Nobody reads a restaurant website. They glance at it on a phone, often from the car, and decide in seconds: what do you serve, are you open, where are you, how do I get a table. The industry data is blunt about the stakes: 77 percent of diners check the website before visiting or ordering, and 62 percent have abandoned an order because the site made it hard. Your site has one job, removing every step between hungry and seated. Everything else is decoration. Here is the checklist we use when we build one.
Menu, hours, location: above the fold
The three questions every visitor brings must be answered without scrolling or clicking. Hours for today, visible instantly, with holiday changes kept current. The address linked straight to the map app. The menu one obvious tap away. If any of these is missing or stale, the customer does not email to ask. They choose the place next door whose site answered. This sounds too basic to write down, and yet it is the most common failure we see in Miami restaurant audits: beautiful sites that hide the only three facts a hungry person came for.
The menu as text, never a PDF
A blurry PDF takes three pinches to read and a year to load on cellular data, and search engines cannot read the dishes inside it. A menu written as real text on the page does double duty: the diner reads it without fighting, and Google indexes every dish. When someone searches lechon asado near me or best ceviche in Brickell and your menu is crawlable text, your restaurant is in that race. When it is a PDF scan, you are invisible for every dish you sell. Keep prices on it too: hiding prices reads as a warning, not as elegance.
Click-to-call and WhatsApp, impossible to miss
One thumb-size button that dials. One WhatsApp link that opens a chat. Keep both visible on every screen of the site, because the catering order, the birthday for twelve, the quinceañera, those come in as messages, usually at night. The restaurant that answers in minutes books the party. The one that answers tomorrow reads about it in the other restaurant's reviews. In this city the WhatsApp button is not optional equipment, it is where Spanish-speaking Miami starts the conversation. Make being contacted the easiest thing your website does.
Photos that sell plates, not decor
Phones eat first, and 45 percent of diners say they look for food photos when they hit the site. Real photos of your best dishes, shot in daylight, beat any stock photo of an empty dining room. Three great plates beat thirty mediocre angles of the same wall. Show the dish people drive across the city for, the one that shows up in every review, and put it where it loads first. Decor photos answer a question nobody asked. The plate photo answers the only one that matters: do I want this right now.
One ordering button, not five
Order on Uber Eats, order on DoorDash, order on Grubhub, call us, try our app: five buttons is zero buttons, because choice paralysis kills hungry decisions. Pick one primary path, ideally direct ordering you control, and make it the single loud button on every page. Direct orders skip the 15 to 30 percent commission of the marketplaces and keep the customer's contact for the next visit. The marketplaces can stay as secondary links for the people who insist, but your site should fight for the order that pays you full price.
Reservations without a hostage app
Big platforms charge per seated cover and keep the customer data. A booking flow you own, a simple form or a chat that confirms in minutes, costs less and the guest list stays yours, which is what fills slow Tuesdays later with a single message campaign. The same logic applies to your regulars: a site that captures names and birthdays quietly builds the marketing list the platforms charge you to rent. Own the relationship, not just the kitchen.
What your restaurant site can skip
The autoplay video with sound. The Flash-era intro animation. The ten page philosophy section nobody scrolls. The reservation widget that loads after the menu. Every one of these slows the site and delays the only decision that matters. A restaurant site that loads in under two seconds, answers the three questions, shows the food and takes the order is not a compromise, it is the winning configuration. Price exactly that in ten seconds at bahele.com/web-design/website-cost-calculator/, or get the free teardown of your current site at bahele.com/free-audit/.
Fair questions, straight answers
What pages does a restaurant website actually need?
Home with hours, location and the hero dish, a text menu with prices, and a contact or order path. An about page helps if it tells a real story. Everything beyond that should justify its load time.Should my menu be a PDF?
No. PDFs load slowly on phones and search engines cannot index the dishes, so you disappear from every craving search. Publish the menu as text on the page, with prices, and update it the moment the kitchen does.Do I need online ordering on my own site?
If you sell takeout, yes. Direct orders avoid the 15 to 30 percent marketplace commission and you keep the customer data for repeat visits. Keep the marketplaces as secondary options, not as the front door.How much does a restaurant website cost in Miami?
Agencies quote 3,000 dollars and up. Our restaurant builds run 199 to 2,500 dollars setup depending on pages, languages and ordering, with a care plan from 29 dollars a month that keeps hours, menu and photos current. The calculator gives your exact number without a sales call.Does my restaurant site need to be bilingual in Miami?
Yes, and not with an automatic translate widget. Half this city decides in Spanish. A menu and ordering flow that read naturally in both languages double the diners who can choose you without friction.
We message your business like a customer would and show you exactly where they slip. Free, no pitch.
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