Pages a caterer's website should have

Your website is a shop window that never closes. Most caterers' sites are a bare shelf with a phone number taped to it.

Here's the fix. You don't need forty pages. You need about a dozen, each doing one clear job. This guide walks through them in plain English, so you can build what's missing and leave the rest.

Purpose: Tell a stranger in ten seconds who you are, what you cook, where you work and what to do next.

Put one plain sentence at the top. Something like "Independent caterer for weddings, corporate lunches and parties across [your area]." Say it the way you'd say it to someone at an event. Then show the three or four types of event you really do, each with a short line and a link to its page.

Add one clear button: "Request a quote." Put it near the top and again at the bottom. Nobody should hunt for it.

Include a few real photos of your food and your team at work. Mention that you travel to the customer; that's your whole model, so say it early. Add your phone number and email where they can be seen without scrolling.

Keep the page short enough to read in a minute. Its job is to point people onward, not to hold the entire business.

Avoid stock photos of food you didn't cook, vague slogans like "passionate about food", long life stories, music that plays on its own, and burying the quote button under a menu.

Purpose: Show people you understand their kind of event, and are honest about which ones you take on.

Give each event type its own page, but only the ones you really do. If you cater weddings and corporate lunches but never children's parties, don't list parties. A short, true list beats a long, shaky one.

On each page, write about that event specifically. A wedding page can cover the day's flow, the number of guests you're comfortable with, and how you work with venues. A corporate page can talk about drop-off versus served, timings, and how you handle a set budget. Say what's included and what isn't.

Each page has to carry something genuinely different. Google's spam policies treat many near-duplicate pages, made mainly to manipulate rankings, as spam. So don't copy one page and swap the word "wedding" for "party." If you can't say anything different, don't make the page.

Finish each one with a link to your quote page.

Avoid copy-and-paste pages with one word changed, claiming services you don't offer, and vague promises like "we do it all." Also avoid walls of text with no photos or examples.

Purpose: Give people a real sense of your food and how it might look for their event.

Post actual menus you have served. Break them up by type: a wedding sit-down, a buffet, a working lunch, a canapé spread. Use real dish names and short plain descriptions.

Add one clear note on every menu page: menus are tailored. Say so directly. "These are examples. We shape every menu around your event, numbers and tastes." That sets the right expectation and invites a conversation.

Keep layout simple. A page of text that loads quickly and prints cleanly is better than a PDF that's hard to read on a phone. If you do offer a PDF, make sure the same menus also appear as plain text on the page.

Mark clearly which dishes suit common dietary needs, and link to your allergens page. Don't put prices on unless you're happy to honour them; if your pricing depends on numbers and venue, say it depends and invite a quote.

Avoid invented dishes you've never made, menus years out of date, photos that don't match what you actually serve, and menus locked inside an image that can't be read on a phone. Don't present a sample as a fixed offer.

Purpose: Turn a curious visitor into a conversation with as little effort as possible.

This is the page that pays the bills. Keep the form short. Ask for only what you need to give a first reply: name, email, phone, event type, date, rough guest numbers and location. Add one free-text box for anything else.

Say what happens next. "We'll reply within one working day" works only if it's true, so promise what you can keep. Tell people whether you'll call, email or both.

Put your phone number and email on this page too, for the people who'd rather skip forms. Some will.

Check that the form works on a phone. Test it yourself, then ask a friend to try. Make sure enquiries land somewhere you actually look, and that you get a notification when one arrives.

After someone submits, show a clear thank-you message so they know it went through.

Avoid long forms with a dozen required fields, forms that quietly fail, promises you can't meet on reply times, and a page with no other way to reach you. Don't ask for payment details at this stage.

Purpose: Show you take allergens seriously, and tell people how to raise their needs with you.

This one matters more than most. Explain how you handle allergies and dietary needs, in your own words. Be honest about what your kitchen can and can't do.

Name the 14 allergen groups you're expected to know about, such as cereals containing gluten, milk, eggs, fish, peanuts, nuts, sesame and sulphites above 10 mg/kg. Then say how guests should tell you about theirs: when to do it, who to contact, and what information you need.

Describe the practical side. How do you label dishes at an event? Who on your team can answer a guest's question on the day? Do you keep records of ingredients? Only write what you really do.

Mention vegetarian, vegan, halal and other dietary options only if you genuinely offer them. If something needs more notice, say so.

Check the current rules with your local council or the Food Standards Agency, since the detail of what you must provide is theirs to confirm, not this page's.

Avoid promising "allergen-free" food unless you can truly deliver it, vague lines like "we cater for everyone", and hiding this page in a footer. Never guess when a guest asks about an ingredient.

Purpose: Show you're a properly registered food business, and let people see how you're rated.

Anyone who sells, cooks, stores, handles, prepares or distributes food must register as a food business with their local authority at least 28 days before trading. Each site needs its own registration. Mobile and temporary set-ups count too. If that's you, say it plainly on this page: you're registered, and with which local authority.

Then cover your hygiene rating. The Food Hygiene Rating Scheme covers England, Wales and Northern Ireland, with ratings from 5 down to 0. Showing the sticker is voluntary in England and a legal requirement in Wales and Northern Ireland. Scotland has a different scheme. If you hold a rating, show it and link to the official listing. If you're in Scotland, check what applies there.

