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Top 5 mistakes restaurants make with their online menus

Using an unfriendly format – PDF, Flash, Scanned Image
Having a menu on your website serves two main purposes in today’s internet connected world; 1) have a menu for visitors to your website and 2) have a menu so restaurant based websites, search engines and mobile apps can share your menu.  It’s vitally important to have your menu accessible by both visitors and these ‘automated systems’.  For your restaurant to have a successful online presence your menu must be easily accessible by both.

Not updating the menu on your restaurant’s website
There is nothing more frustrating for a visitor then to visit your website, view your menu and then go to your restaurant only to find out the online menu was out of date.  Studies show that more and more customers utilize the internet in some way to get information about your restaurant or menu before visiting.

Losing control of your menu on ‘other’ restaurant based websites
Yelp, UrbanSpoon, MenuPages, AllMenus, Google Places, just to name a few, may have your restaurant’s menu.  Do you visit these, and the 10’s of other websites, that have your menu and restaurant information to ensure they have the latest and greatest information?  Probably not.  Your menu is getting further and further out of date each time you make a change and don’t update it at the multitude of restaurant based websites.

Failing to include all the details of your menu
Why have a menu online if you don’t include the information that visitors to your website, or looking at your menu on mobile devices, are looking for.  In a world where people are more connected and doing more ‘searches’, an accurate and complete menu is important.

Having a menu that is not mobile friendly
In 2-3 years every phone will be a smart phone. This means more and more people will be viewing your menu through a smart phone prior to entering your doors. Not providing your menu in a format which can be easily viewed by smart devices means your losing out on a potentially huge market-share.

Ok, so there are 6 mistakes.  Consider it a bonus.

You submit your menu to a website where the menu goes no further than them
You submit your menu to Site X and its shown to visitors on Site X. That sounds great except that there are 10’s or 100’s of sites like Site X where you have to submit and update your menu. This type of distribution of your menu just can’t last as the depth of the web increases. More and more restaurant based websites come online every month. Keeping up with each place where your menu is displayed can be a daunting task.

Open Menu solves each of the problems above