a mobile device. Customers want to know where, when, and how to find a restaurant. Mobile site design needs to bear these factors in mind, and give the customer clear information as quickly and efficiently as possible. Mobile browsing applications don’t always correctly render complex formatting or animated objects; simple designs load more quickly and accurately, allowing the customer direct access to information. Frequently accessed information should be placed prominently on the page; customers should never have to search for the restaurant’s operating hours, telephone number for reservations or carry-out orders, or location. It’s okay to put complex information like maps and menus behind a link, but make those links prominent. Menu imagery and visual presentation is important, but search engines cannot index image files that aren’t correctly tagged with metadata.

Content to Consider:

Customers browsing the restaurant website have placed themselves in an ideal position from which to be reached by the marketer. This is the best time to provide the customer with information immediately relevant to their decision but which they didn’t even know they needed. Specific restaurant ads such as featured menu items, limited-time offers, and specialty services must be actively brought to the customer’s attention. Customers who have taken the time to visit your restaurant’s website want to know about you; they just don’t always know which questions to ask. The best design practices place these important but secondary elements of the site either behind a prominent link or “below the fold” where the customer has to scroll to see them.

After the customer has discovered new information about your restaurant it’s time to reward him for taking time to visit. Website-exclusive promotions can result in immediate conversion of undecided consumers. A mobile reservation system can cut wait times or deter customers when a restaurant is in the weeds;  helping the customer avoid a negative experience is just as important as generating a positive one. Customers can browse the menu while they travel, and discover related businesses. Every restaurant exists within a community of businesses; taking time to direct interested consumers to them builds consumer rapport and can generate back-links. An interactive feedback option lets a restaurant gather valuable information about the customer’s experience.

In Conclusion:

Mobile website design requirements share many commonalities, which may be customized to the needs of a restaurant. Visual designs should use high-contrast text areas and be vertically aligned. Large images present loading and display problems; animated and interactive objects require specific software support not always available for mobile displays. The site should be easy to navigate, present the customer with important information not commonly sought, and reward the customer for time spent visiting.

What are your thoughts? Leave a comment below.

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