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8 things restaurants should do before building a website

Not sure where to begin? Here are eight things eateries should consider before starting the website building process.

March 26, 2015

By Reid Carr, president and CEO, Red Door Interactive

It’s now 2015, and a common New Year’s resolution that many restaurants made for the coming year was to construct a new website. While that’s a great goal more establishments should consider, there’s a lot that goes into making this happen. Not sure where to begin? Here are eight things eateries should consider before starting the building process:

1. Get I.T. involved.

Your Information Technology team will have technical preferences for building a new website, so it’s important to get their input early on, and make them aware of your intentions. Keeping them in the loop and soliciting their feedback is needed to ensure the new site is a success.

2. Get Finance involved.

First, confirm how they want to treat the investment in an asset such as a new website. Be sure to ask how they want line items broken into capital expenses and operating expenses. No doubt they will have input to provide. However, in the end, it’s all about ROI—you will eventually need Finance to approve your budget, and you also need to know how they expect to measure things on the back end before making any moves.

3. Assess your toolset.

Start by taking inventory of what you already have, since this will influence other tools your restaurant may purchase. If you’re planning on implementing e-commerce, then your accounting system may affect this platform more than you’d expect. In addition, you may have previously purchased things that have never been put into service—you may choose to pay for upgrades instead of whole new systems.

4. Map your inbound links.

It’s important to determine what content delivers the best traffic prior to making any changes so you know what to carry over to the new site. Also, don’t forget that you’ll need to technically redirect any known inbound links later on.

5. A/B testing.

In order to determine what worked and what didn’t work on your old site, implement testing now. You’ll likely be surprised with what you learn and the best practices that can be transferred.

6. Set up accurate analytics.

Once the new site is up and running, you’ll want to measure the difference between the old site and the new site. Confirm that you’ll be able to correctly view the analytics.

7. Review the brand book.

Is there anything to review now that will affect the performance of your website? Be aware of the restrictions that may influence site design, and know where you can bend (or break!) the rules.

8. The role of mobile.

It’s equally important to determine the weight of mobile in the lives of your customers, as it may affect your budget. Being able to seamlessly go responsive is somewhat standard, but this can be a big undertaking if you need to change the experience based on mobile vs. tablet vs. desktop or even if you have to build an app. 

Reid Carr is president and CEO of Red Door Interactive, a data-driven advertising agency that delivers the right message to the right targets in all the right places regardless of media. Inspired by the art, yet guided by the science of marketing, every solution the agency produces teases the right brain and tickles the left. Red Door holds more than a decade of expertise with a client list that includes Bosch & Thermador, Rubio’s Restaurants Inc. and Univision. E-mail him at rcarr@reddoor.biz or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/icowboy.