How To Make A Website For Your Restaurant [Video]

Learn how to make a website for your restaurant using Mighty Sites. In this video tutorial you'll see each step in the process for creating a simple, professional website for your restaurant. Launch your new restaurant website quickly and easily today!

Video Transcription

Hi everyone. Thanks for joining me. So today, in this short video, I will show you exactly how to make a website for your restaurant. So we're going to walk through a straightforward, cheap platform. It's only $9 a month for the platform, so it's super affordable for independent restaurant owners. But basically, we're going to walk through, and I found a restaurant that doesn't have a website, and I'm just going to create a website for them. I'll post the link below. So if you want to skip ahead in this video or click on the link and see the website created during this video to get a feel for it, you can do that. But we're going to take a real-life business, specifically a restaurant, and I'm going to show you how to create a website for your restaurant if you own a restaurant. That's super affordable and easy to do too.

Building a Website For This Restaurant - Example Company

So here's a restaurant. It is in Oneonta, New York, Tuscan, Northern Italian Grill. And so you can see here, here's their Google profile, and here is their Facebook page. And then, if you look over here and I searched the business name, there's no website I could find. And so, if you're watching this video, you probably realize the website's essential, especially in a competitive space of local businesses like restaurants. But when you don't have a website, it makes it harder to find your business, which means fewer people can become customers and patrons of your restaurant. So just like your Google Business Profile and your Facebook page, you must complete that trifecta and have a website. That ties it all together and gives you something, whether you're handing out business cards, doing a flyer, or sponsoring an event in your community. Tell people, Hey, here's my website.

Visit and find out more. Find my menu or online, any of those things. So what I'm going to do first is I'm going over here to my sites, and I'm going to, you can click on launch or start a free trial. I have an account already, so I'm going to go in here and type in a restaurant. And as you can see, all these different restaurant templates populate. I will go with the basics because this doesn't look like a vegan restaurant, Mexican restaurant, or anything. I will go with the basic restaurant theme and am now filling out this simple questionnaire. So it's super quick and easy to do. It's like the business. They have two names. So let's go with this one here. Cause this is what their Google business profile says. Let's keep that consistent.

Entering Basic Business Information About This Restaurant

And then they are in, New York, and then their restaurant. So let's click continue. And the phone number for the restaurant is right here. So let's copy that over from the profile and paste it in. There's a phone number. Let's see if there's an email address anywhere. Sometimes there is. Yep. So here's a contact email address on the Facebook page. So I'm going to copy the email address and paste that in as well. Click continue. All right, let's find the address. 76 Chestnut Street, Oneonta. So let's put that information into the address field. 76 Chestnut Street, Oneonta, New York. Let's see the zip code eight. Okay, now I click continue, and it's going to ask me when the restaurant's open. That's a very natural question. Once I've selected the restaurant, it closes at 4:00 PM, so it looks like they're closed Tuesday, and then they're open from four to nine on Monday.

So the hours this is good because the hours are a bit different. So let's see, four clock pm, there we go. And then, they open at 4:00 PM and close at 9:00 PM. Okay, close at 9:00 PM, all right, so those are the hours from Monday. What other days are you open during those hours? Let's see, close Tuesday, four to nine on Wednesday, and four to nine on Sunday. Okay, so Wednesday and Sunday, they have those hours. Let's continue. What time do you open on Tuesdays? They said they were closed. Tuesdays, which other days are you closed?

It looks like they're just closed on Tuesdays. Okay, so just no other day's time. Are you open on Thursday? So the questionnaire guides you through quickly. So Thursday's four to nine 30. So again, let's jump in here, 4:00 PM here we go until 9:30 PM, And then that's the same hours Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. So Thursday, Friday, and the same Friday, Saturday. So there we go. So now, just like that, we've got the basic information about the business here. So if all that looks good, which it does, where you click on looks good next. And now what's going to happen is Mighty Sites will automatically generate a simple professional website for this restaurant. So when you build a website for your restaurant, this platform is so simple and easy to use that it automatically pulls in the images it pre-writes the copy for you.

Launching and Editing The Restaurant Website Template

It pulls in all the hours and answers to the questions from the questionnaire. So you can see the business location here, the phone number with the little phone icon. So it automatically gets you started with a simple professional website with the restaurant theme. From there, it's easy to make basic edits to this site. And again, this is meant to be a simple, affordable, professional-looking website for small businesses. That's why it's only $9 a month. So if I go in here, I'll want to add the Facebook page. So I click on the update section and will go over here. Let's find this restaurant's Facebook page. Here it is. So let's go. I'm on the main part of it here post. Here's the profile. So I'm going to copy this head back over here. Here's the little Facebook icon and section. Paste it in and click save close.

