Why text beats a PDF or a photo
A PDF menu is the most common mistake on a restaurant site. On a phone it opens small, so people pinch and zoom to read a price. It can be slow to load. Search engines read it poorly, and a screen reader cannot read a photo of text at all. And it is a chore to change, because someone has to redo the file every time a price moves.
A menu on the page loads fast, reads well on any screen and can be updated in a few minutes.
How to lay it out
A good menu page is easy to scan with one thumb.
- Group dishes under clear headings, like Breakfast, Sandwiches or Desserts.
- Give each dish a name, a short line about it and the price.
- Mark what matters to your customers, like vegetarian dishes.
- Add a few real photos of the dishes people order most.
- Offer a printable version if people ask for one.
Photos of the food
A few good photos sell a menu better than a long description. Take them in daylight, close to the dish, from above or at table level, on a clean plate. Pick the dishes people order most, and the ones you are proudest of. Ten honest photos do more than fifty weak ones, and each can be swapped later as a small change.
Ordering and reservations
A menu is more useful when the next step is one tap away. The site can have a button that opens whatever you already use: a delivery app, a pickup tool or a reservation service. We link to it. We do not build a new ordering system you would have to learn, and the fees, if any, stay with the tool you pick.
Menus that change
Many places change a menu seasonally, weekly or daily. For a weekly menu, send us the new text and we update it, or change it yourself in the editor. For daily specials, one short line on the page works better than rewriting the menu every morning. Seasonal menus can have their own page, so a summer menu comes and goes without disturbing the rest.
It is not only for restaurants
A salon has a menu of services. A cleaning company has a list of what each visit includes. A bakery has a list of cakes and sizes. The same rules apply. Put it on the page, as text, with prices or starting prices, and keep it current.
Menus and Google
Google's help pages say food businesses can add a menu to their business profile, and the structured data Google reads for local businesses can include a menu link. A clear menu on your site gives both something real to point to.