Increase visibility with a digital menu

Is your restaurant menu visible on your website? According to research by OpenTable, 93% of people read online digital menus before dining out and if your menu isn’t visible, you could be turning away customers before they have even visited you.

A well-maintained website gives visitors a positive first impression of who you are. Yet many restaurant owners spend little time making sure their menus are visible and appealing to customers. Digital signage solutions, digital menu boards and large screens is apart from the webpage menu an easy way to show guests on large screens which food and drinks they have.

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However, the digital menu on your website, is an important sales tool. Your restaurant could have the best location and great staff, but if customers don’t like what they see on your website, you are going to struggle to fill your tables. With a digital signage software it is easy to navigate people to easy checkout and additional sales due to shorter wait times.

Understanding what your customers are looking for is an important part of your digital menu design, customer engagement is everything if you want to sell. And it is important to catch people in the moment, in real-time. Most diners are looking for a fantastic customer experience, but central to their needs is what food is on offer on the menu, whether it be specials, fast food or other menu items. Making your digital menu easily accessible and easy to understand is an important part of the process and is as integral as having a great printed menu.

How to make a digital menu for you restaurant?

1. Customer attention is everything! Does your menu display stand out?

Some of the most obvious and established ingredients for creating an eyecatching menu include foods and drinks that appeal to your frequent diners and target demographics, a menu that is easy to read and understand including font size, layout and formatting, a length of no longer than two pages because when it comes to menus, less choices help customers make easier menu decisions and categories and subcategories that organise the ordering process.

Another thing to consider is displaying calorie and nutritional information on your menu. Today’s health conscious customers are more aware than ever before of the food and ingredients they are putting into their bodies. There are plenty of online, interactive templates available to help with your menu design should you need a bit of inspiration.

2. Where to put a digital restaurant menu?

The menu should be one of the first things the customer sees when they access your website. Don’t hide the menu behind too many unnecessary clicks, instead think of it as the heart of the restaurant. Be proud of your menu offering and use it to showcase all the great food on offer.

It is advisable not to have the menu as a downloadable PDF as this means the person who downloads the file is passed onto a new window in the browser. This takes the customer away from your site and the risk of losing them is greater. You want to keep your customers, so that they are closer to booking a table and contacting you for further information. PDF menus are even less desirable on mobile phones, as the PDF format is not adapted for many phones.

3. Does a digital menu for your restaurant affect SEO (search results online) and the ranking online?

Having a digital menu housed on your website can actually help you rank higher in relevant searches on Google and other search engines. The search engine can read words used on your website, for example if a potential customer searches for a dish you offer in your menu, you rank higher in the search results than if the menu is a downloadable PDF, as the search engine cannot read the content of the PDF.

Without marketing, most people won’t know your restaurant exists. There are plenty of ways to market, from social media advertising to local media, but having your menu online is yet another marketing tool you can use to your advantage. Customers are visiting your restaurant because of the food and drinks! And what better way to show off what you have than with your menu?