Website Design Focus: Hospitality
Posted on 28th February 2025
Our second in our new series of blogs focusing on different industry sectors, this article focuses on the hospitality sector – namely food and drink-oriented businesses such as bars, restaurants, cafes, catering companies and hotels. We’ve put together some useful hints and tips to help your hospitality venue create a website that attracts new customers, boosts bookings and, in short, gets the results you want.
Here goes!
1. Get your visual ducks in a row
The aesthetic appearance of your site is the first thing prospective customers will notice when they land on it. So, it’s imperative your visuals aren’t just an accurate reflection of your business type and branding, but also give people a real ‘feel’ for the kind of style and ambience they can expect from your venue. (If you don’t feel your branding is quite right at the moment, a new website is the ideal opportunity for an overhaul, which it’seeze Nottingham will be pleased to help with.)
2. Make your navigation as user-friendly as possible
If customers can’t find what they’re looking for on your website quicky and easily, they’ll click away: simple as that. The golden rule should be that people can find what they’re looking for in three clicks or less. A good place to start is to have clear navigation items and / or coloured buttons for the most important pages on your site, such as ‘Menu,’ ‘Book online’ or ‘Order now’. Your contact details should also be prominent.
The example below from Flying Pig Catering, an it’seeze customer, shows how it’s done:
3. Create a mobile responsive website
Today, more people are accessing the internet on mobile phones and tablets than any other devices. So, it makes sense to ensure your new website is mobile-friendly and displays perfectly on a range of different devices using iOS and Android operating systems, and on any screen size. (This is also important for SEO, as mobile versions of sites are now indexed first and prioritised over desktop versions.)
Having a mobile version of your website also enables you to add extra features such as ‘Click to call,’ so customers can give you a ring straightaway whilst browsing on their mobile phone.
4. Make it easy to order and / or book online
Whatever type of device your customers are using, don’t make it hard work for people to place an online order or make a booking with you. Include clear calls to action (CTAs) on each page that tell people what to do, such as coloured ‘Order now’ buttons. Then, when people follow your CTA, keep the process as simple as you can, with no unnecessary steps or fussy form-filling.
On your mobile site, consider enabling Google Pay and Apple Pay so customers using mobile phones can check out without having to enter their card details. Add a log-in / account feature too, so existing customers don’t have to input their details every time they use your services.
Also give some thought to what happens after people have placed an order or booking. Send a confirmation email as a minimum and, for things like online food orders, put a tracker in place that keeps customers updated on what’s happening with their order and when it’ll be ready. Setting expectations from the start, and being upfront about any delays, is critical.
5. Include reviews and testimonials
When it comes to food, drink and hotel stays, people will believe what other customer say over what you say yourself – fact! That’s why it’s so important to include genuine reviews and testimonials on your website, as well as links to separate review sites such as your Google Business Profile, Facebook page, Trustpilot, TripAdvisor and so on.
You could place some of your reviews in boxes or rotating banners on some or all pages of your website, or have a dedicated page linked to from the navigation bar – as in the Flying Pig Catering example above. And don’t forget to put some effort into getting good reviews in the first place: ask customers for testimonials either directly, or through automated emails as part of the online transaction process.
6. Optimise your site for SEO – and keep doing it!
Before you even start building your website, you’ll need to have a list of keywords in place to incorporate into your content. That means doing some research and, potentially, creating personas or avatars for your target customer(s). Once the site has been built – with keywords used sensibly in the front and back end of the site without stuffing – your job doesn’t end there.
SEO is an ongoing process, so you’ll need to keep the site fresh and up to date, carrying out new keyword research from time to time to reflect changing trends. Other SEO tasks that will help your site zip up the rankings include regular blogging, social media activity, relevant backlinking and listing your site on local and national business directories.
Sound like hard work? It can be, which is why it’seeze Nottingham offers a range of ongoing SEO services to ease the pressure.
Not sure where to start? it’seeze Nottingham can help!
Running a hospitality company is a serious undertaking and it may feel there just aren’t enough hours in the day to even think about a website. That’s where it’seeze Nottingham comes in. We specialise in supporting local hospitality businesses to design high quality bespoke websites that get your name and brand out there, and customers flocking through your door.
From a simple five page site that showcases your venue, to an all-singing, all-dancing e-commerce website for online bookings and orders, our range of website packages does it all. And once you’re up and running, you’ll benefit from ongoing customer support and full training on how to use our unique, user-friendly Website Editor.
Contact us today to discuss your requirements for your new hospitality website, or ask us for a FREE audit of your website to see what’s working well and what could be improved.
Tagged as: Sector Spotlight
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