I'll move my little cursor here. So now you can see the Facebook page is linked. So now you've got a phone number and Facebook page address. Great. Now let's see. Order online is the default here. Let's see if they offer any online order options. So I wonder if they've maximized that. So Google Business Profiles, many times for restaurants, you'll see an online order option. I don't see that, even though it says they deliver. So they may offer something other than actual online ordering. Let's click on this thing here that says menu and see what this does. All right, so this is just that it's not secure. Unfortunately, the good news is that the Mighty Sites platform is secure. The secure certificate is included in that $9 a month. You have a secure certificate that connects to your site, whether you use a Mighty Sites domain or your custom domain.

It doesn't look like you can order from this, but this is their menu. So I'm going to go back over here. And again, this is why we're putting a website together for this business. This business needs more information about this local business on the web. It isn't very clear if you're thinking if you're a customer, let's say they offer delivery. How do I order online? And it doesn't seem that you can, or that's clear. You may have to call, but these are the types of things that you'd clarify on your website. So I just copied the menu. So let's go over here to update the section. And let's choose a PDF file instead of ordering online. Oh, not a pdf file, sorry, a link. We're going to link to another website. That's where they have their menu. So I'm going to confirm and save and let's change that to view our menu.

Linking or Uploading Your Restaurant's Menu to your website

So let's save that and close. So now, if I click on this, you'll see it opens up the menu. So that's directly linked, and I'll do the same with the menu and the nav. That's where we should guide people. So I go to the menu, choose a link, link to another website, confirm the update, and save the menu close. So now that links to the menu. And then there's one other place, the VR menu. Again, call to action. That's the main thing. If you have an order online, you may want to send people to that, but many people will be on here. They're going to be interested in finding your menu link. So you want to make that obvious? That's why it's in a few places here. So you can see the CTR menu button, CTR menu, and then the menu and the nav.

Linking the CTAs on your website

Again, if you have online ordering, you swap some calls-to-action and link to your online ordering instead of your menu. And then, if your menu is just a pdf, which is pretty standard, I'll show you that right here. I would go to this update section, and instead of linking somewhere else, I'd upload a PDF file, which would load my menu to the system. So then my menu is going to live right here. And when people click on this, they can view or download the PDF of the menu. So that gives them a chance to have the menu in that way. Okay, let's see if they have a logo. I think they did. All right, so here's a logo. Let's check this out.

Adding Your Restaurant's Logo To Your Website

It's always a good idea to add your logo to your website—the restaurant logo. So I'm just going to save this from Facebook. I'm going to come over here, and let's update this section and the logo. So I'm just going to browse on my computer. Here's the logo for this restaurant. I'll click save once it's loaded, and here it is. Now I can make it bigger, I can make it smaller, or I can close the window. If I like that look, I can leave it as is. Now I'm going to make a few edits to this logo. So I'm going to click here on this little pencil icon. I'm going to crop it down. I wish that the logo didn't have that gray background. I think it looked nicer if it had just a white background. So maybe they have a version of that, but we can work with what I have here.

The owner would have a different version, but I'm going to crop at using those tools and then save the new version. So that makes it a little bigger. And then, if you want to make any edits to this, too, there are a ton of different tools in here where you can go in. You can annotate at a frame and resize. Many editing tools for images, logos, and things like that are already built into the system to make things easy for you. It is easy to edit your logo, any video photos, or something like that that you've added to the site. So I'm going to save that now, and then I will close this. That looks pretty solid. I'd make it bigger and then save the logo close. So now the logo is on the website.

So let's see. This button is the main call to action and subheader, but perhaps there's something more appropriate for your business. So again, let's look at this business and see. We don't have a website to go off of, but let's see if they still need to add more to their profile. So there's not an about section. There's no website link or anything like that. Let's see if there's anything more on Facebook. So it says, Northern Italian Grill. Just see delicious food in a fun atmosphere to see if they have any copy here that would make sense to add. It says Italian restaurant. We could also write the business name here if you want to do something like that. Northern Italian Grill is something that they are consistent with trying to market. So let's go in here and say, Northern Italian Grill. Okay, so let's save that. So it might be nice to spice that up with something more. I'm going to be creative here. Let's say delicious. Delicious Northern Italian Grill, right? So that's a little bit more. And then eat, drink, and chill. We don't see anything here in terms of the way that they talk about themselves. That might be challenging.

