How to Build a Restaurant Website (Step by Step)

Your restaurant's website is often the first place a new guest decides whether to visit. Before anyone orders, books a table or drives to pick up some takeout, they look you up to check out your menu, hours and location, and to see whether your restaurant looks worthwhile. If they can't find a website, or the one they find is outdated, a lot of potential customers will pick somewhere else.

The problem is that you run a restaurant, not a web design studio. You're already handling staffing, suppliers, inventory, finances, and nobody taught you about t4chnical things like domain names, page layouts or how Google decides who shows up in search.

So the website keeps getting pushed down the list, or it gets built once and never touched again.

The good news is that you don't need to be a web designer or a developer to make a restaurant website that works.

How to Build a Restaurant Website in 7 Easy Steps

This guide walks you through the 7 easy steps to build a great restaurant website, from choosing how to build it to getting it in front of customers, and shows what it costs to do it free or paid. Along the way, I'll point out which parts help increase your sales and which parts you can skip.

1. Find a domain name
2. Decide how you'll build your website
3. Design the site for customers
4. Add your menu
5. Include online ordering
6. Optimize for search engines
7. Launch and promote

1. Find a domain name

Your domain name is your website's web address (like myrestaurant.com). It's what people type in, what appears on Google, and what you'll print on menus, receipts and signs, so it's worth a few minutes of thought.

A few simple rules:

• Use your restaurant's name. Guests should be able to guess it. If marios.com is taken, try adding your city or cuisine, like mariosdenver.com or mariospizza.com.
• Stick with .com if you can. It's what most people type by default.
• Keep it short and easy to spell. Skip hyphens, numbers and clever spellings that are hard to say out loud.
• Check your social handles too. Matching your domain to your Instagram and Facebook names makes you easier to find everywhere.

A domain usually costs about $10–20 a year from companies like GoDaddy or Namecheap. Many website builders also let you buy one during signup, and some include the first year free.

One important tip: register the domain in your own name and keep the login. If a web designer or agency registers it for you, make sure it's in your account. Otherwise, switching providers later can mean losing your address.

2. Decide how you'll build your website

There are four main ways to build a restaurant website. The right one depends on your budget, your time, your technical skills, and whether you want the site to take online orders or just share information.

Option 1: Build it yourself from scratch

You write the code and design the pages yourself, and then handle hosting, security and updates.

• Cost: low, often just hosting ($5–30/month) and your domain.
• Catch: you need real design and development skills, plus the time to maintain the site.
• Best for: owners who already know web development. For most people, it isn't worth the hours.

Option 2: Use a general website builder (Wix, Squarespace)

You pick a template, drag and drop your content, and publish. No coding needed.

• Cost: some of these website platforms have free plans, but those come with the builder's branding and a domain like yourname.wixsite.com. Paid plans usually run about $15–50/month.
• Catch: these builders are made for all kinds of businesses, not specifically restaurants. Online ordering, menu updates and reservations usually mean add-ons or third-party apps, which can add complexity and fees.
• Best for: a simple site with your hours, location and menu when you don't need online ordering.

Option 3: Use a restaurant website builder (Owner.com)

Restaurant website builders are built specifically for restaurants. Instead of adapting a general template to fit your unique needs, you get a website designed around what guests actually do: view the menu, order online and come back for more.

• Cost: a monthly subscription is often more than a general builder ($249-499/month). However, these platforms provide much more than just your restaurant website – they include features like built in SEO and online ordering, loyalty and marketing campaigns, a branded mobile app, a restaurant POS system, and much more.
• Catch: you have less design freedom than with a custom build, and you're committing to one platform for your website and ordering.
• Best for: restaurants that want the website to bring in more website traffic, direct orders and repeat customers, not just an online brochure. It's also a good fit for owners who want the site built, set up, and managed for them.

How restaurant website builders differ from general website builders:

• Online ordering is built in, usually commission-free, so you keep the revenue from orders placed on your site.
• Your menu is part of the site, not a PDF upload, so it's easy to update and Google can read it.
• Restaurant-specific SEO is set up for you, so you show up when people search for food near them.
• Marketing tools come with it, like loyalty programs, email and text campaigns, and a branded app on some platforms.
• Less work for you: some platforms, including Owner, build, set up and manage the site for you.

Owner websites come with an online ordering system that drives direct sales.

Option 4: Hire a freelancer or agency

You can also hire a professional designs and builds a custom site for you.

• Cost: usually $2,000–10,000+ upfront, depending on the scope.
• Catch: hidden costs can creep up on you. The build is only the start. Expect ongoing fees for hosting, updates and fixes, often $50–200+/month or hourly. Even changing your menu can mean sending a request and waiting. Online ordering is usually a separate tool with its own fees.
• Best for: major restaurant groups or chains with a big budget that want a fully custom design.

