My first cafe website design project has been one of the most important projects for my business.
Matt and Stephanie purchased a humble espresso stand in 2017 and have since made it into the multi-location Ultralife Cafe. In a small town, word gets out fast but you still need a website. Fortunately, they knew a web designer.
Overview of the Ultralife Cafe Website Project
When Ultralife started out they were a small drive-thru coffee stand on highway 101 in Newport, Oregon. They were our first restaurant web design client and many of the services that we offer today were born out of finding solutions to grow Ultralife Cafe. We’ve grown with them.
As they expanded locations and offered more menu choices, we’ve kept up by developing our menu updating service. As the online world shifted and it became necessary to have an up-to-date privacy policy and accessibility statement, we added these services to our website care plans.
Two of the most important goals for our client was to make it easy for everyone to view their menu from mobile devices and to keep that menu up-to-date online (without using PDF menus). The owners of this cafe change their menu with the season and offer specials weekly. Having a menu online that didn’t match their menu board was a major problem. It would cause confusion if the information was out of date.
How We Created Easy to Update Menu Pages
We built the Ultralife Cafe website design on a page builder called Elementor. This allows the owners to log into their website and make menu changes easily. The menu items are content on the webpage rather than images of a menu. It is easy to click on the item or price to be edited and type in the new information. It’s easy to add a picture next to each menu item. These menu pages can also be set up for online ordering.
We even added menu updates to our care plans for when restaurant owners just don’t have the time to make the changes themselves.
Having a restaurant’s menu as content on the website is important for SEO. It is also essential so the menu can be read with a screen reader. Having a business website that is ADA accessible is critical this day in age especially for a public business like a restaurant.
It was also important that the menus were easy to read on every type of device. We knew that most of Ultralife Cafe’s customers were viewing the website from their mobile phones. We didn’t want to make guests squint while viewing a tiny screen. Because the Ultralife website is mobile-friendly, it also ranks well on Google, which brings us to another topic.
How We Grew Online Traffic and Helped Create Brand Awareness
When Ultralife started out they hired a talented graphic designer to create their iconic “UL” logo. Having a memorable logo is so important for creating brand awareness.
We matched the website design to the logo they already had and also created brand guidelines for the business. We wanted to make it easy for them to use the same color palette, type, and style across all their platforms so their guests would immediately recognize their brand.
Because of the strong branding, the Ultralife brand lends itself well to apparel. We created a print on demand shop for their website where they could sell hoodies, t-shirts, stickers, mugs, and hats. This was a Printful and WooCommerce integration that allows a business to sell branded items without having to do any of the printing or shipping themselves.
A SEO Optimized Website Design Gets Results
A major reason why the Ultralife Cafe has a high page ranking on Google is because it’s built on WordPress. There are some additional things that we’ve done to bolster this advantage. We SEO optimized all of the images and pages on the site.
With high-quality website hosting and best practices we also keep the website loading fast which not only provides a good user experience, but improves SEO. When people are searching for a cafe in Newport, they’re going to find Ultralife right away and they’re going have a great experience viewing the website no matter what device they’re viewing it on. They will be able to call with one click, get driving directions, and easily view the menus.
Keep on Growing
Along with integrating online ordering for Ultralife, we’ve also set up a donation page, a space rental page, and helped them sell tickets for a special event they organized. As, this business grows we find new solutions to help them create amazing experiences for their guests. And as this business grows so does Magenta Collective. Matt and Stephanie are also quick to recommend our services to other business owners. Happy clients are the best marketing for a web design business.
My first cafe website design project has been essential for the growth of my business. I’ve learned so much about restaurant web design and marketing and I look forward to sharing that wisdom with others. If you have any questions about this project, I’d love to chat with you!
