A restaurant website with the menu, hours and table booking up front.

How people find a restaurant and what they check

Most first visits begin on a phone. Someone types "dinner near me" or your name into a map, often while standing on a sidewalk with two other hungry people. They look at three things in about ten seconds: are you open right now, what does the menu cost, and can they get a table tonight. If the menu is a PDF they have to pinch and zoom, the next restaurant on the list gets the booking.

So the website has one job before anything else. Put tonight's hours, the menu and a Reserve button where a thumb can reach them without scrolling. The story of how your grandmother's recipe crossed the ocean can live one page down.

What goes at the top of the home page

• Today's hours, written as "Open until 10 tonight" rather than a weekly table
• A Reserve a table button and a tap-to-call phone number
• One photo of a plated dish, taken near a window, not the dining room
• Address with a link that opens the map app
• A short line about allergies, such as how you handle gluten-free and nut-free orders

Lower down, add the dinner and drinks menus, parking, wheelchair access, and a private dining form that asks for the date, headcount and budget.

Photos worth taking

Shoot food in daylight at a table by the window, from slightly above, before the plate has been touched. Add the room at about 7 p.m. when it is half full and the candles are lit, and one picture of whoever runs the pass. Diners want to see people and plates, not a wide empty room.

A local search tip

Your Google Business Profile and your website have to agree. The most common complaint about a restaurant online is the wrong hours. Before Thanksgiving, Mother's Day, Valentine's Day and New Year's Eve, change the hours in both places the same day, and point the profile's menu and reservation links at your own pages. That keeps visitors on a page you control. It will not guarantee a ranking, but it removes the mismatch that costs you tables.

What diners look for before they pick a restaurant

Before anyone books, they look for signs that dinner will go the way they want. On a phone, most people check these, roughly in this order:

• Menu prices, so they can guess what dinner for two will cost
• Whether you can handle their allergy or diet, in plain words
• A free table at the time they want, and how big a group you seat
• What the room is like: loud and lively, or quiet enough to talk
• Parking, or the nearest bus or train stop

Most of these questions come in by phone at five o'clock, while you set up for service, so every answer on the site saves a call.

Apps that earn their place in a dining room

Table reservations does most of the work. Set lunch and dinner up as separate services and cap each one by covers or by tables. Table time can grow with party size, so a six-top never gets a two-top's slot. When a service fills up, guests join the waitlist and don't have to call, and big parties arrive as requests you approve. The day sheet shows covers per service, which is the number the kitchen wants before prep.

The Food menu holds lunch, dinner and drinks as separate menus with dietary tags, and the AI Agent uses it to answer "is the lamb gluten-free?" The Announcement bar covers holiday hours and a closed Monday, with start and end dates so it takes itself down. Appointments is built for one-to-one services, so you can skip it. For private dining, list a phone number and email, and let the AI Agent take a name and email when someone asks about a big party.

A walk through the Olive & Ember example

Olive & Ember is the made-up restaurant in the preview: wood-fired Mediterranean by the harbor, in warm dark colors with a serif type. The home page has one button, Reserve a table, with the hours right under it. The menu page splits mezze, mains from the oven and desserts, and each dish has a price and a vegetarian or gluten-free tag. Reserve a table opens the booking with party size and time. Private dining describes the back room, how many it seats and who to call. Find us has the address, a map link, parking and the step-free entrance.

It lives at oliveandember.dollarsite.page until you connect a domain you own, which you can do once it is live. To get there, tell Chip about your food and your room, or send 5 to 15 phone photos of plates and the dining room and approve the draft.

When delivery apps and Instagram already bring in covers

Delivery apps and Instagram both do real work for a restaurant, so keep them. But they own the relationship: the app keeps the guest's details, and Instagram decides who sees your post. Your own site is where people book a table directly with no fee per cover, and where the hours and the menu are always right. Put the reservation link in your bio and on your map listing. Read your delivery app's terms before you slip flyers into its bags, and keep your menu prices on the site and on the app consistent so nobody feels tricked.

Questions guests ask before they book

Is there parking, and is the entrance step-free? Can you seat eight on a Friday? Do you take walk-ins, or only reservations? Is there a corkage fee? What is on the kids' menu? Put the five that come up most in a short list on the reservation page and the AI Agent can repeat them. Say how long you hold a table after the booking time, and what a late party should do. Guests who read this are less likely to arrive angry at 7:25.