Web design for restaurants
Websites for restaurants that actually bring in work.
Marketing-led websites for Melbourne restaurants — built to rank locally, designed to convert, with the post-launch reporting nobody else includes. From A$3,200.
For restaurants, specifically
What I know about your niche.
Most Melbourne restaurant websites are wallpaper. The logo’s there, the Instagram embed’s there, the hours are there, and somewhere in the navigation is a PDF menu that breaks on phones. That’s a brochure, not a website.
The restaurants that grow beyond existing word-of-mouth have websites that do specific commercial work:
- HTML menus, not PDFs. Properly structured with RestaurantMenu schema. Searchable by Google. Updatable in 5 minutes. Works on every phone. Captures search queries for specific dishes (“[restaurant] pasta menu”, “[restaurant] vegetarian options”).
- Booking widget loading instantly above the fold. Not buried in a “Book Now” link. The widget itself has to load fast and feel integrated with the brand, not bolted on. OpenTable, SevenRooms, Now Book It, Eveve, ResDiary — choice depends on volume.
- Function bookings surfaced as a top-level path. Dedicated functions page with sample function menus, capacity numbers, sample pricing, dedicated function-enquiry form. Functions are high-margin and most restaurants bury them.
- Online ordering done properly. Direct ordering (Square Order, Shopify, custom) for known customers; delivery platforms (Uber Eats, Deliveroo, Menulog) for discovery. The website should clearly communicate both options without making the user choose.
- Real food photography. A professional food photographer for A$600-1,500 produces 20-40 dish shots and ambient interior shots that transform the site. Phone photos rarely capture food the way diners see it.
- Lunch positioning, where relevant. Weekday lunch search demand is real and most restaurants don’t target it. A dedicated “Lunch” page positioned for “[suburb] lunch” and “business lunch [suburb]” captures volume competitors don’t compete for.
- Local SEO with cuisine + suburb precision. “Best Italian Brunswick”, “[suburb] Vietnamese”, “[suburb] French restaurant” — these are real keyword markets with consistent volume. Schema, copy, GBP all need to be cuisine-and-suburb-specific.
- Live Google reviews on homepage. Star count, review velocity, recent reviews. Restaurant booking decisions lean heavily on social proof.
- Live opening hours, including holidays. Generic “Mon-Sun 11am-late” doesn’t cut it. Real opening hours with holiday closures clearly communicated. Misleading hours kill walk-in traffic.
Restaurant types that work well with the marketing-led approach: casual neighbourhood restaurants, fine dining, ethnic-specialty restaurants, family-led traditional venues, modern Australian, café-restaurants doing both daytime and evening service, venues with functions/events as a revenue layer, restaurants with strong takeaway/delivery components.
What every restaurants website needs
Local search visibility
Restaurants prospects search "[service] near me" or "[service] [suburb]". Local SEO and GBP optimisation are non-negotiable, set up day one.
Clear booking path
Whether it's a contact form, a phone tap, or a booking widget, the path from landing to enquiry has to be one tap. Friction kills bookings.
Trust signals that work
Reviews, real photos of the work, certifications, response time, area served. Stock photos and stock claims read as exactly what they are.
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1. Discovery
Two-week structured workshop including a marketing brief that's specific to restaurants — what your customers Google, what your competitors are getting wrong, where leads should be coming from.
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2. Build
4–6 weeks. Copy drafted before design. SEO and GBP set up in the build phase.
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3. Launch + 6 months of reporting
Lighthouse 95+ at launch. Monthly performance reports for 6 months.
Pricing
From A$3,200. Calculator gives a real number in 30 seconds.
FAQ
Things restaurants ask before booking.
Restaurant bookings are already through OpenTable / SevenRooms / Now Book It. Why do I need a website?
Booking platforms get the booking; your website earns the decision. The customer who Googles 'best Italian Brunswick' lands on your website before they reach the booking platform — if the website doesn't communicate well, they bounce. The website is the gateway to the booking, not a replacement for it.
Should the menu be HTML or PDF?
HTML. Always. PDF menus break on phones, can't be indexed by Google, can't be updated without a designer or designer-equivalent tool, and miss every SEO opportunity. HTML menus with proper schema (RestaurantMenu) get indexed, work on mobile, can be updated in 5 minutes, and capture search queries for specific dishes.
Function bookings — really worth surfacing?
Yes. Functions are high-margin and most restaurant websites bury the function path three clicks deep. Surfacing 'Functions and events' as a top-level navigation item with proper content (sample function menus, capacity numbers, sample pricing, contact form for enquiries) lifts function revenue meaningfully. For some restaurants functions become 20-30% of revenue.
Online ordering — direct or via Uber Eats / Deliveroo / Menulog?
Both, ideally. Delivery platforms are useful for reach but expensive (20-30% commission). Direct ordering via your own website (Square Order, Shopify, custom) keeps the full margin. The play: use delivery platforms for discovery, but have your own ordering for customers who already know you.
Weekday lunch is dead. Can the website help?
Yes. Weekday lunch search demand is real but most restaurants don't target it. A dedicated 'Lunch' page positioned for searches like '[suburb] lunch', 'lunch near [office building]', '[suburb] business lunch' captures volume competitors don't compete for. Combined with proper GBP posts about lunch specials, this lifts weekday lunch covers noticeably.
Photography — chef's iPhone or pay a photographer?
Pay a photographer. A$600-1,500 for a food photographer who does food correctly is the single highest-ROI investment a restaurant website can make. Phone food photos rarely capture what the dish actually looks like to a diner, and the difference shows up in booking conversion.