Christmas: get your restaurant ready before the visitors arrive
Summer brings visitors who may not know the local restaurants. Clear, current information makes it easier for them to understand what a restaurant offers and where to find it.
The work that makes you easy to choose in that moment is not complicated. It is just easier to do now than in the third week of December when you are flat out.
Start with a web address that is yours
Social pages and delivery listings are useful, and worth keeping. They just sit on platforms whose rules and layouts can change. Your own web address means visitors, Google and AI assistants all have one stable place that represents your restaurant, and it stays with you if you change platforms.
Get the menu current before the rush
If prices or dishes have changed, update the public menu before the busy period. A menu that matches what is actually available gives visitors more reliable information when they are deciding where to eat.
Publish your Christmas and New Year hours early
Publishing Christmas and New Year trading hours early is one of the most useful things a restaurant can do before the holiday period. Put them on the website and, where relevant, set special hours on Google Business Profile.
Doing this before the busy period reduces the chance that important holiday information is left until the last minute.
One photo that matters more than the rest
A clear shopfront photo can help a visitor recognise the restaurant and its entrance when they arrive.
Useful food and venue photos can then help show what the restaurant is actually like.
Make the next step obvious
Phone number as a tap-to-call link. Address as a tap-to-map link. If you already use a booking service, link to it. If you already use Uber Eats or DoorDash, link to those too — a visitor who wants delivery should not have to hunt.
Then check the whole thing on a phone, on mobile data, standing outside. That is the real test.
Why before the rush, not during it
Busy service periods leave less time for website housekeeping. Checking menus, hours and links before the holiday rush means those details are more likely to be ready when visitors start looking.
Pre-summer checklist
- ✓Own web address, live and pointing at your own site.
- ✓Menu current, with this year’s prices.
- ✓Christmas, Boxing Day and New Year hours decided and published.
- ✓Special hours also set on your Google Business Profile.
- ✓Phone number tap-to-call and address tap-to-map on mobile.
- ✓Clear daytime shopfront photo so visitors recognise the venue.
- ✓Menu link set on your Google profile.
- ✓Booking or ordering links added if you already use those services.
- ✓Whole site checked on a phone, not just a laptop.
- ✓Details identical across website, Google and social.