Pages a takeaway's website should have

Your takeaway's website has one job. It tells a hungry person what you sell, how to get it, and when. That's it.

Most takeaway sites try to do too much, or too little. Pages go out of date. A menu from two years ago sits next to opening hours from three owners back. So here's a plain list of the pages worth having, what goes on each, and what to leave off. Build them in order and stop when you've covered the lot.

Purpose: To tell a stranger who you are, what you sell and how to order, within a few seconds of landing.

Put your business name at the top, exactly as it appears on your shopfront. Under it, say what you are in plain words: a family-run Indian takeaway, a fish and chip shop, a pizza and kebab place. Add the town or area you serve.

Then give people the way to order, straight away. A phone number they can tap. A button to your ordering page. A link to your delivery app listing if you use one. Don't make anyone hunt.

Show today's opening hours, or a clear line saying you're closed. Add your address. Add one or two real photos of your actual food, taken in your actual shop. A few lines about what you're known for is plenty.

Link to the pages below: menu, how to order, delivery area, allergens. Keep the home page short. It's a signpost, not a brochure.

Avoid stock photos of food you don't make, long paragraphs about your "passion for flavour", pop-ups that block the page, and music or video that plays on its own. Avoid putting out-of-date offers on the front. If the deal ended, take it down.

Purpose: To show your real, current menu so people can decide what to order before they ring or click.

Write the menu out as text. Don't upload a photo of a printed menu or a PDF that's hard to read on a phone. People should be able to scroll, read and, if you offer it, tap through to order.

Group dishes the way your paper menu does: starters, mains, sides, drinks, desserts, or whatever fits your kitchen. Give each dish its name and a short plain description of what's in it. Mark vegetarian, vegan or halal dishes only if you can stand behind the label every time.

Prices are fine, but only if you keep them current. A wrong price on the site causes arguments at the counter and on the doorstep. If you can't update prices quickly, leave them off and say "call or see our ordering page for current prices".

Add a clear route to allergen information. A line under the menu heading, linking to your allergens page, is enough. Put it where people will see it before they order.

Avoid showing dishes you no longer make, or ones you sell out of by Friday. Avoid putting "best in town" against every item. Avoid dumping the whole thing into one giant block of text with no headings. And avoid letting the website menu drift away from the one on your wall.

Purpose: To tell people exactly how to get food from you, step by step, so nobody has to guess.

List every way you take orders. Be specific about each one.

If you take phone orders, give the number and the hours you answer it. Say whether you take card payment over the phone or only on collection or delivery.

If you use a delivery app, name the app and link to your listing. Say what's different, if anything, from ordering direct, such as menu range or delivery area.

If you have your own online ordering, say how it works: pick your items, choose collection or delivery, pay, and what happens next. If you've got a way to track an order, say so. If you haven't, don't pretend.

For collection, say where to go and what to say when you arrive. Mention how long people should expect to wait, but only give a time you can actually hit on a busy Saturday.

If you don't do something, say so plainly. "We don't take orders by text" saves everyone a wasted message.

Avoid hiding the phone number behind a contact form. Avoid sending people to an ordering page that doesn't work on a phone. Avoid listing a way to order that you've stopped offering. And avoid vague lines like "order today" with no actual instruction.

Purpose: To tell people whether you can reach them, when, and what the alternative is if you can't.

Say where you deliver. Name the streets, estates, villages or postcode areas you cover, using the names locals use. If you stop at a certain road, say so. A short, honest list beats a vague "we deliver locally".

Give your delivery hours. They may differ from your opening hours, so say so if they do. If you stop delivering a little before you close, state the cut-off.

Cover the costs people ask about: is there a delivery charge, is there a minimum order, and does it change by area? Only publish figures you're happy to stand by and keep updated. If they change often, point people to the ordering page for the current amount.

Then cover collection. Say where to park or wait, and whether people should ring ahead. If you offer something for collection only, such as a different menu or a lower price, spell it out.

If a customer sits just outside your area, tell them what to do. A phone number to ask is often enough.

Avoid claiming you deliver "everywhere" when you don't. Avoid promising a delivery time you can't keep on a Friday night. Avoid leaving the area description to a map alone, because not everyone reads maps the same way. And avoid letting the page disagree with what your delivery driver tells people at the door.

Purpose: To answer the three questions most people have before they set off: are you open, where are you, and how do I get there.

Give your full address with the postcode. Write your hours out for each day of the week, in plain text. If you close between lunch and evening, show both sessions.

Add what to look for on arrival. Maybe you're next to a bus stop, opposite a petrol station, or above a shop with a green front. Landmarks help more than a postcode when someone's driving round in the dark.

Say where to park, if there's anywhere. Say if there's step-free access, if you know it to be true. If you're hard to spot from the road, say so and describe the shopfront.

Include an embedded map if you like, but write the directions in words too. A map that fails to load shouldn't leave people stranded.

Keep bank holiday and festive hours on this page, and update them before the date, not after. If you close for a holiday or a week away, put a clear note near the top.

Avoid hours that differ from your Google listing, your shopfront and your delivery app. Avoid leaving "Christmas hours coming soon" up in March. Avoid giving only a postcode and nothing else. And avoid burying the address in an image that can't be read aloud or copied.

Purpose: To help people with allergies or dietary needs know how to find out what's in your food, and to show you take it seriously.

This is the page where care matters most. Start with a clear statement of how customers can get allergen information from you. If your menu marks allergens, say so. If they should ask staff, say that too, and make sure staff are trained to answer properly.

The 14 allergen groups include cereals containing gluten, milk, eggs, fish, peanuts, nuts, sesame and sulphites above 10 mg/kg. Your page should make it easy for people to see which of those apply to which dishes, or how to ask.

