Website pages in the order guests need them

A guest deciding where to eat opens a restaurant's website and looks for three things: what the food is like, how much it costs and whether there is a table. The website's navigation offers "Our Story", "Philosophy", "Press", "Gallery", "Events", "Careers" and, at the end, "Contact". The menu is somewhere inside "Our Story". The guest leaves. A restaurant website needs only a few website pages, and they work best in the order guests need them.

Guests use restaurant websites in a predictable way. Most want the menu first, then a way to book, then the address and hours, and only sometimes the story behind the venue or a way to get in touch. A website organised around those needs, in that order, turns more visitors into bookings than one organised around what the venue wants to say.

This guide covers the five pages most restaurants need, in the order guests use them: the menu, booking, finding the venue, the about page and contact. It covers what each page must answer, what belongs on none of them and how to check the order works. Every venue and figure in it is an example.

The order of website pages matters because visitors give a website seconds, not minutes. If the first thing they look for is easy to find, they look for the next. If it is hidden, they leave. Putting the most wanted page first, and making each page lead naturally to the next, keeps visitors moving towards a booking.

The order also tells visitors what the venue cares about. A website that leads with the menu says "here is the food". One that leads with a long story and a philosophy says "here is us". Guests deciding where to eat tonight want the first.

Most visitors to a restaurant website want the same few things: the menu, with prices; a way to book; the address and how to get there; the opening hours; and a phone number. Some want to know about private dining, dietary options or parking. A few want the story.

Organise the website around those needs, most common first. Everything a visitor might want should be reachable within one or two taps, and the most common needs should be visible on the first screen of the home page.

The menu is the most visited page on most restaurant websites, because it answers the question every guest has: what would I eat here, and what would it cost? Put it first in the navigation, link to it from the home page and make it easy to read on a phone.

A good menu page shows the dishes, short descriptions, prices and dietary information, with a link to book at the top and bottom. It should match what is served in the room. A menu page that is out of date is worse than none, because it creates disappointment at the table.

Put the menu on your website as a web page, not a PDF. A web page loads quickly, reads easily on a phone, can be searched and can be updated in minutes when a dish changes. A PDF is slow, hard to read on small screens and often months out of date.

If you have several menus, such as lunch, dinner and drinks, give each a clear heading on the same page or a tab, rather than separate files. Our guide to the menu on your website, not in a PDF covers why the web page wins.

Show prices. Guests use them to decide whether the venue suits their budget and the occasion, and a menu without prices makes many guests assume the worst. It also makes the venue look as if it has something to hide.

Keep prices up to date. A guest who arrives expecting the price they saw online, and finds it higher, starts the evening feeling misled. When prices change, update the website the same day.

The booking page comes next, because a guest who likes the menu wants to book. Make it reachable from every page, through a button that stays visible, and label it plainly: "Book a table". When they tap it, they should see available times within seconds.

The booking page should ask only for what is needed: the date, the time, the party size and the guest's contact details. Every extra question loses some guests. Our guide to online booking on your own site, start to finish covers how to set it up.

There are two ways to offer booking: embed the booking form on your own website, so guests never leave it, or link to a separate booking page. Embedding feels seamless and keeps guests on your site; linking is simpler and works just as well if the booking page is fast and looks like the venue.

Either way, make sure the booking flow works on a phone and that the button is never more than one tap away. The best booking page is the one guests reach instantly and finish quickly.

The third page answers "where is it, and how do I get there?". Give the full address, as text, with a link that opens it in a maps app. Add a short note on how to get there: the nearest station, bus stops, parking, and anything that makes the entrance easy to find.

Include practical details guests often ask about: step-free access, whether there is parking nearby, whether the entrance is round the side. A guest who arrives easily starts the evening in a good mood; one who walks up and down the street looking for the door does not.

Opening hours belong on the find-us page and in the footer of every page, as text, not inside an image. Show the kitchen's hours as well as the doors' hours if they differ, and holiday hours when they change.

