There are many exciting online marketing opportunities for restaurant owners who wish to drive reservations, exposure, and word of mouth via the web. Social networks like MySpace and more vague terms like the Blogosphere can be confusing, but restaurant owners can use their own website to capitalize on the interaction with their prospective diners and loyal customers. It all starts with the content of your restaurant’s website and also includes search and email. In this first part of a three part series, we discuss our suggestions for restaurant website content that any restaurant owner seeking a better web strategy can use.

Contact Information

Many visitors go to restaurant websites simply looking for the address or phone number. They are either ‘Googling’ you from their computer or their cell phone and they should easily be able to find this information without visiting another page or watching a flash intro. Have the phone number and address in plain text, preferably in the header (but if not, above the fold), and your customers will thank you.

Maps

Google Maps are a great way to help your visitors find your restaurant. Instead of directly linking to websites like Mapquest or Yahoo Maps, embed the map on the page so your customer isn’t taken to another site.

Rich Media

Many websites force an experience of music, animation, or long intros on their visitors—including to their loyal repeat traffic—and all it does is annoy them. Your website should do nothing else but connect people with your restaurant. Put your vital information in an obvious place and you will be rewarded. The more you overuse Flash, the less likely someone is going to be able to print and save your most important marketing materials.

The Menu

Your menu should be the primary focus of your website. It should be current and easy for you to update using a Content Management System, or a “CMS.” It should also be formatted for visitors to print easily. If your restaurant prints new menus on a daily or weekly basis, you can serve both your updating and printing needs at the same time.

Updating your “specials” is a great way to draw patrons by promoting their favorite dishes, urging them to try something new, or offering a great deal. Documenting your specials on your website provides customers with a history of your creative culinary work and reminds them of what they enjoyed. Furthermore, allowing your customers to comment on your menu items and specials, or send menu items to friends, is an innovative opportunity to explore, similar to what you see with each product on Amazon.com. These user generated reviews show that you appreciate your customers’ opinions as well as give you honest feedback on your selection and service.

Email Sign Ups

Start building a database of your customers now. Even if you’re not sure when you’ll start emailing, it’s never too early to begin collecting email addresses from your interested customers. Building a database of your customers’ contact information is the first step to communicating with your customers interactively. Each page of your website should have an email sign up form so it’s simple to stay in touch.

Basic contact info, a map, limited use of rich media, a solid menu with updated specials, reviews from customers, and email sign up forms are several fundamentals of the restaurant website.

The next post in this series will shed some light on how restaurants should leverage local search, city directories, listing sites, and blogs to drive reservations and exposure.