Know-How Exchange : Advertising/PR

Make personal visits to restaurant management so that they may meet and see the human behind the site. It's all about trust.

To add to Gail's point, if I'm a restaurant owner or manager you need to show me that your site is all about about getting people into my eatery so that those people can eat, drink, have a good time, tell their friends, and come back again—and often.

To achieve all this you've got to give me value and lots of it. Trust alone is good, but it's not enough. You need to demonstrate that you know me, understand my needs, and make me like you and feel that there's a mutually beneficial relationship being formed and one that we BOTH want to sustain. I need hungry people's backsides on seats at my tables so that my staff can make those diners feel good.

At the moment, your web narrative talks about you more than it talks about me as your prospective restaurant-owning client. That needs to change. You also have no logo, text, icon, or visual flag at the top of your page that instantly telegraphs what the site's about, who it's for, and what the site does. That needs to change as well, otherwise your bounce rate's going to fly off the charts.

You also need to think about ways to entice people to sign up so that you can continue a dialogue with them. No one's going to know about coupons, offers, and specials if you've no way of telling them.

Videos and reviews of featured restaurants might also help build your profile.