A restaurant website in Valais: what it really needs

2 September 2026 · 3 min

A restaurant in Brig, Visp or Zermatt does not need a spectacular website. It needs a website that answers, in under ten seconds, the three questions everyone asks on their phone: what is there to eat, when is it open and how do I book? Everything else is secondary — and it is often where the money goes.

The three questions the website must answer first

What is there to eat. The menu as text, not as a PDF or an image. Text is readable on any screen, Google indexes it and the guest finds “fondue” or “vegetarian” with one search. With prices: hiding the price does not bring more guests, it loses bookings.
When is it open. Opening hours at the top of the page, with the season’s exceptions: annual closure, weekly closing day, winter hours. A wrong opening time on the website costs more than having no website at all.
How do I book. A phone button, a WhatsApp button and, if you use a booking system, the direct link. On mobile, the call button has to be visible without scrolling.

Real photos: a few good ones

Five genuine photos — the dining room, two dishes, the terrace, the team — are worth more than thirty stock images. Someone looking for a restaurant wants to know what this place looks like, not what a generic restaurant looks like. If you have no photos, a two-hour shoot is worth paying for before spending a single franc on the website.

Several languages, without overdoing it

In the Upper Valais guests speak German; in summer and in winter, French, Italian and English speakers arrive. A restaurant website does not need five complete language versions: it needs the menu and the practical information in German and English — and in French if you are close to the language border. The rest — the restaurant’s story, the news — can stay in one language.

What is a waste of money

A background video at the top. It is heavy, slows the page down on mountain 4G and nobody watches it to the end.
An “About us” page with three paragraphs of philosophy. Two sentences and a team photo are enough.
A gallery with sixty photos. Nobody gets past the tenth.
The menu as a PDF. It opens badly on mobile, cannot be translated and does not show up on Google.
A complex booking system when the phone does the job. With a few bookings a day, phone and WhatsApp are enough; automate when the volume justifies it.

Linking the website to the Google profile

Many visits to a restaurant start on the Google map, not on the website. So the website and the Google Business Profile must say exactly the same thing: address, phone, opening hours. When the profile sends someone to the website and the website confirms what the profile promised, the booking happens. When there is a contradiction, the person gives up and goes next door.

What it costs and how long it takes

For most restaurants, a well-made landing page — menu, opening hours, bookings, photos, three languages — solves the problem for CHF 2'400 and is ready in about a week. A website with more pages (events, groups, take-away, the restaurant’s story) costs CHF 4'900 and takes close to a month. Maintenance, between CHF 95 and 290 a month, covers hosting, updates and the menu changes over the year — which, in a restaurant, happen more often than you would think.

Do you run a restaurant in Valais with a website that brings no bookings? I do a free assessment within 48 hours and tell you, plainly, what I would change first — get in touch.