Theme Ideas for a Food Business Website

Theming on a website is just as important as its backend, if not more. A potential customer who visited your website and didn’t like the look of it will leave and never come back. This is why web design classes spend so much time hammering in the importance of how a website looks, as you only get one shot at making a good first impression.

But, naturally, the kind of theming you apply on a website depends solely on just what the website is actually about. Each type of website has its own rules, and theming is a very important one. If a theme fails at making a website feel like it should, then your website as a whole will most likely be unsuccessful at keeping the attention of potential customers, and that means that your website has failed. So, how would you go about designing a website centered around a food business? Let’s discuss some of the most important theming priorities.

First of All, Make It Relevant

Not all food business websites are going to be the same of course. How could they be when there are so many different kinds of businesses related to food. And so, your website’s whole theme design template relies heavily on what your website will be about. For example, if your website is about a food delivery service, your theming will have to convey the speediness of your service while also making it extra simple to go from food selection to checkout. A website dedicated to a bakery would instead be a colorful affair, talking about the wonderful aromas wafting out of their kitchens as well as the delicious and freshly-baked goods that are always on sale.

But, if your website is about a café, it would have to be the opposite of that. Instead of being all about speed and fast checkouts, you will have to make your website very welcoming. Warm and cozy theming would advertise your café’s ambience, and make people want to give your café a visit. Similarly, a diner or a restaurant would make their website feel like their on-site location, either via use of real pictures of that place as background images, or by using the color scheme that the restaurant or diner uses in real life. They would also need to feature an easily accessible menu so potential customers can see the menu beforehand for themselves, and then decide on whether or not to give the place a visit.

Show Off Your Selection of Food

The biggest reason people are going to visit your food business’s website is to see what food you have available. Now, if you’re a food delivery service, this point is a no-brainer; you will obviously have to show visitors the food you are equipped to deliver. But if your food business is something else, how you go about displaying your selection of food will vary.

For example, if your website is about a restaurant or a diner, you will have to display a full menu of everything customers can order. This will allow them to make up their mind on whether to visit your restaurant or diner or not. If your food business is a café instead, you will need to talk about how cozy and comfortable your café is to visit. You may display the coffee beans you use alongside freshly brewed mugs of coffee, and then talk about how your coffee brewing is the best in the city. And if you’re a high-end restaurant instead, you will have to show off your luxurious dishes alongside your amenities. So, people will know what kind of food they can expect, as well as the catering they can expect to encounter that they may decide is worth the expenditure.

Make Your Front Page Mouthwatering

The fastest way to get a potential customer hooked on your food business website is to display your best dish as soon as they open the site. A picture of a delicious steak to welcome visitors will entice them to further investigate the website and learn more about your business. And don’t forget to make it so that navigating off the front page is easy. Put buttons linking to other mouthwatering dishes front and center, and leave the less important tabs (like About Us or Contact Us) somewhere below and out of the way.

Make Your Front Page Enticing

Another tactic you could use to hook potential customers is to display a great deal on the front page. A mouthwatering delicious steak is cool, but what’s even cooler is a pizza next to bold promises of restaurant promotions. Be it Buy-1-Get-1-Free deals or special discounts for special occasions, visitors can become customer if they see a good deal straight away and decide to stick around to explore your other deals.

Consider a Slideshow on the Front Page

Another good idea for theming your website is to add a slideshow on the front page. Instead of focusing on one dish or one deal in particular, there could be a dimmed slideshow in the back that displays all your best dishes one by one. Or this slideshow could be up front and center, focusing not just on all the amazing dishes and food items you sell, but also on the current deals potential customers could take advantage of. The slideshow mechanic conveys a lot of information you may want to divulge without having to trust in the visitor’s capabilities of navigating the site in the exact manner you want them to.

Subtly Focus the Entire Website Around One Specialty

Some food businesses have certain specialties that they pride in, and that specialty is usually what their entire business model is constructed around. Take the popular chain restaurant brand KFC as an example; their whole operation relies mostly on fried chicken. Most of their dishes feature it in some way or another, and thus their whole website keeps displaying it some way or another.

So, if your food business specializes in coffee, or a particular type of steak, or anything potato, advertise it and keep advertising it. While being careful not to overdo it and make your website a jumbled mess, try to feature your specialty in some way on almost all of the pages. Either by continuously mentioning just how good your fries are, or by subtly displaying your special dish on all the different pages or tabs your website has, you will be conditioning visitors to want to try out your specialty and see for themselves what the hype is all about.

Some Theme Suggestions

Fortunately, WordPress has thousands of existing theme templates for you to use that meet most or all of the criteria listed above. Let’s list some of them below and discuss why they might be perfect for your food business website.

Business Corporate Gravity by keonthemes: This theme has a lot going for it; you can display a lot of information on your front page if you wish to using this theme. There can be a centerpiece taking up 50% of the screen, surrounded by news about the latest deals and tabs to help navigate the site. This theme would be suggested for either a food delivery website, or perhaps a bakery that frequently holds special events or promotions.

Food Business by Di Themes: After such a relative name like that, we should just end the article here. This theme does exactly what its name suggests; help you put together an excellent website about your food business. Be it a high-end restaurant or a cozy café, this theme fits the mood perfectly with its minimalistic design and focus on the stuff that matters.

Food Restro by themepalace: Food Restro is another great theme for a diner or a café. It focuses straight away on the main reason for visiting your business, while also providing easy navigation and helpful info in a minimalist deisgn.

Catch Foodmania by Catch Themes: Perhaps the most minimalistic theme listed on here, Catch Foodmania is perfect for cafes. The whole front page can feature your coffee or best side dish, and the navigation bar is integrated smoothly into the frame without standing out at all.

FoodHunt by ThemeGrill: This theme might be just what you’re looking for. It is still simplistic and elegant, but doesn’t go too over the top with it. As its thumbnail suggests, this website works pretty well for a casual restaurant or diner, with focus on the food as well as helpful info presented to visitors right off the bat.

Conclusion

After following all of the tips given above, we’d be surprised if you yourself don’t end up craving some food while designing your website’s theme. And that is exactly what you are trying to accomplish with visitors to your website as well. For a post similar to this, read about theme ideas for a home décor website. Or perhaps you’re interested in learning about things that should always be there on your website, in which case, here’s our post on 5 types of visual content that should be present on your site. And, just to be on the safe side, be sure to read about things to avoid before applying a theme on your website.