Web design for restaurants
Four people are deciding. One is reading the menu.
That is how restaurants are chosen: somebody suggests you, a phone comes out, and the menu is opened in front of three other people who will veto anything that does not suit them. If it is a PDF that has to be pinched and zoomed, or last winter's menu, or if the allergen information is missing, they go somewhere else while still sitting at the table. We fix that, host it and look after it, with a £0 upfront website design fee.
- Per month: £49.99
- Upfront website design fee: £0
Illustration: a restaurants pictogram beside an example website built for that trade.
What people want to know
Six questions, asked in about forty seconds.
Nobody reads a restaurant website. They scan it for six specific things while a conversation carries on around them, and if any one of those is missing they move to the next place on the list.
- 01
What is on the menu, right now
Not a PDF, not last season's, and not a photograph of a printed card. Actual text on the page, readable on a phone, changed whenever the kitchen changes it.
- 02
Roughly what it costs
Prices on the menu, obviously, but also a sense of the whole occasion. People are working out whether this is a Tuesday supper or a birthday.
- 03
Can we get in tonight
Booking one tap away, or an honest line saying walk-ins only. Either is fine; ambiguity is not.
- 04
Will it suit everybody
Vegetarian, vegan, gluten free and children. One person in the group usually has a requirement and they are the one holding the phone.
- 05
Where is it, and can we park
A tappable address and something honest about parking. In a market town that is a genuine deciding factor.
- 06
What is it actually like
Photographs of the room as it is on a normal evening, not a styled shoot. People want to know whether to book it for a first date or for a Sunday with the children.
Answer those six and the website has done its whole job. Everything else is atmosphere.
Booking
One tap, or a phone number people can actually tap.
Most restaurants already use a booking system, and the website's job is simply to get somebody into it without friction. Where you take bookings by phone, the number needs to be tappable and the quiet times worth naming.
- Link straight into your system
Whatever you already use. The site should never be a second, worse booking journey sitting in front of the real one.
- Say what needs a phone call
Large tables, allergies and private dining. Directing them properly is better service and it protects the kitchen.
- Name the quiet nights
"Wednesdays are usually easy" fills a shift that would otherwise be empty, and people appreciate being told.
The room and the food
Photograph the room as it looks on a Thursday.
Perfectly lit empty interiors tell somebody nothing about whether they will feel comfortable. A room with people in it, at the light level it actually has, answers the question they cannot ask.
Photographs here are illustrative. Your own room and food replace them, and we can pull your Instagram in so the dishes stay current.
The practical things
Allergens, access and the details people ring to ask.
These are not marketing. They are the questions your staff answer twenty times a day, and putting them on the site frees the phone and stops somebody deciding it is too much trouble to find out.
We publish exactly what you tell us. No invented awards, no fabricated reviews, and no claims about sourcing or accreditation you cannot stand behind.
Things we'll display if they apply to you
- How allergen information is provided, and that guests should always tell you before ordering
- Your food hygiene rating
- Dietary options: vegetarian, vegan, gluten free and what can be adapted
- Children: whether you have a menu, high chairs, and any age limits in the evening
- Accessibility: steps, level access, accessible toilet and where to ask for help
- Parking, and where the nearest car park is
- Dogs, and whether they are welcome in any part of the room
- Reviews wherever they already live, unedited
Food businesses have legal duties around allergen information, and how it must be provided depends on the food and the setting. We publish the wording you and your kitchen agree, and always encourage guests to speak to staff about allergies rather than rely on a web page.
Where bookings come from
You are chosen from a shortlist somebody else wrote.
Almost nobody discovers a restaurant on its own website. They are recommended it, or they see it on a map, or somebody in the group suggests it, and the website is where the decision gets confirmed or lost. That reframes what it is for: it is not advertising, it is the closing argument, and it is being read fast by a group of people who are already half-committed.
The exceptions are the searches worth owning: Sunday lunch, private dining, somewhere for a birthday, and the ones tied to the town rather than the cuisine. Those are people with an occasion in mind and no venue yet, which makes them the most valuable visitors you get, and they are looking for specifics — a room for fourteen, a set menu, a table at three on a Sunday — that most restaurant websites never mention.
Your site plan
Five pages, and the menu is ninety per cent of the traffic.
It is the only page most visitors ever open. Building it as real, readable, current text rather than a download is the single biggest improvement most restaurants can make.
Home
What kind of restaurant this is, tonight's booking route, and where to find you.
- The room
- Book
- Find us
Menus
Every menu as readable text, current, with dietary markers and allergen guidance.
- Current
- Readable
- Dietary
Book a table
Straight into your booking system, with what needs a phone call instead.
- One tap
- Large tables
- Quiet nights
Private dining & events
The room, the numbers it seats, set menus and how to enquire. The highest-value page you have.
- Capacity
- Set menus
- Enquire
About & find us
The kitchen, the suppliers, opening hours, parking and accessibility.
- About
- Hours
- Parking
Generally up to five pages on Website, planned around how your customers choose.
Need something extra later? No problem. PrimeStart customers can order additional services such as extra pages, branding and one-off optimisation through their client dashboard whenever they need them.
The logic of SEO
Occasion searches are worth more than covers.
Website + SEO is optional monthly work on how easily local customers find you, aimed at three searches agreed with you. A table for two is welcome; a party of fourteen booking a set menu in December is a different order of value entirely.
