Here is the entire spec for a cafe website: menu, hours, map, photos, phone number, Instagram feed. Six things, one page. Everything a customer needs to choose you, everything Google needs to find you, and nothing that exists to pad an invoice.
That brevity annoys people who sell websites by the page, so let's do it properly: each of the six, with what "done right" and "done wrong" actually look like — because most cafe sites contain all six ingredients and still fail on execution. Then the fun part: the list of expensive things you should refuse to pay for, with reasons you can quote back at whoever's quoting you.
1. The menu — text on the page, priced, current
Done right: the full menu directly on the page as real text, grouped how customers think (brunch, lunch, cakes, coffee), every item priced, accurate to this season. Google reads every word, so you surface for searches like "vegan brunch [town]"; customers read it in two thumb-scrolls without zooming.
Done wrong: a "View our menu" button opening a PDF. It loads slowly, forces pinch-and-zoom, and is effectively invisible to search. Second-worst: a photo of the menu, same problems. Also wrong: no prices — omitting them reads as "expensive" and loses the planners. If your menu changes often, that's an argument for a text menu, not against; a one-line edit beats re-exporting a PDF every time. (Full treatment: how to put your menu online.)
2. Hours — per-day, near the top, agreeing with Google
Done right: opening hours listed per-day, visible within the first scroll, and identical to the hours on your Google Business Profile — Google cross-checks the two, and agreement earns trust. Bonus marks for a note field you actually use ("closed bank holidays", "kitchen till 3").
Done wrong: hours in the footer only; "Mon–Fri 8–4" leaving the weekend a mystery; or — the classic — hours that were true when the site launched. Wrong hours are worse than no hours: they send someone to a locked door, and that person writes the review everyone else reads.
3. The map and address — one tap to directions
Done right: the full address as text (Google reads it and matches it against your profile), an embedded map, and a tap-for-directions link. The customer's last act before visiting is navigation — make it one tap.
Done wrong: "Find us in the heart of the old town!" with no address; a static image of a map; or an address that differs from your Google listing by a suite number — small mismatches genuinely dent Google's confidence in both.
4. Photos — yours, recent, chosen
Done right: six to ten photos of your actual cafe — exterior (so they recognise it from the street), the room, the counter, two hero dishes, a drink, something human. Taken on a phone in window light is fine; here's the exact shot list.
Done wrong: stock photography (customers can smell it, and it answers no real question); a 30-photo slider that takes eight seconds to load; or photos of the fit-out from opening day, three repaints ago. The photos are the "is it worth walking to?" evidence — they're doing sales work, not decoration.
5. The phone number — tappable, not just printed
Done right: a real tap-to-call link, so the person wanting to book a table for six or check if you have space does it in one motion. For cafes taking bookings by phone, this single link is the site's main conversion point.
Done wrong: the number printed as flat text a phone can't dial, hidden on a "Contact" page, or replaced by a contact form. Nobody planning brunch in forty minutes fills in a form.
6. The Instagram feed — embedded, doing the daily work
Done right: your live feed embedded near the bottom of the page. The site handles the facts; the feed handles the personality and proves the place is alive this week — without you ever updating the website. It's the practical expression of the website-plus-Instagram setup.
Done wrong: a lonely Instagram icon in the footer (an exit, not a feature), or — the tragic version — the website replaced by Instagram entirely, which hands Google nothing to read.
The don't-pay-for list
Now the second half of the title. These items appear on cafe website quotes constantly, add hundreds or thousands to the price, and serve the seller better than the cafe. A blog — "great for SEO", goes the pitch. Cafe search visibility comes from your Google profile, reviews, and a fast site with a readable menu; it does not come from essays you'll write twice and abandon. An empty blog dated 2024 actively looks worse than none. A booking widget — if you're not a book-a-table operation, it's clutter; if you take a few phone bookings, the tap-to-call link already does it free. Online ordering — real ordering systems cost real money ($49–179+ a month on restaurant platforms, plus per-order fees) and make sense for delivery-volume restaurants, not for a cafe whose customers order at the counter. "SEO packages" — a monthly fee for vague optimisation of a one-page site is fog; the site should simply be built fast and structured properly, once. Extra pages — About, Gallery, Contact as separate pages triples the build cost and halves the usability; it all fits on the one page, which is the point of the spec.
The polite, devastating question to ask about any line item: "Which customer does this win me?" The six essentials all have an answer. The list above doesn't. (For what the totals should look like, route by route: what a cafe website should cost.)
The copy-paste content checklist
Building it yourself, or briefing someone? This is everything the page needs. Gather it in an hour, and whoever builds the site — you, an agency, us — can't blame missing content:
- Cafe name, and one sentence on what kind of place it is
- Full menu with prices, as text (typed out, not a PDF)
- Opening hours, per-day, plus any standing exceptions
- Full street address and postcode
- Phone number
- Instagram and/or Facebook handles
- 6–10 photos: exterior, room, counter, two dishes, a drink, a detail, a human
- The one thing you most want a customer to do (call, get directions, order beans)
See the whole spec built around your cafe
Six elements, one page — easier to look at than to read about. Send one photo and your Instagram link and we'll build the whole spec around your cafe, free, in 48 hours. Then judge it against this article; we've made the marking scheme public on purpose.