Make sure the hours match everywhere guests look: the website, the Google listing, social media and the door. Hours that disagree send guests to a locked door, which is one of the quickest ways to lose them. Our guide to opening hours online: the detail that loses guests covers keeping them right.

The about page tells guests who is behind the venue: the owners, the chef, the idea and what the place cares about. Some guests read it; most do not. It matters most for guests who want to know the people before they book, and for press and partners.

Keep it short, warm and true: a few paragraphs and a photo of the people. Guests who feel they know who cooks their food are more likely to choose the venue. A long history or a philosophy statement, on the other hand, is skimmed and forgotten.

The contact page gives guests a way to reach the venue: a phone number, an email address and, where it helps, a short form for enquiries such as private dining or large groups. Say how quickly you reply, and then reply that quickly.

Make the phone number tappable on a phone, so guests can call in one tap. Many guests, especially for larger bookings or special requests, would rather speak to someone than fill in a form.

The home page is not a sixth page of content; it is a signpost to the other five. Its first screen should say what the venue is, show one good photo and offer a clear booking button, with the menu, the address and the hours one tap away.

Resist the temptation to put everything on the home page. A home page that tries to tell the whole story buries the links guests want. One that signposts clearly gets them to the menu and the booking page faster.

Some things appear on many restaurant websites and help no one: long histories of the building, mission statements, walls of awards and press logos, galleries of fifty photos, PDFs, autoplaying video and music, newsletter pop-ups on arrival and pages for every member of staff.

None of them answers a guest's question, and many slow the website down. If something is worth keeping, find it a small place: a single line about an award on the about page, a few photos on the menu page. Everything else can go.

Website copy should be plain, short and specific. "Seasonal Italian cooking, fresh pasta made every morning, open for lunch and dinner six days a week" tells a visitor more than a paragraph about passion and authenticity. Write for someone deciding in a hurry where to eat.

Organise the words as well as the pages. The way information is structured, sometimes called information architecture, decides how quickly visitors find what they want. Short headings, short paragraphs and the most important facts first make every page easier to use.

Name pages with the words guests use. "Menu", "Book", "Find us", "About" and "Contact" are understood instantly. "Our Offering", "Experience", "Discover" and "Journey" make guests guess, and guessing loses them.

Clever names may fit the brand, but the navigation is not the place for them. Save the personality for the words on each page, and keep the page names plain.

If groups and private dining matter to your venue, give them a clear place: a short section on the contact page, or a page of its own if they are a large part of the business. Say how many you can seat, what menus are available and how to enquire.

Group organisers often compare several venues at once, and they tend to choose the one that makes enquiring easy and replies quickly. A clear route and a prompt answer win those bookings.

Gift cards, events and other extras deserve a place, but not at the expense of the five main pages. A small link in the navigation or footer, or a section on the home page in the weeks when they matter, such as gift cards before the festive season, is usually enough.

Add them when they are relevant and remove them when they are not. A permanent "Events" page with nothing on it for months makes the venue look quiet.

Guests with access needs want specific information before they book: step-free entry, accessible toilets, space between tables for a wheelchair, whether there is a quieter area. Put it on the find-us page, plainly.

Being specific helps everyone. "Step-free entrance on the side street, accessible toilet on the ground floor" lets a guest plan with confidence. A vague "we are accessible" leaves them to phone and ask, and some will not.

Many guests check dietary options before they book: vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, allergies. Mark dishes clearly on the menu page and explain how the venue handles allergies, such as asking guests to tell their server.

Clear dietary information on the website reassures guests before they arrive and reduces the questions at the table. Our guide to menu allergens: what to put on the page itself covers what to show.

On a phone, the order of pages matters even more, because the navigation is usually hidden behind a menu button. Make sure "Menu" and "Book" are the first items in that menu, and keep a booking button visible on screen as visitors scroll.

Test the order on your own phone. Can you reach the menu in one tap and the booking page in one more? If either takes longer, rearrange the navigation. Our guide to mobile website first, because that is the traffic covers designing for the phone.