The kind of searches SEO works on
- restaurants Ludlow
- sunday lunch Ludlow
- private dining Ludlow
£349.99/month total, website included. SEO never promises a position, a number of enquiries or a revenue figure. It promises the work, every month.
Already have a website you are happy with? Ongoing SEO is only available with the managed website, as Website + SEO — PrimeStart does not run SEO on a site it does not host. If you would rather keep your current site, talk to us first and we will tell you honestly whether moving it across is worth it.
- 1
A website that closes the decision
Menu, price, availability, dietary options, parking. The restaurant that answers all five while the group is still deciding gets the booking.
- 2
Found by the people already looking
The SEO work is monthly work on the local searches, your Google Business Profile and the listings that decide who appears when somebody near you types restaurants near me.
- 3
Aim at the occasion
Sunday lunch, private dining, somewhere for a big birthday. Fewer searches, far higher value, and most restaurants are invisible for all of them.
- 4
The Business Profile is half the job
Hours, photographs, menu link and reviews decide the map result, and in hospitality the map result carries more traffic than the website ever will.
We research your area first, recommend three that make commercial sense, explain why, and agree them with you before any work starts.
Your Client Platform
Change the menu the morning it changes.
Every PrimeStart customer gets their own Client Platform. It is where the project lives: the stage it has reached, what we are waiting on, the draft to look through, and the button that says you are happy with it.
- Follow the build stage by stage, without emailing to ask
- Send a new menu or photographs straight from your phone
- Message PrimeStart directly, with the whole thread in one place
- Preview the draft on a laptop and a phone, and mark up changes
- Approve the website before anything goes live
- Ask for changes afterwards, and order services when you need them
- See your SEO report, tracked searches and recommendations each month (Website + SEO)
There is nothing technical to learn. One login to your Client Platform, and you never have to open WordPress.
Illustration of the Client Platform for a fictional restaurants business. SEO reporting is included with Website + SEO.
The plans
The same restaurant website, with or without the monthly SEO work.
The Website is the whole thing: designed, built, hosted, managed and kept current, with your domain name included. Website + SEO adds monthly work on how easily local customers find it. Clear pricing. Straightforward terms. No surprises.
A restaurant website that answers the six questions a group asks in forty seconds, with a menu that is actually current.
Designers usually charge for the build before the website exists. We absorb that cost and recover it through the monthly service, which is why the plan carries a minimum term, and why there is nothing to pay up front beyond the first month.
Complete the term and the website is yours: stay with us on a rolling basis with no new minimum, or move it to hosting of your own.
Want PrimeStart working on how customers find you? Website + SEO is £349.99 a month in total, with the same website included. The same managed website, plus monthly work on three agreed local searches and the Business Profile that carries most hospitality traffic. How SEO works
£49.99per month
- Upfront website design fee
- £0
- What you pay to start
- Your first £49.99, at signup
- Minimum term
- 18 months
- Over the minimum term
- 18 × £49.99 = £899.82
- After month 18
- The website is yours
- If you stay
- £49.99 a month, rolling, no new minimum
What the plan includes
- Menus as readable textNot a PDF, and changed whenever the kitchen changes it
- Booking one tap awayStraight into the system you already use
- Allergen and dietary informationThe questions your staff answer twenty times a day
- A private dining pageThe highest-value enquiry you can receive, and rarely built properly
- Hours and parking always rightBecause in a market town both decide it
- A professionally designed, custom-built WordPress websiteGenerally up to five pages, planned around how restaurants are chosen
- Hosting, your domain name and SSLIncluded and managed by PrimeStart
- Security, backups and updatesKept current, backed up regularly, WordPress and plugins updated by us
- Enquiry forms and basic Google foundationsForms that reach you; structure, titles and descriptions search engines read
- Support, small changes and your Client PlatformReasonable small changes subject to fair use, and one place to follow, message and approve
How it works
Your part takes one afternoon.
Choose a plan, send us your menus and photographs, then tell us what to change on the draft. We do the rest.
- 1
Choose your plan
Website, or Website + SEO. The upfront website design fee is £0 and your first monthly payment is taken at signup.
- 2
Send us the menus
A short onboarding in your Client Platform: your menus, your hours, your booking system, your private dining capacity, photographs, and where enquiries should land.
- 3
Ready to Build
We check we have what we need. If a menu or an allergen statement needs a decision, we say exactly which, and get on with the rest.
- 4
First draft
A working draft on a phone first: the menu, the booking route, and the private dining page.
- 5
Approve and launch
Reasonable in-scope changes, then you approve it. Nothing is published until you say so.
We aim to have your first website draft ready within 5 working days once PrimeStart has everything needed and confirms your project is Ready to Build. Payment alone doesn’t start the clock; missing details, revisions or domain delays can extend it.
You review the draft and request reasonable in-scope changes. If there’s a genuine problem we can’t put right within scope after reasonable attempts, we can cancel the agreement and refund Website subscription payments made, subject to any disclosed non-recoverable third-party costs.
Questions restaurants ask us
How much does a website for a restaurant cost?
What happens at the end of the 18 months?
Is the domain name included?
Our menu changes weekly. Who updates it?
Can people book a table through the site?
Do we have to put allergen information online?
How quickly will I see a first draft?
What is SEO, and do I need it to start?
You run the kitchen. We'll run the website.
Web design for restaurants at £49.99 a month with a £0 upfront website design fee: a menu that is readable and current, booking one tap away, and the practical answers people ring to ask.
Prefer to call? +44 7446 265140 or email contact@primestart.co.uk