Every month we talk to restaurant owners in Florida who want to run Google Ads or Instagram campaigns. And almost every time, we tell them the same thing: your website isn't ready yet.
That's not a sales pitch. It's math. If your website converts at 1% instead of 4%, you need four times the ad budget to get the same number of reservations. Fix the site first, then turn on the ads.
1. Mobile Speed Under 3 Seconds
Over 70% of restaurant searches happen on phones. If your site takes more than 3 seconds to load on mobile, you're losing the majority of your visitors before they even see your menu. Run your site through Google PageSpeed Insights right now. If your mobile score is below 70, that's your first priority.
2. Your Menu: Not as a PDF
We still see restaurants posting their menu as a downloadable PDF. This is bad for two reasons: Google can't properly index PDF content for search, and the user experience on mobile is terrible. Nobody wants to pinch-zoom a sideways PDF on their phone.
Build your menu as an HTML page. List every item with descriptions. This gives Google content to index and gives your visitors a seamless experience.
3. Online Reservation or Ordering
If the only way to book a table is to call you, you're losing reservations every day. Integrate OpenTable, Resy, or even a simple contact form that confirms booking requests. For takeout, connect with your POS or use a direct ordering system rather than relying solely on DoorDash and Uber Eats , where you lose 15-30% per order.
4. Google Maps Embedded on Your Contact Page
Sounds basic, but a surprising number of restaurant sites just list an address as text. An embedded Google Map helps customers find you without leaving your site and sends positive location signals to Google for local SEO.
5. Professional Photography
Stock photos of food that isn't yours will hurt more than help. People can tell. Invest in one professional photo shoot, 2-3 hours is enough to get photos of your signature dishes, the dining room, the bar area, and your team. These photos will serve your website, Google Business Profile, social media, and ads for the next year.
6. Schema Markup for Restaurants
This is the technical side that most restaurant owners don't know about. Schema markup is code that tells Google exactly what your business is: type of cuisine, price range, hours, address, reservation options. When done correctly, your Google search result shows rich snippets, star ratings, price range, hours, that dramatically increase click-through rates.
7. A Clear Call to Action on Every Page
Every single page on your site should make it dead simple for someone to take the next step: make a reservation, order online, or call you. Not buried in a footer. Not hiding behind three clicks. A prominent button, above the fold, on every page.
Then and Only Then, Run Your Ads
Once these seven pieces are in place, your advertising budget will work significantly harder. A well-built restaurant website converts at 3-5%. A poorly built one converts at less than 1%. On a $2,000/month ad budget, that's the difference between 60 new reservations and 15.
Need help getting your restaurant's website right? Let's talk about what a rebuild looks like, we work with restaurants across Florida.
