How Do You Maintain Your Restaurant Website in 5 Simple Steps

Are you neglecting your restaurant's website lately? Chances are, if you do, you're hurting your business more than you realize.    

Websites are created to serve a specific purpose. The purpose could be to sell a product, share information, send emails, or offer services. Regardless of the website's purpose, it must be kept up to date. So, web maintenance is necessary to ensure your website serves its purpose. 

If you own a business, you know having a website is essential to your success. But what exactly is website maintenance, and why is it so critical? In this post, we will define website maintenance and explain why it's important to keep your site up and running. We'll also discuss different types of regular web maintenance and the  best practices for maintaining a restaurant website.

Maintaining a website means making sure it runs smoothly, functions optimally, and is always up to date. Maintenance of your restaurant website includes checking that all links are working, updating content regularly, and fixing broken links.  It also entails more general housekeeping tasks like regularly backing up your site and monitoring its performance.

Maintaining your website is essential for a variety of reasons, the most obvious being that it keeps it running smoothly. There are other reasons to maintain your website regularly, such as keeping it fresh and updated, ensuring that users have a positive experience when they visit, and enhancing your SEO ranking.   

Choosing a versatile website builder is critical for making website upkeep easier. Restaurantify website builder makes website maintenance simple and economical for business owners of all sizes. Learn more about how our Restaurantify website builder can aid you in creating a top-notch website for your restaurant and how it can also help you maintain your restaurant website in the long run.  

The frequency of website maintenance depends on the size and complexity of your website as well as how often it is updated. Regular tasks like monitoring uptime and scanning for security can be automated. Other tasks, such as website updates and performance monitoring, will have to be done manually. The maintenance schedule for the website includes:

One of the most important things you can do for your website is to undertake regular site maintenance. It is the process of fixing issues and upgrading your site to a higher level. It should cover the current week, the next one, and the one after that. Perform these checks at the same time every week to reap the benefits of enhanced efficiency.  

Maintain your website daily to keep it working smoothly. This includes checking for broken links, looking for errors, and updating the content. If your site has a lot of content, it's worth it to put it all in one document so you don't have to go back to it later.   

You should also back up your site regularly. This is especially important if you run a subscription-based business, such as an online school or a digital business.  

If your company does not have a stable location or is located in an academic or industrial area, it may be worth investing in a monthly site maintenance service. These services allow you to upload your content to their servers instead of storing it on your server. This means your website will be freely accessible. However, these services come at a cost, and you should decide whether this is worth the money.  

In general, website maintenance should be done at least once a month, but more frequently. This will help to keep your website up-to-date and working smoothly.  

While it is feasible to do website maintenance on your own, it is often best to hire a professional. This is because web maintenance can be time-consuming and technical, and it is easy to make mistakes that can cost you money in the long run. You can also use Restaurantify, a free restaurant website builder that can create stunning website designs and maintain and update your restaurant website regularly.  

The first step in updating your website is to examine your current site. You're not creating any new content at this time, but rather seeing what works and what doesn't. This way, you'll be able to make a clear list of all the details that need to be changed.   

Visual Content: Visual assets such as photographs and videos should be checked for quality and relevance. Identify anything fuzzy, pixelated, or generally outdated. You may come across photos that are no longer relevant or not in line with your current brand identity.   

Written Content: In addition to looking at your site's visuals, read over the written website content as well. Look for broken links, as well as missing or erroneous information.  

A great website design and catchy content are nothing if your website fails to help you accomplish your primary KPIs. So, we recommend performing an in-depth review of your analytics page to check various engagement metrics. If you notice any negative patterns, such as particular pages receiving a lot of traffic but no conversions, or the average time spent on a page is short, it could signal that something is wrong with your site. It could also mean that something is wrong with the user experience you're providing.  

Checking your analytics is an excellent first step for figuring out which pages should be optimized. We don't recommend altering your pages only based on analytics results. However, looking at how your pages are functioning on the back end can help you select which pages to look into further.   

If you're using Google Analytics, make sure you set up views and filters to help you prioritize what to track so you can take in this information more easily. You can also personalize your reports to track exactly what you want based on your goals.  

While you're working on your website update, don't forget to do some research to see what your competitors are up to. Examine a handful of their websites and compare your results to your own.  Consider whether any vital information, pages, or content is missing. Perhaps you stumbled upon a good concept or two that you could consider and use to help enhance your site's traffic.   

Take your analysis a step further by researching your competitors' data. This will allow you to compare your site's traffic to that of others using the precise metrics that you pick. Don't worry if this sounds intimidating; there are handy website analytics solutions specialized to this purpose. For instance:   

SimilarWeb : It allows you to enter your own or a competitor's domain name into the search bar. It then generates a detailed report of traffic estimates in a user-friendly interface.  

Semrush :  It is a highly rated SEO (search engine optimization) tool that offers information on any website's traffic, organic or paid.  

Keep in mind that you want your target audience to easily find you on search engines like Google. You may have already tried to improve your SEO in the past, but it's worth revisiting your website. You'll have new photos with alt text to write, as well as new pages with optimized URLs.   

Keyword research is a fantastic place to start. Keywords are two- to five-word phrases that potential customers would type into search engines when seeking a business like yours.   

Take a look at these expert free SEO tools to help you locate the ideal keywords and phrases to target your website.  

Ahrefs : One of the most popular SEO tools available online is Ahrefs. In terms of website crawlers, it is only second to Google. Ahrefs' Site Audit feature is the best SEO analysis tool available, and SEO experts love it. The tool identifies what parts of your website need to be improved to rank higher in search engines.

Google Search Console : It is a free tool that allows you to monitor and report on your website's status in Google SERPs. You must first verify your website by adding a code or going through Google Analytics, and then you can submit your sitemap for indexing.

SEMRush : Marketing SEO tools such as SEMRush are popular in the SEO community. Using them allows you to assess your rankings with ease, as well as discover new ranking opportunities. The Domain Vs Domain study, which allows you to simply compare your website to competitors, is one of the most popular aspects of this SEO tool.

Gaining an in-depth grasp of current web design trends can be tricky if you haven't been keeping up to date on current trends. That doesn't imply you have to be a skilled web designer. However, as a website owner, you must keep your eyes open to remain sharp and current.   

Check your competitors' websites regularly to see what they're up to. You'll be able to track and identify any changes or updates on their websites, such as increased use of video, the addition of relevant pages, and more.   

Another approach to staying current is to read magazines and blog posts about  web design trends. You should also spend time reading design-specific social networks like Dribbble and Behance. They place a major emphasis on graphic design, which includes UI design inspiration, art, typography, animation, and other elements. This way, you'll be able to grasp an in-depth knowledge of what's going on in the wider field of graphic design and possibly apply certain elements to your website.  

This is the heart of website upkeep. Since you want to improve the user experience as much as possible, you must think and act like a user, surfing your site as a customer would, to identify any roadblocks to a sale.  

Test any forms on your site and double-check every internal and external link to ensure you're not sending your visitors to the dreaded “404 Not Found" page. After you've done this quick testing, return to your homepage and test the start-to-finish experience for your primary conversion KPIs, whether that's sales, demo requests, or some other distinct action. By viewing your website through the eyes of a user, you can identify problems that might otherwise go unnoticed and give yourself a leg up on staying ahead of them.