Updating The Main Hero Text

So we'll have to leave it at that for now. And so let's leave it as Delicious Northern Italian Grill. Eat, drink and chill. There are better slogans for this restaurant. Let's see what the reviews say. The reviews say, "great food and a comfortable atmosphere. Never disappoints, freshly made Italian food." I like this the best—newly created Italian food in Oneonta. So there we go. That's a little bit better—Delicious northern. And then let's say the best freshly made Italian food. It is just capitalizing on all of these. You don't have to. I think that would look nice. There we go. Delicious Northern Italian Grill. The best. Freshly made Italian food in Oana. That's a little bit sharper. That's an excellent message for people to see when they first land on the website. So there we go.
Now for this background image, there's one by default, but I want to know if this is appropriate. It does look like people drinking wine and that sort of thing. But again, we can look at the business and say, Okay, do we like these default images, or is there something else we'd use instead? Let's look through their Google business profile and see what people have uploaded because this business has yet to upload many of their own, maybe some of them. Let's see the vibe. That's a pretty lovely picture too. That gives you a good sense of what it's like in there. Let's go over here and see where we might like that. I like that photo for this section. It might be a nice photo that does justice to the available environment. So let's move me out of the way. And I'm going to take a screenshot of this.

Adding Photos Of Your Restaurant To Your Website

So let's wait a sec to go away. There we go. Now let's get a nice screenshot of this that showcases the environment. So there is the image. Now let's file open that screenshot, and I'm going to. I like to export these images to the jpeg format. So let's say the restaurant inside photo. I change it to JPEG format. So it's a little faster loading, just better for the web. So I'm going to go over here and update this section. I'm going to browse here, and then let's upload this photo. Give it a chance to upload. Save close. There we go. So that's pretty nice. So now we're seeing a picture inside that restaurant that looks pretty sharp, so that's cool. Let's see if we could use another photo of this restaurant.

So again, this is why they should keep their things up to date online because if I'm a potential customer, that's a laundromat. So I can't see this. Let's try to figure this out just by. Is it on the front here? No, I mean, not that where I can tell. So I'm still determining where this restaurant is, unfortunately. So if I was a customer trying to find them, these things make it challenging to keep things up to date. So let's go over to Facebook. Let's go to their Facebook photos and scroll through to see if we can find any other lovely images. It looks like these are all of the pictures. So there are few photos here either, unfortunately. All right. And that's just a stock photo here, but we don't know.

So let's go check this out over here. All right, so we've got a view from the interior. This current photo is different from what the restaurant looks like outside. So if your restaurant looks like that, you can use that default photo. But there's only one vibe. The outside is of a laundromat. So let's go over here and look for, So all pictures. This photo is a nice one. All right, this is the best bet in terms of being able to see the restaurant. So I'm, I'm going to take a screenshot of this one too, and then we'll see how we can use this. And then, we'll use pictures of the food in other places. So let's go over here and take a nice screenshot of this.

And now I'm going to go to my files, and this was the one I just did. And again, I'm going to convert this to a jpeg. So export and then restaurant inside. Let's export that to a jpeg. And then I'll go back over here, and let's use that for the main image. So I'm going to update the section. I'm going to browse right here and let's go restaurant inside. There we go. Let's open this up and click save now to see if we want to make any edits. Oh, that looks okay. There it is. Save close. Now I need to refresh. There we go. So if you have anything like that, you refresh. So now I like that. It gives you a better sense. You can see that this website very quickly starts to look exactly like this actual restaurant.

So now we've got, even with limited information online. We're working with minimal information online about this business seems like a great business, but we need more here to build the website. So now we've got a nice kind of interior. So that's great; it gives people reasonable expectations. Here's another nice picture of the restaurant, of the inside of the people there. So now it's starting to look like this Italian restaurant. This image is the last one where this looks different from Italian food to me. So let's go in here and change this. Let's see. We'll have to go off to these Google business profile photos. This food looks delicious.

That's a good one. A lot of this food does look great. So let's go to Northern Italian, known for some seafood aspects. This picture could be nice. Just scroll through. I wanted to know if there was another photo. That might make sense. All right, so I need to go with the picture of the food. Cause we could make the wine list, but that could be more helpful. Okay, so one of the pictures of the food. So it's just whichever one we think is appetizing and impressive, and we should go with something that looks clear too. I'm looking through to see if I can find the clearest image. All right, let's go with this. So I'm going to do the same thing. Take one last screenshot here.