Here is a quick comparison of the four options to make your decision a bit easier.

3. Design the site for customers

A good restaurant website isn't about looking fancy. It's about helping someone decide to eat with you, fast. Most guests visit your site with one question in mind: What's on the menu, when are you open, where are you located, and how do I order or book? Design everything around answering those questions in seconds.

Design for mobile first

Most people look up restaurants on their phone, often while they're out and hungry. Before you worry about how the site looks on a laptop, make sure it works well on a small screen:

• Text is readable without zooming
• Buttons are big enough to tap with a thumb
• Your phone number and address are tappable, so they easily click to call or get directions
• Nothing important is hidden behind pop-ups

Put the essentials front and center

Your homepage should show a few things right away, without scrolling: your hours, your location, and a clear button to Order Online or Book a Table. If a guest has to dig for your hours, they'll check Google Maps instead, and they may never come back to your site.

Include the pages guests expect

Keep your navigation simple. Most restaurants need these pages:

• Home: who you are, your hours, location and main call to action
• Text Menu: with photos and prices (more on this in Step 4)
• Order Online or Reservations: whichever drives your business
• About: your story, your team and what makes you different
• Location and Contact: address, map, phone, email and parking notes
• Optional: gift cards, catering, private events and upcoming events

Use high quality photos

Great photos of your dishes and dining room sell food better than any description. Use bright, well-lit shots of your actual dishes and dining room, not stock images. Guests can tell, and stock photos make a restaurant feel generic. A smartphone and natural light near a window go a long way if a photographer isn't in the budget

Tip: If you have existing photos that could be better, try out our handy food photo tool.

Need ideas? See our roundup of the best restaurant websites for real examples of restaurant website that we think are great.

4. Add your menu

Your menu is the most visited page on your website. For many guests, it's the whole reason they came. Make it easy to find, easy to read and always up to date.

Use a text menu instead of a PDF

Uploading a PDF of your printed menu is one of the most common restaurant website mistakes. PDFs are hard to read on a phone, since guests have to pinch and zoom. They're slow to load, and they're harder for Google and AI search tools to read. Put your menu on the page as real text instead, so guests can scroll it and search engines can understand what you serve.

Make it easy to scan

• Group items into clear sections, like appetizers, mains, drinks and desserts, in the order people usually order.
• Always include prices. Guests who can't see prices often assume the worst, or they leave.
• Write short, specific descriptions. One line on the key ingredients or how a dish is made is enough. "Wood-fired, San Marzano tomatoes, fresh mozzarella" beats "our delicious signature pizza."
• Label dietary options, like vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free, and add a note about allergens.
• Add photos of your best sellers. You don't need a photo for every item, but your top dishes should look as good online as they do on the plate.

Keep it in sync everywhere

Nothing frustrates a guest more than ordering a dish that's no longer on the menu, or seeing a price that doesn't match. When you change your menu, update it everywhere: your website, your online ordering, your Google Business Profile and any delivery apps. The easiest way to stay in sync is to use a platform where your website menu and online ordering menu are the same menu, so one update changes both.

Make it easy to find

Put a Menu link in your main navigation on every page, and link to it from your homepage. If you offer online ordering, give guests a clear way to go from browsing the menu to placing an order.

For example, check out the simple and easy-to-read design from AB Crepes:

5. Include Online Ordering

Plenty of guests would rather order from their phone than have to call in. If your website doesn’t let them, they’ll likely order from you through a delivery app, or from someone else. Adding online ordering to your site turns it from a digital business card into something that brings in revenue every day.

Why online ordering on your own website matters

Third-party delivery apps help new customers find you, but they come with fees, and the app keeps the customer relationship. When a guest orders directly on your website instead, you keep more of each sale, and you get their contact information so you can bring them back.

The best setup for most restaurants uses both: delivery apps for discovery, and your website for your regulars and repeat orders.

Your options for adding ordering

• Link out to a delivery app. It’s the easiest option, but you pay the app’s fees on every order and send your own customers to a marketplace full of competitors.
• Add a third-party ordering tool. It works with most website builders, but it usually means extra fees, a separate menu to maintain, and a checkout that doesn’t quite match your site.
• Use a platform with ordering built in. Restaurant website builders like Owner include online ordering as part of the site. Your menu, website and ordering are one system, so there’s one menu to update and the checkout feels like your brand.

