What a café or restaurant site is for
Visitors to a café or restaurant site arrive with a short task: decide whether to come, and when. The site succeeds if they can find today's hours, see what they can eat and work out how to get there. A plan that keeps those three things at the top of the home page will serve better than one that starts with a long story about the business.
Write the goal in the planner in those terms, for example: "Help people nearby decide to visit, and cut calls asking whether we are open."
Questions visitors ask
- Are you open now, and until when?
- What is on the menu, and roughly what does it cost?
- Can I eat here if I have an allergy or follow a particular diet?
- Can I book a table, and for how many?
- Where are you, is there parking, and is there step free access?
- Do you do takeaway, delivery or private events?
Pages for a café or restaurant
| Page | What it must answer |
|---|---|
| Home | Today's hours, a link to the menu, the address and a booking or phone link |
| Menu | Dishes with prices, written as text on the page, plus how to ask about allergens |
| Find us | Address, map, transport, parking and access details |
| Book or contact | Booking method, phone number, email and how large groups should get in touch |
| About | Who runs the place and what kind of food it serves |
| Events or private hire | Only if you take them |
| Privacy notice | What the booking or contact form collects |
Plan the menu as text, not a picture
A menu posted as a photo cannot be read aloud by a screen reader, and a PDF can be hard to use on a phone or with assistive technology unless it is properly tagged. The W3C's accessibility guidelines, WCAG 2.2, expect text alternatives for images, and the Equality Act 2010 applies to service providers, including how they provide services to disabled customers. A menu written as text on the page also lets search engines read the dishes.
Plan who updates the menu and how. If the menu changes every week, the site needs an editing screen the owner can use without help, and that requirement belongs in the brief.
Features for a venue site
- Easy editing of hours. Special hours for bank holidays should be quick to change. Ask any builder to show you how it is done before you agree the quote.
- Table booking. Decide whether you want online booking at all. If you do, list what it must handle: party size, deposits for large groups, cancellations. Booking services set their own charges, which belong in the running costs line of the budget estimator.
- A map. A map embedded from another company may load that company's cookies. Plan for this when writing the cookie notice, or link to a map instead of embedding one.
- Online ordering. Only if you deliver or offer collection. It brings its own information and refund duties.
Local search for places people visit
Google says local results depend on relevance, distance and prominence, and that complete, accurate business information helps. For a venue, the opening hours on your Google Business Profile and on your website must match. Google's help page names special opening hours as part of that information, so plan to update both when hours change for holidays.
Google Search Central also documents structured data for local businesses, which can describe opening hours and address in a form search engines read. It is optional; ask your builder whether they add it.
Allergen information
Food businesses have legal duties on allergen information that go beyond the website. The Food Standards Agency's best practice guidance for food sold loose, updated in March 2025 and covering England, Wales and Northern Ireland, expects written allergen information to be available alongside a conversation with staff. Plan the menu page so it says clearly how to get that information, and check your own duties with the FSA or your local authority before writing anything that looks like a promise.
Next steps for your venue site
Write your goal and visitor questions into the planner, then decide on booking with the feature selector. If hours or the menu change week to week, make "owner can edit without help" a must have.
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