The footer, at the bottom of every page, is where many guests look for practical details. Put the address, the opening hours, the phone number and a booking link there, so they are always available without returning to a particular page.

Keep it tidy: the essentials, links to social profiles and any legal pages you need. A footer crowded with every link on the site is harder to use than a short one.

Every page should lead somewhere useful, usually towards booking. The menu page links to booking; the find-us page links to booking; the about page links to the menu and booking. A visitor should never reach the end of a page with nowhere obvious to go.

These links are small, but they add up. A guest who finishes reading the menu and sees "Book a table" right there is far more likely to book than one who has to scroll back up to find the button.

The five pages only work if they are current. Check them once a month: the menu and prices, the hours, the booking link, the photos and any events or seasonal notes. Fix anything that has changed the same day you notice it.

An out-of-date website does quiet damage. A guest who finds an old menu, old hours or a dead link wonders what else is wrong, and may choose somewhere that seems better cared for.

Some venues genuinely need more than five pages: a group with several venues, a venue whose events are a large part of its trade, a restaurant with a busy private dining room. Add pages for these, but keep the five main ones easy to find and in the same order.

Ask of every new page whether it answers a question guests actually ask. If it does, it earns its place. If it exists because it seemed expected, it probably does not.

The best test of a website's pages is a stranger with a phone. Ask someone who has never seen the website to find the menu, check the price of a main course, find the address and book a table, while you watch without helping. Time each task.

Where they hesitate or get lost shows where the order or the names are wrong. Fix those points first. Our guide to restaurant website design that gets out of the way covers the design decisions behind a website that passes this test.

Many guests never reach the website through its home page. They arrive from a search, straight onto the menu page or the booking page, or they never visit at all and use the Google listing instead. Each page should work on its own, with the venue's name, a booking link and the essentials visible.

Keep the Google listing consistent with the website: the same hours, the same menu link, the same booking link. Our guide to your Google Business Profile is the real homepage covers the listing many guests see first.

An invented bistro's website had nine pages, with the menu as a PDF inside "Our Story" and booking hidden under "Contact". It cuts the website to five pages, in the order guests need them: Menu, Book, Find us, About and Contact. The menu becomes a web page with prices and dietary marks, and every page ends with a "Book a table" link.

The find-us page gains the address with a maps link, directions from the station and step-free access details, and the hours move into the footer. A stranger can now find the menu in one tap and book in under a minute. Online bookings rise, and the phone rings less often with questions the website now answers.

servearound does not build the venue's own website, but it provides two of its pages. Each venue's booking page and menu page live on servearound.com at the venue's own address, and can be linked from the website's "Book" and "Menu" pages, or the booking form embedded on the site as a widget. The menu page is a web page, not a PDF, and a dish marked sold out comes off it straight away.

Both pages tell search engines about the venue in structured data: the booking page can give its name, address, phone number, opening hours taken from the venue's shifts, a link to the menu and a way to book, and the menu page lists each dish with its description, price and dietary tags. A page appears in search only when the venue has published it: the booking page when public booking is on and the venue has shifts, the menu page when a menu is live. See the menus module and Campaigns.

Usually five: menu, book, find us, about and contact.

The menu, followed closely by booking.

No. Put it on a web page, with prices, and keep it current.

On the find-us page and in the footer of every page, as text.

Who is behind the venue and what it cares about, in a few warm paragraphs with a photo.

Long histories, mission statements, walls of awards, PDFs, autoplay media and pop-ups.

Either works if it is fast on a phone and one tap away.

Ask a stranger to find the menu, the address and book a table on a phone, and watch.

A restaurant website works best with a few website pages in the order guests need them: the menu first, with prices, as a web page; then booking, one tap away from every page; then finding the venue, with the address, a maps link, directions, access details and opening hours online; then a short about page; then contact. The home page is a signpost to all five.

Use plain page names, plain website copy and the most important facts first. Leave out long histories, mission statements, PDFs, autoplay and pop-ups. End every page with a link towards booking, put the essentials in the footer, keep every page current with a monthly check and test the whole website with a stranger on a phone.