What good online ordering looks like

• An Order Online button on every page, especially at the top of your homepage and menu
• A fast, mobile-friendly checkout with as few taps as possible, and guest checkout so no account is required
• Pickup and delivery options, with clear wait times
• Photos and modifiers like add-ons, sizes and special requests, so guests can order exactly what they want
• Order confirmation by text or email, so guests know their food is on the way

When your website takes orders, it’s time to make sure people can find it. That’s where search engines come in.

6: Optimize for search engines

A great website doesn’t help much if nobody finds it. When someone nearby searches “pizza near me” or “best brunch in [your city],” you want your restaurant to show up, on Google and, more and more, in AI tools like ChatGPT. You don’t need to become an SEO expert to get the basics right.

Set up your Google Business Profile

For most restaurants, this matters more than anything else on the list. Your Google Business Profile is what appears in Google Maps and in the local results at the top of the page. Claim it for free, then fill in everything: hours, address, phone, photos, your menu, and a link to your website and online ordering. Keep your hours up to date, especially on holidays.

Use the keywords your customers search for

Think about how people actually look for a restaurant like yours: your cuisine, your neighborhood or city, and dishes you’re known for. Use those words naturally in the places Google pays the most attention to:

• Page titles, for example “Mario’s Pizza | Wood-Fired Pizza in Austin, TX”
• Headings and opening text on your homepage
• Your menu, with item names and short descriptions as real text, as covered in Step 4
• Image descriptions (alt text), for example “margherita pizza from Mario’s in Austin”

Notice how Upper Crust uses relevant keywords on their homepage.

Keep your details consistent everywhere

Your restaurant’s name, address and phone number (NAP) should match exactly on your website, your Google Business Profile, Yelp, social media and any directories. Mismatched details confuse search engines and guests.

Get reviews and respond to them

Reviews are one of the biggest factors in local rankings, and they’re what guests read before choosing where to eat. Ask happy customers to leave a review, and reply to reviews, good and bad, in a friendly, professional way.

Just take a look at how Sushi Me Rollin’ uses Owner.com to showcase its raving reviews: 

If you need help generating customer reviews, Owner's Reviews Engine can help.

Make sure your site is fast and mobile-friendly

If you followed Step 3, you’re most of the way there. Google ranks sites partly on how well they work on phones, so a fast, mobile-friendly site helps both guests and rankings.

Want to go deeper? Read our full guides to SEO for restaurants and local SEO for restaurants.

If you’d rather not do it yourself, Owner’s restaurant SEO tools handle most of this for you. Today, 46% of Owner locations rank #1 in the Google Maps results for their searches.

7. Launch and promote

Your website is built, so now it’s time to make sure it works and that people know it exists. A new site won’t get much traffic on its own at first. The restaurants that see results are the ones that point every guest toward it.

Test everything before you launch

Spend 20 minutes checking the site on your own phone before you share it:

• Place a test order from start to finish, including payment and the confirmation.
• Tap every button and link, especially Order Online, Book a Table and your phone number.
• Check your hours, address and prices against what’s on your Google Business Profile.
• Have a friend try it. Someone who’s never seen the site will spot what you miss.
• Set up free tracking with Google Analytics and Google Search Console, so you can see how many people visit and how they find you.

Tell your existing guests first

Your regulars are your fastest path to traffic and online orders:

• In the restaurant: add your website and a QR code to table tents, printed menus, receipts and takeout bags.
• Online: add the link to your Google Business Profile, Instagram and Facebook bios, and any listings you control.
• By email and text: announce the new site to your customer list, ideally with a reason to visit, like a first-order discount for ordering online. See our guide to email marketing for restaurants for ideas.
• Through your staff: ask your team to mention online ordering when guests call in or pay.

Bring delivery customers to your website

Guests who find you on delivery apps can become direct customers. Add a card to every delivery order with your website and a small offer for ordering directly next time. It’s one of the easiest ways to move repeat orders to your own site.

Keep it fresh

A website isn’t a one-time project. Update your menu and prices whenever they change, post holiday hours, and add new photos and events. Check your traffic and online orders once a month to see what’s working. Fresh, accurate information keeps guests coming back, and it shows Google your restaurant is active.

Build a Restaurant Website That Drives More Sales 

These days, the best restaurant websites have a blend of traditional components and modern technical tools. Your menu and photos won’t be enough if you aren’t optimizing your site for search engines and making sure that it’s easy to find. 

Your website should tell the guest what to expect when they enter your restaurant. Consider it a digital extension of your physical space. The design elements should flow from your restaurant design. A bright, modern restaurant should have a bright, modern website. 

If you follow the steps outlined in this article, you will have a website that will provide what users want, be more visible on the internet, and boost your sales. With Owner.com's AI-powered restaurant websites, you can connect directly with customers instead of giving away your sales and customer information to third-party apps.