If you sell prepacked for direct sale (PPDS) food, there are labelling rules. That means food you package at the same place you sell it, before the customer orders or selects it. Think a wrapped sandwich, a pot of soup or a cake in cling film. Since 1 October 2021, across the UK, PPDS labels must show the food's name and a full ingredients list, with allergens emphasised in bold, capitals, colour or underline. Made-to-order food, unpackaged cakes on display and hot drinks made to order aren't PPDS.

For loose, unpackaged food, check the Food Standards Agency allergen guidance rather than relying on what someone told you.

Avoid writing "may contain" on everything as a way of dodging the question. Avoid saying a dish is "allergen free" unless you're certain, every time. Avoid a page that nobody has checked since you changed supplier. And avoid leaving allergen information out of your phone and app orders; the route to it should be the same wherever people order.

Purpose: To show your rating openly and make clear you're a properly registered food business.

If your premises has a rating, say what it is and where it comes from. The Food Hygiene Rating Scheme covers England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and ratings run from 5 to 0. Scotland has a different scheme, so if you trade there, use that one instead.

Showing the sticker is voluntary in England, and a legal requirement in Wales and Northern Ireland. Either way, putting the rating on your website shows people you've nothing to hide. If your rating is a good one, say so plainly and link to the official listing so people can check it themselves.

Make a short statement that you're registered as a food business with your local authority. Anyone who sells, cooks, stores, handles, prepares or distributes food must register at least 28 days before trading, and each site needs its own registration. Temporary and mobile set-ups, and online-only sellers, must register too. If you're opening a new outlet, factor that 28 days into your plans.

Don't state anything else about your obligations unless you've checked it with your local council. Rules vary by business type and place.

Avoid showing a rating you no longer hold. Avoid a picture of an old sticker. Avoid vague wording like "fully compliant" with nothing behind it.

Purpose: To give each outlet its own page with the details that are true for that outlet, and only that outlet.

If you run more than one takeaway, give each its own page. Each page should carry that branch's address, phone number, opening hours, delivery area, collection details and how to order.

The point is that each page does a different job. A customer in one town needs different facts from a customer in another. If the menu differs, show the right menu. If one branch has a rating and another has a different one, show each. If one has parking and the other doesn't, say so.

Add something real that sets each branch apart: a photo of that shopfront, who runs it, a dish that sells best there, a note about the street. This matters for a practical reason too. Google's spam policies treat many near-duplicate pages made mainly to manipulate rankings as spam. So every branch page needs to carry something genuinely different.

Remember that each site needs its own food business registration. Keep that in mind when you add a new outlet to the website.

Avoid copying one page, swapping the town name and calling it done. Avoid making pages for areas you don't actually serve. Avoid listing the same phone number on every branch. And avoid creating a page for a branch that has closed.

Purpose: To keep your listing on Google accurate, so people who find you there get the right name, hours and number.

This isn't a page on your website, but it belongs on the list because people will meet it before they meet your site. Claim your profile, and keep it tidy.

Use your real-world business name, the one on your shopfront, your website and your stationery. Don't add extra words to the name to try to stand out. Google's guidelines say not to add keywords to the name.

You cannot pay for a better local ranking, so be wary of anyone who says you can.

Keep your hours right, and keep holiday hours updated. Add your address, phone number, website link and your ordering link if there's a field for it. Add real photos of your food and shopfront. Reply to people who ask questions.

People do search by what's nearby. The phrase "takeaway near me" is searched about 550,000 times a month in the UK. That's a national estimate (DataForSEO, 18 October 2026), not a figure for your town. But it shows people look for food by what's close to them, which is why your profile matters.

Avoid a different name here than on your shop sign. Avoid old hours. Avoid leaving a closed outlet listed. And avoid buying "reviews" or promises of a top spot.

Purpose: To give people a place to see what others have said, and to show you read and answer feedback.

Decide where your reviews live. Google and your delivery app listing are likely places. Your website can link to those rather than copying them across.

If you want a page, keep it simple. Link to where customers can leave a review, and say in a sentence that you'd like to hear from them. Reply to feedback in a calm, short way. Thank people when it's good. When it's bad, say sorry if it's due, say what you'll do, and offer a number to ring.

If you quote a review on your own site, use one a real customer left, word for word, and say where it came from. Don't trim it to change its meaning.

Make it easy to leave one. A direct link beats "find us on Google".

Avoid writing reviews yourself, or asking friends and family to write them as if they were customers. Avoid deleting honest complaints where you have the power to. Avoid arguing in public. And avoid a page of five-year-old praise that tells people nothing about now.

Purpose: To put a face and a name to the business, and give people an easy way to reach you.

Tell people who you are in a few honest lines. Who runs the place, how long you've been going, what you cook and why. Keep it true and keep it brief. A photo of you or the team, taken in the shop, does more than a paragraph.

Then give every way to contact you: phone number, email address, and the postal address. Say when you answer the phone. If you've got separate numbers for orders and for enquiries, say which is which.

If you cater for parties or big orders, say how to ask. A short line and a number will do. If you take on staff, say how to apply, or leave it out.

Add your business name and any registered company details you're required to show. Check with your local council or the relevant regulator if you're unsure what you must publish.

Avoid a contact form as the only way to get in touch. Avoid an "our story" page that's all slogans. Avoid an email address nobody checks. And avoid writing it in a voice that doesn't sound like you.

Start here, in this order, and add the rest as you go.

1. Home page: a clear signpost with your name, what you sell and how to order.
2. Menu page: your real, current dishes with a route to allergen information.
3. How to order: every way to get food from you, spelled out step by step.
4. Delivery area and times, and collection: where you go, when, and what to do if you don't.
5. Opening hours, address and how to find you: the basics people need before they set off.

Allergens and food hygiene come straight after. Don't leave them long.

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