As apps like Facebook and Instagram have cemented themselves as the dominant venues we virtually frequent, I’ve heard more and more restaurant owners (especially those just opening their business) ask “Do I really need a website? Can’t I just use Facebook and Instagram?”
The answer is yes, your restaurant definitely needs a website.
Like fads, platforms and social networks come and go. Sahil Lavingia, the guy who built Pinterest, sums up the importance of having a website nicely in this tweet:
If you don't learn how to code, at least learn how to design and build your own website, on your own domain.
— Sahil Lavingia (@shl) July 23, 2019
Anything else on the internet isn't truly yours - it's building a house on rented land and it could be taken away from you at any time.
Remember MySpace? Facebook (which also owns Instagram) could very well be one privacy scandal away from becoming old news.
Even if it remains as the primary social network, sending someone looking for your website to your Facebook page can actually be an annoyance. There are so many visual distractions in Facebook, people don't know where to click to find what they're looking for.
Having a website is a prerequisite for any legitimate business. It's your digital home. Build your house on land you own.
Like cars, websites fall apart. It's hard to articulate a good answer to "Why?" because the truth is there are so many possible things that can break.
Start-up wonderboy and founder of Nomad List, Peter Levels, does a nice job of illustrating this unfortunate reality in this tweet:
It's hard to pick one reason why but sites just fall apart over time. Keeping an app, site, or business running means fixing it up every day to keep it running. It's the force of entropy. The natural state is chaos.
— (@levelsio) September 21, 2019
And it's not just that websites fall apart. Design trends quickly become outdated, programming languages evolve leaving older versions to rot, plugins and APIs improve, consistently creating new possibilities and better ways to do things. Which got us thinking...
If we're confident restaurants will always need a website...
But websites become outdated every other year or so...
And they require constant maintenance...
Why do websites companies sell them like a car dealership with a large up-front cost and then you're off on your own to deal with random mechanics as things break down?
And thus the Cooking With Social On-Demand Website program was born.
Beautiful restaurant websites at a low monthly cost that includes hosting an maintenance. Pay for as long as you need it, stop when you don't.
We think the industry will appreciate will appreciate a team with the skills & experience to deliver not just awesome websites (modern websites designed for smartphones first and computers second) but a team who's there with you to alleviate the headache that traditional has been managing a website.
Learn more about our On-Demand websites by clicking here, or drop us a line via the form below!