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Design Tips for Developing Your Pizzeria Website

Posted by Graham Masters

Graham is the Graphic Designer/Webmaster for SpeedLine Solutions and is responsible for everything beautiful about our site. Using his decades of experience, Graham is always looking for new and innovative ways to push the boundaries of our brand.

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Are you developing a new site for your pizzeria? There are design tools available that make it possible to design your own website without a lot of technical knowledge—and a lot of semi-skilled web designers out there are willing to take your money. But your website has to be designed with the goal of attracting customers, making it easy to order, and encouraging larger orders, or it may inadvertently drive visitors to your competitors.

 

Website Design Basics

Whether you do it yourself or hire professionals, here are some points to help you go in the right direction from the start:

 

Responsiveness

Chances are, your customers will use their phones to search for you. Make sure your site design is responsive, so it looks great—and is easy to use—on a small phone or tablet display. 

 

Accessible Information

Place the most important details about your restaurant on the front page, and repeat them at the top of each page. Don’t forget your locations, phone number, web ordering link, and hours. If you deliver, consider outlining your delivery area in a visible place too. You can read about what should be in your footer in this article.

 

Feature Best Sellers

Feature some of your best sellers or most profitable menu items on your home page. Use a large enough font that people don't have to struggle to read it. And avoid clutter that distracts from the information visitors need. Consider changing your best sellers or promo items regularly to keep the page fresh.

 

Clean and Clear

Make sure your menu pages are simple and clutter-free, with clean graphics that match your brand, and concise information. Your customers want to see what you have, with short, clear descriptions and pricing. Well laid out ordering pages can drive add-on sales and increase your average order size.

 

"Our menu descriptions are really just basically ingredient lists. We spent many years with a lot of time invested into using a lot of buzz words, and "fresh," and all the different descriptive words. But when you have a lot of menu items, those either become repetitive, or you're breaking out the thesaurus to try to figure out a new way to say it.

"And we've found that with mobile ordering, that it just wasn't worth it because then it was taking up too much room on the screen."

- Todd Vierra, Director of Operations, Spinato's Pizzeria in Building Your Brand Experience: Online Ordering

 

 

An Easily Located Menu

Make your menu easy to find by adding clean bold links on your home page "above the fold" —make sure it’s prominently visible on screen, without scrolling.

6 steps to creating the perfect menu description

 

Additional Services

Add links to any additional services you offer, such as catering and parties. Even if customers have to phone the store to order, link to a page with a few details of the service and your phone number—it gives these services visibility. It also ensures you will show up as a result in search engines if someone is looking for these services.

 

Deals, Special Offers, and Add-Ons

Create a page for your deals, coupons, and special offers; add clear buttons or links on your homepage to these. Consider creating LTO menu items, meal deals, and specials. Coincide them with special events such as sports shows, holidays, or other events. Maximize margin and boost add-on sales by focusing offers on sides, desserts, and drinks.

 

Branding

Use your logo and brand colors as the basis for your website's color theme. Add attractive graphics to your site pages and menu that represent your brand. 

Where possible, use images of your own products and restaurant in place of clipart or stock images. We suggest hiring a professional photographer that will show your menu items in their best light for this. You can learn about how to hire a food photographer here

 

This is just scratching the surface of what you can do. Once you begin, you'll discover your own strategies for marketing your brand online and driving new customers to your door. Today, more than half of all sales at three of the four leading pizza brands come from digital channels. If you don’t have a high-performing website for your restaurant, start now to avoid missing out on potential sales.

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Posted on Mon, May 03, 2021 @ 09:05 AM.
Updated on July 21, 2021 @ 9:32 PM PST.


Tags: Listening to your Customers, Restaurant Marketing

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