6 Reasons to Use Squarespace for Restaurant Websites

Restaurateurs like you combine entrepreneurial gumption with culinary passion and expertise to bring delicious dining destinations to your communities. These days, building a website to represents your restaurant that is just as eye-catching as your entrees is a must if you want to take advantage of the social/local/mobile (aka "SoLoMo") revolution and drive more customers to your restaurant.

Here's a half a dozen reasons why using Squarespace for restaurant websites is an appetizing idea. 

1. Squarespace Offers Image-Rich Templates

There's nothing like full-color photos to tantalize taste buds and drive interest in the items on your menu. Squarespace's award-winning templates are completely customizable, too, so you can achieve a unique look and feel that is both beautiful and effective at driving more customers to your location(s). Check out our templates guide, and be sure to pay special attention to templates like Adirondack, Aviator, Dovetail, Frontrow, Momentum, and Peak.

Adirondack

Aviator

Dovetail

Frontrow

Momentum

Peak

2. Squarespace Restaurant Websites are Mobile-Friendly

Squarespace's website templates are all mobile-friendly right out-of-the-box. Your website are built with impressive responsive design best practices, which means customers will see the a tantalizing website no matter which device they have. Smartphones are where people are when they decide they're hungry these days. Squarespace gives restaurants a leg-up. 

Your restaurant's website will look great on any mobile device with Squarespace's responsive design templates.

3. Squarespace Integrates with Google Maps

Squarespace makes it easy to show people how to get to your restaurant by seamlessly integrating with Google Maps. Simply add a map widget to your Squarespace website and enter your address. Squarespace takes care of the rest, bringing you stylish and elegant Google Maps customized for your restaurant's website.

Squarespace integrates with Google Maps.

4. Squarespace Integrates with OpenTable

Provide patrons with an easy way to make reservations with an OpenTable widget that works with your existing account. If you already work with OpenTable for reservations and reviews, simply visit your restaurant's profile page and copy the five-digit "RID" code within the page's URL.

Paste your OpenTable RID into the Squarespace widget to enable reservations on your restaurant's site.

Paste your restaurant ID in your Squarespace OpenTable widget and you've given your customers an easy way to book reservations at your restaurant straight from your website.

Embed a Squarespace OpenTable reservations table on your website.

5. Create Simple Menus with Formatting Options

Squarespace recently released a lightweight menu system with simple formatting options for price, menu item titles, descriptions, and some minor design options to account for variations in products and visual preference.

Squarespace's menu widget allows for lightweight formatting options for your menu items.

6. Squarespace Restaurant Websites are SEO-Friendly

You want your website to show up when people search for food and restaurant options within their area. Squarespace is SEO-friendly and is a reliable platform when used as a part of an effective online marketing strategy. 

Squarespace and Restaurants are a Tasty Combination

Are you a restaurateur looking for a website platform for your place of business? Take a look at these awesome Squarespace websites and then check out Squarespace's two-week free trial to see if your restaurant might just be a Squarespace restaurant.

The Unofficial Squarespace Podcast Airs Season Three Premiere

Looking for a great place to get tips and advice about using the Squarespace web publishing platform? Content, Structure & Style, the unofficial Squarespace podcast, is part podcast, part video tutorial, and part nonsense, and might just be what you're looking for.

Last week hosts Alan Houser of Squareflair, Brandon Davenport of OkayGeek.com, and I returned to our microphones (and added our web cams) for the season three premiere of Content, Structure & Style hosted via Google+ Hangout on Air. 

CSS: Episode 301 - Season 3, Squarespace 6

In the season three opener of the unofficial Squarespace [video] podcast Alan and I started the show as a duo instead of a trio due to a late arrival by Brandon Davenport. Alan and I discussed our many new projects since season two of CSS and then recapped Squarespace 6 news.

The major items for discussion relative to Squarespace 6 news include ecommerce, calendars, and fonts. Both Alan and I shared first impressions of the three new features and went on to provide a few hands-on tips and insights for each.

Brandon Davenport eventually joined us, which segued into an impromptu ad for Fancy Hands (If you sign up for Fancy Hands after visiting them by clicking this link, I'll receive a discount on my use of the service.), the virtual assistant service that takes your request via phone, email, or iPhone app.

