While many years have passed by since the advent of the internet, there are still countless people and businesses that remain unconnected to all it has to offer. Especially when it comes to businesses, this lack of networking can mean huge losses for your restaurant by missing out on traffic that otherwise might not discover the cuisine and location of your establishment. Likewise, web developers have a big opportunity when it comes to new business by finding and offering these individuals web services. What else are you missing out on? We will discuss the reasons why it is unacceptable to not have a website for your independent restaurant.

Smacked Down in Search Engines

Just because your business exists, doesn’t mean that people will be able to find it. There are many independent restaurants that have created Facebook pages to promote their business, but this does not do your company justice. Search engines have difficulties annexing all the proper information from Facebook and therefore your restaurant may not even be visible via search to others. Many search engines such as Google offer local results, showing nearby establishments on a map. While you can add this information directly to Google, it is not the same as having a website. People want to see who you are, what is on your menu and the general theme of the restaurant before going.

Websites Are Easy to Build

Perhaps the hardest part of building a website is making the decision to do it. Once you have secured hosting and a domain name (generally, this can be obtained for well under $100 per year), all you need to do is decide on a platform through which to build your site. WordPress is one of the most popular content management systems, which is a fancy phrase for a website builder (Tip: Pingler’s WordPress Plugin will help you to ping articles to help you climb the search engine ranks quicker). After installing the software, you can select a theme, add pages and text, upload images and display your menus all without any extensive web programming experience or skills. Most independent restaurants can easily have a website up in just one day, but you can spread the work out over a longer period of time if you cannot complete it in one sitting.

You Stand to Attract Big Business

With only half of all independent restaurants having a website and out of those, only around 40% having a menu listed on their site, you can quickly take the lead in your city as being one of the few restaurants that offers comprehensive information and service via the internet. Some businesses even set up online ordering, which allows individuals to place orders from their phones or through the website and pick up their meals at the restaurant. Others allow for reservations to be placed via the website, giving their customers the ability to quickly verify whether or not there is seating at your establishment without having to call. Restaurants that provide these sorts of services tend to do well in comparison to their lesser-connected competitors, so view this as an opportunity to increase your profile, exposure and in some cases, efficiency.