In this 6-minute read:
- Basic features to include in your website for your bar or lounge
- Examples of good sites for inspiration
There’s a lot to consider when you start to build a new website for your bar or lounge. What will it look like? What kind of content will you have? Will you just list popular drinks and meals or your entire menu? Do you want to book reservations on your site?
Let us help you get started. We’ll go over the basics that every bar or lounge website should have and then provide some examples you can use for inspiration on this journey.
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Basic features that you should have on your bar or lounge’s website
Don’t feel like you are limited to only include the following features on your website, but use them to create a good foundation for your site that you can build upon.
Make sure you at least include:
- Helpful content
- High-quality images
- Online ordering
- Call-to-action
- Way to contact your business
- Branding
- A good platform
Write helpful content
As you plan your website, you need to write helpful content. You don’t need a novel, but short, well-written paragraphs here and there that show off your personality will help.
One thing that can build traffic to your website (and your bar) is a robust recipe guide for popular drinks, or even those you have invented. You can even link or host YouTube video tutorials and Instagram stories that show off your skills.
You’ll also want to plan the kind of content that you have on your website. We recommend starting with these basics:
- About—share your story
- Menu—share your full menu and prices (this is generally what people look for first)
- Contact information
- Location
Those are the very basics that you should include, but if you have other offerings like private meetings rooms or events, share that information too!
Take high-quality images for your site
As you’ll see with our examples below, high-quality photos can take your site far. Without photos, your site will just be a bunch of text. Photos help show off the environment of your bar or lounge, and they are a great way to show off popular menu items.
Don’t just let any photo go up on your site though. Make sure it looks professional and is visually appealing. Fuzzy photos or photos that don’t have a clear subject can hurt your site more than they help it.
Check out this guide: Top 3 ways to get (and use) professional photos for your small business
Offer online ordering
If you have a restaurant at your bar or lounge, you should offer online ordering (if it’s feasible for your business). In this post-COVID-19 world, online ordering is a great way to keep growing your business and gain new customers.
Learn more: 9 reasons why your restaurant needs online ordering and delivery
Include a strong call-to-action
The ultimate goal is to get customers into your bar or to at least make an order online. So along with your killer menu, you need to invite customers to come in or make an order. Use CTAs throughout your website that help do this.
Buttons like “order online” or “make a reservation” can help guide customers down the path to your ultimate goal.
Have multiple avenues for contacting your business
This is especially important if you offer additional services like online ordering, private meeting rooms, or events. You should include multiple ways for customers to get in touch with you.
Some alternatives to just listing a phone number on your website include:
- Contact form or email
- Facebook Messenger
- Online chat
Include your branding
Your website is an extension of your bar or lounge and it should feel that way to customers. Your branding should be present throughout the site. You can achieve this through your logo, colors, fonts, tone of your content, and the images you choose to place. Images that show your staff and building can really help here.
Go deeper: How to create and build an effective brand
Put your website on a good platform
There are several different ways to create a website, but we suggest getting your website on a good content management system. You can do this by using a DIY website builder or finding a web developer who can help you out.
Check out our guides for a deeper look:
- Small business basics: What’s the easiest way to build your website?
- How to build your own business website (step-by-step walkthrough)
- How much do online website builders cost?
- Should I use a DIY website builder or hire a developer?
Examples of great bar and lounge websites
Gain some inspiration for your bar or lounge website from these examples. We’ll tell you why they’re great to help you choose features that will work well for your own site.
Whiskey Kitchen
Whiskey Kitchen starts off by sliding through beautiful images of their bar and menu items. If you have some popular items that bring people into your bar, this is a great way to display them. They also have simple menu at the top of the site to help visitors find what they need, listing the most important items first: Book a Table, Order Online, Menus.
As you scroll down their home page, their menu is the next item that you see. We like this because it does a good job of providing the most important information to the customer upfront.
Visit their site: https://www.whiskey.kitchen/
Cask
Cask is another one that displays large, beautiful images throughout their website. Any place where a customer can come inside should do this to help show what the experience will be like, rather than just telling.
One thing that we love about this site is that they share their Instagram feed. This is a great way to help grow their social following but also a good opportunity to share more of their offerings and menu items. It gives customers a deeper look at the overall experience of their bar.
Visit their site: https://www.casknyc.com/
The Kings Arms
The Kings Arms is a little on the non-traditional side when it comes to websites because the entire website is only one page. The items in the navigation at the top of the site just take you to the correlating section on the home page. This isn’t a bad way to handle your site if you want something simple and don’t have a ton of content.
They do a good job of providing opportunities to contact them and using call-to-actions, particularly for their meeting rooms. Even on a one-page site, they share enough information with their picture and room details to get customers to reach out.
Visit their site: https://www.thekingsarmslondon.co.uk/
You may also be interested in these helpful articles:
- How big is New Year’s Eve for local bars and lounges?
- 5 signs your small business website is behind the times
After you’ve finished your website, what’s next?
Building a website for your bar or lounge is just the first step in growing your business online. There’s a lot more to do to help improve your online visibility and start getting new customers from your website.
The biggest factor here is going to be getting regular online reviews and creating other online business listings for your bar or lounge (like Yelp, Bing, TripAdvisor, OpenTable, Google, Yellow Pages, etc.). This also helps with local SEO.
Womply Reputation Management can help you manage all of your online reviews for multiple platforms from one place. You can even respond to your customer reviews directly from your Womply dashboard.
Womply also offers business intelligence, customer relationship management, email marketing, payments, and a dynamic customer directory that updates automatically with each transaction.
Learn more, plus get free reputation monitoring and customer insights when you sign up for Womply Free!