The final segment of the show focused on the first installment of a season-long look at migrating from Squarespace 5 to 6. This episode focused on performing inventories of existing Squarespace 5 content, migrating your site from version 5 to a new Squarespace 6 template, and then pruning your migrated content.

Alan, Brandon and I all equally relished in the simple joy that comes from the weight being lifted off a webmaster's shoulders when starting on a clean template. You get a chance to start some things over and refine your process, your assets, and your entire experience. It's as if your entire brand is reborn and ready to reap new rewards and opportunities. 

Yes, migrating to Squarespace 6 from v5 can occasionally be a real pain for people who have built up a lot of custom code or certain types of assets, but the process should be more or less painless for most people. We certainly feel for those of you who will have to spend more time migrating due to v5 customizations. 

What suggestions do you have for future Squarespace podcast episodes of Content, Structure & Style?

How to Migrate from Squarespace 5 to 6

It's coming up on a year since Squarespace released the sixth version of its revolutionary web publishing software, and yet there's still a ton of happy customers using version five. Now, I know everything Squarespace releases is great, but if you're still on v5, you're missing out. Today we show you how to migrate from Squarespace 5 to 6 in 3 easy steps.

Step 1: Tune in to Content, Structure & Style

(Click to add to your calendar and RSVP for April 18th at 7:00 p.m. CDT.)

The unofficial Squarespace podcast is back with a new season of Squarespace tips and news with season 3, episode 1 at 7:00 p.m. CDT on Thursday, April 18, 2013.  As an added bonus, this season Alan Houser, Brandon Davonport and I will be sharing tips each episode on how to migrate from Squarespace 5 to 6. RSVP now to watch live or watch the archived episode after April 18th.

Step 2: Pick Out Your Squarespace 6 Template

(Click to check out Squarespace 6's ~30 kick-butt, mobile-friendly templates.)

Did you know Squarespace 6 offers nearly thirty amazing new templates, and they're adding more every month? These templates contain all of the same power and configurability of Squarespace 5, and more. Check out the Big Picture Web Squarespace 6 Template Guide to learn about the advantages and differences of each template for designers, photographers, artists, bloggers, entrepreneurs, small, and medium sized businesses.

Step 3: Getting Tactical with the Help of Squarespace

(Click the image to check out Squarespace's step-by-step tactical guide.)

After you've tuned in to the podcast for a dose of strategy and picked out your new template, it's time to get tactical. Squarespace put together a wonderful step-by-step help article that they maintain as they make product updates. Once you've completed steps 1 and 2, head on over to this Squarespace tutorial to take you the rest of the way.

Squarespace 6 is the Future

Squarespace promises to continue to support customers using v5, but Squarespace 6 will be the focus of new features as time goes on. If you haven't made the move yet, consider taking the three easy steps shared today to migrate from Squarespace 5 to 6. If you're still on Squarespace v5, what's holding you back from moving to Squarespace 6?

How to Use Squarespace Calendars

Squarespace recently announced their new complete calendar system, which allows anyone to create a schedule of events, concert dates, appearances and more. This week we take a look at how to set up a calendar of your own in a handy how-to.

Creating a Squarespace Calendar

Squarespace already offered a helpful calendar widget, but the new calendar feature is a full page type. To create one of your own, add a new page type to your navigation from within your administrative controls and select the Events page type. Select a name for your calendar and assign a URL to it. 

Add a Squarespace event collection to your navigation by adding a page.

Adjust Your Calendar Page Settings

After your new page is up and running, adjust your Event Settings by selecting the button from your administrative controls for the page. 

Configuration options include:

• Adjust your page title
• Display your events as a calendar or list view
• Set template-specific layout options for sidebars
• Update your events page's meta description for search engines
• Assign tags and categories
• Advanced HTML insertion options

Squarespace events pages include the ability to change between list and calendar view for your events.

Creating Your First Squarespace Event

Creating events using the Squarespace calendar system is much like creating a blog post. Click on Add Event from your event page and create a page that tells your fans about the who, what, where, when, and why of your event. 

Location options allow you to tell people exactly where your event will be and event map it using Squarespace's Google Maps integration. Your attendees can also add events directly to their Google or iCalendars. (Click on the thumbnails for a larger view.)