Okay, so let's go through, take a screenshot, and there we go. And I'll do the same thing. I will edit that screenshot and export it as a PDF or, excuse me, export it as a jpeg. So a restaurant food names it, it something. So it's easy for me to find. And now, let's go back and replace, update this section, Browse, and restaurant food. Insert that photo. Now I click save, and there we go. Now there's a nice picture of their actual food there too. So if I want to, of course, just like the other photos, I can go in here and crop this image, maybe make it a little wider, more minor, whatever it is here that I want. I can even zoom in or out can rotate it. So many of these things I want to do to edit my photo become easy to do here using the system too. Once we're there, that's pretty good. Nice picture of the food here.

So I'm comfortable with that. Let it load, and then click save and close. And so now here's a nice image of the dish. So family restaurant, again, we know this is a Northern Italian grill. And again, here's the excellent spot. I'm just starting to look at the copy. So Mighty Sites automatically writes the text for you based on the information you gave them.

Updating The About Us Section On Your Website

As you can see, we are a local restaurant located in the heart of Oneonta. So even off of basic information, it can write a section for you. So that's good. We don't know much about them. Let's go in and see if they took the time to write anything about themselves. Even for Facebook, I know there's nothing on, okay, so there's nothing here on Facebook either. So we're going to have to go with the basic information.

But again, that's what makes Mighty Site so lovely: if I go into the update section, I can write anything about this local restaurant. So, I'm going to leave this copy as is, but this is a straightforward website editor. So if I was to change something here, you could see Northern Italian Grill. So if I wanted to type that out, I could do that right there, too, which is super easy. And you can save and see what edits you're making at the time too. We've got a pretty simple excellent website for them. Let's go over and see if we prefer any colors. So I can change the colors to any of these. There are all sorts of pre-made color sets in here. You can find one depending on your local business or your type of restaurant.

Changing Themes & Colors

Find one theme that you feel fits your restaurant colors. So it just depends on your logos and your style. This one seems like a more high-end restaurant experience with this Northern Italian Grill. So I'm just looking. I don't see, see black and white as their primary colors. So because of that, I'm going to let's find a black-and-white template here. Yeah, let me save that. So now the logo's just black and white. That's the vibe I saw from other things. So I think black and white is probably a good option for this business. So I just chose black and white. I'm going to scroll through and see how that looks. That gives it a more elegant look that fits this restaurant type. One of the other things you can do is helpful, especially if there's little additional content you have or if you aren't a prominent writer, I can go in here. I can look at some of these reviews and see if we find an absolute gem, top-level Italian food with plenty of twists.

Adding Your Google Reviews To Your Website

Our server, Nick, was excellent at greeting. Our food was positively delicious. If you're in the area traveling through us, make sure you take the time to stop by. So that's great. You can always add a review or one of your Google reviews to your website. That's always nice. So I'm going to paste that into this section. And the person who said it, their name was Glenn P, said, so I'm just going to put Glenn P, and I'm going through here, remove anything there. And now you can see a lovely little testimonial included as well. And then, if you want to make it italicized or something like that to stand out, you can do that too. Yeah, so that's nice. You can add one or two of those, maybe up to three if you want.

And then, if you want to put a little header above it, read our online reviews because people like to read reviews, especially when choosing a restaurant. So you can bring that right to them. So if they just found your website, you can guide them to your reviews. So I might go like this, save. And then you could link over to your Google reviews, too, so I may not feel the need to put that in there for this. I'm going to delete it. It's self-explanatory when it's in italics, and there's a person's name that this is a review. But that's just one other type of content. If you're struggling to find valuable things and help people understand a little bit more about your local restaurant, add reviews from others who have written online reviews about you, and you can copy and paste them into like that.

Connect A Custom Domain and Launch Your Website

So just like that, we've created a simple professional website for a local restaurant. And so, if you are looking to build a website for your restaurant, now I can stop editing, and I can see this. It's an excellent website. If I go over here, I can go to the site dashboard, connect it to a custom domain, or update my hours and social media. If I need help from Mighty Sites, I can click right here on chat and begin chatting with them for support. I can go right back here to update my website at any point that I want to. And

Then I can connect a custom domain too. So if I have a domain from GoDaddy, Google Domains, or domain.com, any of those providers, I can click it on my site. So just like that, it's straightforward to manage. It's only $9 a month, and that's how you can build a website for your restaurant—using my sites.