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.

How to Duplicate Pages in Squarespace

Squarespace 6 just keeps getting better and better. Recently Squarespace released the Duplicate Page feature, which makes copies of existing pages on your website so you don't have to start from scratch.

Today we take a look at how easy it is to add new pages to your site based on your favorite existing pages using Squarespace's page duplication feature.

How to Copy Pages in Squarespace

The new Squarespace Duplicate Page feature only works on standard page types (i.e., not blogs, calendars, galleries, etc.), but that alone should satisfy that vast majority of your page copying needs. 

To duplicate a page, simply access any page's Page Settings from your website's admin controls and select Duplicate Page. 

And that's really all there is to it. Once done, you'll be able to find your copied Squarespace page at the bottom of your website's navigation tree. Edit the page's settings to assign the page title and URL of your choice, then edit the page's content.

Creating and editing new content on your Squarespace website has never been easier. With Duplicate Page for Squarespace, you can now quickly make copies of pages on your website so you don't have to start fresh each time you want to add a new page. How excited are you for this new time-saving feature?

Squarespace Websites Showcase: Spring 2013

Spring cleaning is a common occurrence in many households each year. Homeowners take the extra time to organize their belongings and cleanse behind the hard-to-reach places of their homes. Why don't we look at our websites the same way?

Six Squarespace designers recently performed a deep cleaning on their sites. Check out the fresh new Squarespace 6 sites they produced as we take a look at the Spring 2013 additions to our Squarespace Websites Showcase.

Spring 2013 Squarespace Showcase

• Steve Wentworth is the videographer, editor, and web designer for Skinny Boy Weddings, a boutique wedding video agency outside of London that produces custom wedding videos and invitation videos. Steve submitted their beautiful new site.
• Eric Jones of CoreGeek.net submitted iPad HQ, a blog dedicated to tips, how-to's, deals, and reviews for iPad and iOS.
• Javier Miqueleiz is a photographer from Guangzhou, China who focuses mainly on portrait, fashion, and street photography. Javier's Squarespace 6 website is built on one of their great new portfolio templates.
• Christopher Grant is a Swedish photographer working mostly on abstract and impressionalist projects at the moment. Christopher's website is on Squarespace 6.
• Joshua Neimark of fix8media submitted their recent work on the new site for Knox Insurance Group, a group of insurance agencies in Florida with product ranging from auto, to home, and more.
• Jacki Storey is a UK photographer and visual artist based in the southwest of England, just outside of Stroud, Gloucestershire. Jacki uses scupture, photography, and installation mediums, and Squarespace 6 to showcase it all.

Submit Your Website to the Showcase

Big Picture Web features your new Squarespace websites frequently on our blog and ever-growing Squarespace Websites Showcase. Don't forget to bookmark our submission page and be sure to enter your new creations when they're complete.

We'd be happy to review and feature your work so that others can be inspired to do some Spring cleaning on their own Squarespace websites.

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?

Visiting the Squarespace Headquarters

 

Big Picture Web visited the Squarespace headquarters this past week in New York City!

I had the privilege of attending the top-notch search engine marketing conference, SES New York, and popped down to the Squarespace main offices after the sessions ended Wednesday afternoon.

Springtime in New York

I had an appointment near Union Square in Manhattan before visiting Squarespace, and ended up walking nearly a half hour from there to Squarespace's headquarters in SoHo.

The sunshine warmed the buildings and put a Springtime energy into my step as I dodged the never-ending flow of traffic by foot, bike, and car.

The SoHo buildings glow in New York's springtime afternoons.

As with any epic adventure, one does not simply walking into Squarespace. I had called ahead and made an appointment. This was my view as I waited, satisfied with my luck at being on time despite my unfamiliarity with the travel requirements in the bustling Big Apple.

The staff at Squarespace have hands-down some of the nicest digs you could ask for.

After a brief tour, some introductions, and some time with my contact at Squarespace, I was on my way. Guess who I ran into on the way out? None other than Squarespace founder, Anthony Casalena. The great Michael Heilemann snapped this gem just as we were leaving the building. Thanks guys!

I ran into Squarespace founder Anthony Casalena in the elevator. 

Squarespace has become a big part of my life. I've empowered friends, family, and clients to build and maintain websites that drive businesses and other causes by teaching them how to use Squarespace. As an affiliate marketer, getting the word out about Squarespace has also helped secure secondary source of income for my family. And ultimately, I believe in Squarespace's vision for its product and respect the growing startup for what they're doing.

Visiting the Squarespace headquarters in New York was a joy for those reasons and more, and I hope to be able to do it again in the future.