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Friday 13 November 2020
#eat / drink #information technology / web / seo

On the ugliness and uselessness of restaurant websites. Dedicated to restaurateurs (Roman and not).

At the hundredth online search, in support of our previous post on cod fillets, we have to admit that we felt a certain sense of discouragement (to say the least). We realized that the communication skills of restaurateurs, at least of the Roman ones and at least as far as the internet is concerned, is really nil.

It occurred to us to write something about it ... but a few hours later we happen to read a post from Puntarella Rossa; apparently we are not the only ones to think so.

We are surprised by the unusual coincidence: in the world we are many, but how many times does it happen to have a thought more or less identical to that of another person (or more or less tangible entity) in the space of a couple of hours? At the same time we realize that what we would have written would have been a copy & paste of Puntarella's post.

Which has already gutted the problem very well. We like copy & paste, because basically they represent the true nature of the web and its potential, but we must not exaggerate. So we limit ourselves to giving our contribution by adding only a few small tips.

We created Roma-O-Matic to pass some time, but in life we โ€‹โ€‹have been dealing with computer engineering for over 30 years; by dint of insisting, we have learned something.

1) Choice between website and Facebook page.
If you want to spend 80 euros a year and have a website, forget it; much better a Facebook page that you can manage independently. For 80 euros they will give you something that is not working, cannot be updated and that takes five minutes to open. And if the site doesn't work, everyone will be allowed to think you no longer exist (bizarre reasoning, but that's the way it goes).

2) Choice between cool website and website.
If you are willing to spend even more than 80 euros (but less than 800) and have a very cool website, with spectacular effects and very trendy graphics, forget it; much better a simple, light site, which communicates what it needs to communicate. The cool websites (working and that do not make the soul even your last laptop for which you have taken out a mortgage) cost much, much more than the amount you had in mind.

3) Register a domain and don't let it expire.
The cost to register a domain with its e-mail is around 20/30 euros per year! Reasonable investment rather than worth it. Register the domain yourself (otherwise it risks being owned by a stranger). If you don't want to put a site on it, in the meantime use it for mail; redirect it to your Facebook page (or any other "page"). But don't let it expire, at least while you're in business. If you do, people will think you are closed, at best; at worst, you may see your main competitor's restaurant appear.

PS: don't waste too much time choosing the extension; whether it is .it .com .net .info little changes.

4) Content management.
Remember that your site (or page that is) will be consulted via a smartphone (in 80% of cases). It's okay to put in some photos ... but don't overdo it.
Try to make essential information easy to find and easy to read:

- on the main page a way to understand where you are, what you cook and how to contact you; unbelievable but true, this is the information people are looking for; we swear we have seen sites without an address or phone number; others that summarized the essence of the restaurant in "Cajun fusion cuisine with medieval influences" (ok, we invented this one, but the meaning is: what are we eating?);

- a menu that does not require 300 clicks to find out if you are making these blessed cod fillets; here too we swear and perjure that we sometimes had to understand this by looking at photos (which did not even have a subtitle); we understand that the reading ability of the average Italian is waning ... that a picture is worth a thousand words ... but if I don't know the dish it is difficult for me to recognize it; in time of Covid a paper menu can't even be touched, you just don't like a simple pdf?

In short, it doesn't take Aristotle to use a bit of logic.

For the rest what to say, read Puntarella's post.

PS for the malicious and conspiracy theorists: we have nothing to do with the Puntarella Rossa site; as we have already had the opportunity to write in "The best X Y in Rome. That is where to eat Y." we are not fervent followers of a certain type of information.

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