Enjoy Your New Squarespace Calendar

That's really all there is to it. When you're through you're left with an excellent option for managing your events. For advanced users, consider adding a contact form to collect registrations via email, a Google Drive spreadsheet, or even a MailChimp mail list. Squarespace's custom HTML code blocks also makes its event and calendar system immediately compatible with Eventbrite, Google+ Events, and just about any other custom events solution, too. 

What types of events do you plan on planning with the help of the new Squarespace calendars?

A Squarespace Calendar with a calendar-style, full-width layout.

How to Use the Squarespace Calendar Widget to Manage Your Events

Event are common with small businesses, and yet the necessary website functionality for online event management can be complex and unwieldy. Sometimes you're best off paying for a third-party event solution, but Squarespace has you covered for most everything else.

The Squarespace calendar widget presents a lightweight, yet effective solution to most of your basic and moderate event management needs, and can be combined with other parts of Squarespace to support your entire event workflow.

Step 1: Create an Events Collection

The first step in using the Squarespace Calendar widget for event management is to create a collection on your Squarespace website that will be used to build each of your individual event landing pages. Create an events collection using a blog (free and paid events), products (paid events only) or possibly a gallery (special events) page type.

Gallery, Blog, and Products page types can be used to support the Squarespace Calendar.

In this example we'll create a blog page type called Events to build our event landing pages for an imaginary series of happy hours throughout the month of march.

Step 2: Build Your Event Calendar Page

Next up, create a new page on your Squarespace website to serve as your main events landing page that tells people about all of the events you plan to host. Include text and photo blocks to let people know what to expect at your events, and maybe a social media block to make sure everyone is connected.

This event landing page promotes our happy hour series.

I've created a page that promotes my happy hour series here. Now I'll need to add in the Squarespace calendar and events widgets.

Step 3: Add Your Squarespace Calendar to Your Event Page

Add a calendar block to your main event landing page (the Calendar block is in the Structure tab). In this example, I've located the Events blog page type I created earlier and selected it for use with my calendar widget.

Drag a calendar block onto your event landing page and select the collection corresponding to your events pages.

Position your calendar block to your liking. You can pull in other widgets from the Structure tab of the new blocks interface to your events landing page as well, including the Summary block. Take full advantage of LayoutEngine and your imagination when making your landing page so your events end up looking fun, inviting, and informative.

Step 4: Create an Event

Now we're ready to create individual events. To draft the first event, I created a new blog post within my Events blog and included some text, an image gallery consisting of a few photos, a map widget configured to highlight my event venue, and a custom form with name and email address fields set to display. I set the publish date/time to correspond to my event date/time and then published the blog post. 

Now folks have an easy way to register on my blog for free events.

Step 4 Appendix: Capturing Event Registrations

You'll want to send successful registrations to a place where you can use them later (e.g., email reminders and post-event surveys). The Squarespace form block configuration includes options to send your captured submissions to your inbox, a Google Drive spreadsheet, or a custom list in your optional connected MailChimp account.

In this example, I just need a simple spreadsheet to keep track of who is going to my events, so I decided to use a Google Drive spreadsheet.

Send registered attendees to your inbox, a spreadsheet, or MailChimp subscriber list.

Step 5 (Optional): Create a Paid Event

Not every event will be free. Sometimes you'll want to charge attendees, and Squarespace provides you with multiple options here, too. For paid events, simply create another blog post within your Events blog and add in all the vital information. When it comes time to collect payment for tickets, you can either embed registration details from popular services such as Eventbrite, or you can use the digital products product type in the new Squarespace commerce tool set.

Create a paid event landing page using Squarespace commerce digital products for your online tickets.

The Future of the Squarespace Calendar and Events

In its current state the Squarespace calendar widget is versatile and lightweight, but may leave serious event planners wanting more. I hope Squarespace continues to build on to the already neat functionality the Squarespace calendar widget, and think they should completely build out their events solutions over time. A full-on partnership/integration with Eventbrite would be amazing, and isn't out of the question given the existing partnership between Eventbrite and MailChimp. 

What needs do you have for managing events and calendar-based content on your Squarespace website?