Free checklist · 2026 edition

Restaurant Website Audit Checklist

What a hungry customer actually checks on a restaurant site at 7pm — menu, hours, reservations, location — and the audit items that decide whether they show up.

What customers actually want from a restaurant website

Every audit item below traces back to one of these jobs. If the site doesn't make them frictionless, conversion suffers.

  • See the menu without downloading a PDF
  • Check tonight's hours (and whether the kitchen is still open)
  • Book a table or place a delivery/pickup order
  • Pull up the address and start navigation in one tap
Restaurant-specific checks

The restaurants-only audit items

These don't show up in a generic Lighthouse audit, but they decide whether a restaurant site actually converts.

1Menu is HTML, not a PDF download

Mobile users won't download a PDF to look at appetizers. PDFs also can't be indexed by Google or read by voice assistants.

2Hours visible above the fold (and accurate)

Wrong hours kill the visit before it starts. This is the #1 reason a customer chooses a different restaurant.

3Online reservations or third-party booking link

If a customer has to call to book at 6:45pm, they'll pick the place that lets them tap a button.

4Click-to-call and tap-for-directions on mobile

Restaurant visits are time-sensitive. Friction at the address or phone step loses the table.

5Photos of the actual food, not stock images

Real food photography is the single biggest driver of restaurant-site conversion.

Plus the four universal Lighthouse categories

Every audit also covers the four standard Lighthouse categories — the same ones Google uses to rank pages in mobile search.

Performance

Core Web Vitals (LCP, FCP, CLS, TBT). Slow sites lose mobile users in the first 3 seconds.

SEO

Meta tags, headings, indexable content, mobile-friendliness. The basics Google needs to rank you locally.

Best Practices

HTTPS, image optimization, no console errors, security headers. The hygiene Google penalizes if missing.

Accessibility

Color contrast, ARIA labels, tap targets. Required for many ADA-sensitive customers and rewarded in ranking.

Run the free audit on your own site →

What we typically find

Common issues on restaurants websites

Pulled from real audits across the niche. Sorted by impact on conversion and ranking.

IssueSeverity
Menu only available as a PDF
Mobile bounce skyrockets — most customers won't download
Critical
Hours hidden or outdated
Customers stop coming when they get burned once on closed hours
Critical
No online reservation or ordering link
Lost tables and lost delivery orders to competitors that have one
Major
Slow homepage load — heavy hero video
Up to half of mobile visits abandon before the page paints
Major
Stock-photo food, no real menu photography
No appetite cue means no decision — they keep scrolling
Major
Address not tappable on mobile
Adds friction when customers are already trying to navigate over
Minor
For agencies and freelancers

Audit one site. Then audit every restaurant in your city.

The free audit at the top of this page is the demo. The real product audits every restaurant on Google Maps for a whole city — sorted worst-website-first, with verified contacts, a drafted outreach email, and a white-label PDF report ready for every prospect.

FAQ

Restaurant website audits — common questions

Deeper guide: finding restaurants leads on Google Maps.