If you're a limited company, your site must also show your registered company name, number, registered office address and where you're registered. A footer line is fine.

If you serve alcohol, don't guess. The venue's licence or a temporary event notice may cover it. Ask the venue and your local council.

Avoid showing a rating you don't hold, an out-of-date sticker, or vague phrases like "fully compliant" that you can't back up. Don't state licence rules from memory.

Purpose: Tell people where you'll travel, so the right customers get in touch and the wrong ones don't.

You go to the customer, so this page is about distance. List the towns and counties you really serve. Be honest about how far you'll go, and say whether travel costs more at the edges.

Write a few lines about each main area only if you have something real to say. Perhaps you know the venues there, or you work with local suppliers. That's useful. A page repeating the same text with a new town name is not. Remember the near-duplicate point from earlier: each page must carry something genuinely different, or it's better left out.

A simple map or list works fine. You can give a rough radius from your base, but you don't need to publish your home address. Plenty of caterers work from home, and you can keep that private.

Explain how to ask if you're unsure. "Not on the list? Ask us." People often are happy to check.

Avoid listing every village within a hundred miles to look bigger than you are, creating a separate thin page for every town, and claiming areas you wouldn't truly travel to.

Purpose: Prove you do this work, with pictures people can trust at a glance.

Show your own photos from real events. Food on the table, set-up in progress, your team serving, the finished spread. Mix close-ups with wider shots so people see scale as well as detail.

Group them by event type to match your services pages. A short caption on each helps: say what kind of event it was and what style of service you ran. Keep captions factual.

Always ask permission before showing guests or clients. Photos of the food and setup avoid the problem, and they're often more useful anyway.

Keep images a sensible size so the page loads quickly on a phone. Slow galleries lose people. Add a short description to each image so it makes sense if the picture doesn't load.

Refresh it now and then. A gallery that stops three years ago looks like a business that stopped three years ago.

Avoid stock images, photos taken from other caterers, pictures of food you didn't make, blurry shots, and any gallery too big to load. Don't show identifiable guests without asking.

Purpose: Let real past customers speak for you, in their own words.

Collect reviews from people you've actually catered for. Ask after the event, while it's fresh. A short, polite message with a direct link is enough. Make it easy.

On the site, show a handful of genuine reviews, with the reviewer's first name or initials if they're happy with that. Where possible, link to the original on the platform it came from, so people can see it's real.

Include the event type with each one so a visitor can find the kind that matches theirs. A wedding review beside the wedding page makes sense.

If you receive a poor review, reply calmly and factually. Don't argue. Don't delete the page that carries them.

Only quote what was written. Don't trim a review to change its meaning, and don't tidy the spelling into something the person never wrote.

Avoid writing reviews yourself, asking friends to post pretend ones, paying for praise, or showing a star rating you can't point to. A page of empty promises is worse than a short page of real ones.

Purpose: Show there's a real person behind the food, and make you easy to reach.

Tell people who you are. Your name, your background in food, how the business started, and what you care about when you cook for others. Keep it short and honest. A real photo of you and your team beats any slogan.

Say what's distinctive. Maybe you source locally, run a small team, or handle every event personally. Only say what's true.

Then make contact simple. Phone number, email, and the areas you cover. Add opening hours for enquiries so people know when to expect a reply. If you're a limited company, include the registered details mentioned earlier.

You don't need to publish a home address. If customers don't visit you, there's no need.

Link back to your quote page. Someone who's read your story and liked it is ready to ask.

Avoid corporate waffle, a history longer than the menu, a contact page with only a form, outdated phone numbers, and an address you don't want public. Don't write about yourself in the third person unless it's natural.

Purpose: Get your business listed properly on Google, set up for a caterer who goes to the customer.

You're a service-area business. That changes how you set up your profile. Remove the address from it and set your service areas instead. You can add up to 20. Edits to service areas can take up to 48 hours to show, so don't panic if nothing changes straight away.

Fill in the rest carefully: business name, categories, phone number, website link, opening hours and a short description. Make sure the name and details match your website exactly.

Add photos, the same real ones you use in your gallery. Keep adding new ones.

Link the profile to your enquiry page, not just the home page, so people can request a quote in one step.

Check it regularly. Reply to reviews posted there. Keep service areas honest and in line with your Areas covered page.

Avoid keeping a home address visible if you don't want customers turning up, stuffing the business name with extra words, or listing areas you won't serve. And don't set it up once then forget it.

1. Home page: say who you are, what you cook and where you work, with a clear quote button.
2. Enquiry and quote request page: a short form and a phone number, so interest becomes a conversation.
3. Sample menus: real dishes you've served, with a note that every menu is tailored.
4. Allergens and dietary needs: how you handle them and how guests should tell you.
5. Registration and hygiene rating: your food business registration and rating, shown plainly.

Build these in this order. Everything else can follow.

Not sure which of these your site lacks? Seracu offers a free snapshot that shows which topics your site is missing compared with competitors. It's a quick way to see where to start.