Examples of websites for bars, cafés and drinks outlets
Why a website remains your No. 1 digital counter
Open wide the glass doors of your bar, café or drinking establishment: you can see your regulars, the light bouncing off the glasses, the heady aroma of freshly-ground coffee or the rustle of a well-timed shaker. But for most of your future customers, this picture, seductive as it may be, doesn't exist. Before pushing open the door, they'll type your name into a search engine or be drawn in by a tempting photo on social networks. So first impressions are made far from the weathered tiled floor of your bar: they're made on a five-inch screen in the underground, or on a laptop on a rainy Sunday.
We know that 95 % of consumers read information online before trying out a new place. The challenge then becomes clear: to transform your website into a genuine digital counter that is both user-friendly and profitable. It's no longer just a PDF flyer posted online, but an immersive experience that reflects your personality, reassures Google's algorithm and guides visitors right through to making a reservation - or buying a "House Cocktails" box set.
Add to this the fierce digital competition: delivery platforms, specialist blogs, geolocation applications. Each with its own algorithm, ranking and spotlight. If you don't control your narrative, others will do it for you. Your site then becomes the official story, the authentic version, the one where you can feel the wood of the counter and the effervescence of the service, even hundreds of kilometres away, in all time zones.
To achieve this objective, four pillars have been identified:
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Speed If your home page takes more than three seconds to load on a smartphone, you're already losing 40 % of Internet users.
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Security An SSL certificate and a recognised payment gateway inspire confidence; the absence of a padlock means immediate mistrust.
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Visual appeal your photos tell the story of your world before the first word is spoken; a coherent moodboard is worth a dissertation.
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Operational clarity With two-click booking, interactive Google Maps and timetables that don't require scrolling, every digital friction translates into a missed customer.
These key principles guide our day-to-day work at Hotel Web Design And yet, theory alone does not generate sales. So let's get down to the nitty-gritty, using figures and concrete examples.
Our partnership with Google Hotels: commission-free bookings that flow
Since 2022, Hotel Web Design has been a member of the select circle of Google Hotels partner agencies. How does it work? Your stocks and rates are synchronised in real time with the search engine. Result: every time you search for "hotel + town", Google displays a booking link. free of chargedirectly connected to your in-house motor. The figures speak for themselves: +10 to +15 % bookings without paying a cent in commission. We've devoted an entire article to this mechanism, but the most important thing to remember is that it works 24 hours a day: while you're serving an espresso, Google is bringing you one more customer.
Bar in Paris
In the heart of the XIᵉ arrondissement, Good Game entrusted its digital image to our studio with a simple requirement: make you want to play right from the first scroll.
- Pixel art design revisited arcade-style typography and a neon palette that's controlled to avoid a kitsch effect.
- High-fidelity photos Close-ups of varnished wooden pieces, stemmed glasses filled with amber IPA, players concentrated around a table.
- Reservation form ergonomic: two fields, three clicks, instant confirmation.
Since going online, the bar has recorded a occupancy rate of 93 % on Friday evenings, compared with the previous maximum of 75 %. The site has also reduced telephone calls by 40 %, freeing up the team to advise players on site.
Bar in Marseille
Located just a stone's throw from the Old Port, Le Copper Bay has opted for a format one-page as clear as a Dry Martini.
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Narrative scrolling The story flows from top to bottom like a trickle of absinthe in a glass.
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Mediterranean colour code blue monochrome, touches of copper, icons of stylised fish.
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Loading time 1.8 seconds on 4G thanks to WebP image optimisation and lazy-loading.
The result? Visitors stay for an average of 2 and a half minutes, enough time to watch the short backstage video of the bartender flambéing an orange peel - a sequence that has now become a signature feature.
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Coffee in Rennes
This coffee-shop-roastery relies on visual storytelling to make you feel the roast through the screen.
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Ken Burns effect on the swirling grains, creating an almost palpable virtual fragrance.
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Micro-interaction animations The foam of a flat white forms when you move the mouse over the drink icon.
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Integration of customer reviews A carousel of hand-picked authentic testimonials, supplemented by an up-to-date Google score.
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Online shop monthly subscription for coffee beans or ground coffee, delivered anywhere in France.
Since the redesign, the e-commerce shop has achieved 27 % of sales and attracts visitors from as far afield as Strasbourg and Perpignan.
Bar in Paris
Frog Pubs is a veteran of the Paris craft beer scene, and needed a site that could keep pace with seasonal brews.
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Proprietary back office The manager updates the photos and description of each new IPA in less than five minutes.
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Multi-site booking module The user chooses her pub, time slot and table size directly on the map.
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Local referencing schema.org tagging, dedicated pages for each arrondissement, backlinks from influential beer blogs.
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Online shop growlers, T-shirts, beer tasting gift cards.
Organic visibility soared: +60 % sessions from Google searches for "pub craft bière Paris".
Pubs in Paris
Piha is named after a beach in New Zealand, and it shows everywhere.
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Strong visual identity logo inspired by a vintage surfboard, sand and ocean palette, hand-written typography.
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Trilingual website French, English, Spanish - which makes sense in a city where 40 % of foreign tourists come from Latin America.
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Optimised SEO Long-tail keywords: "Bordeaux healthy brunch", "surf coffee", alt tags for images describing acai bowls and cappuccini latte art.
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Online shop : tote-bags, enamel mugs, homemade granola shipped within 48 hours.
In twelve months, Piha has seen its organic traffic triple and now generates a quarter of its sales via click-and-collect.
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The essential ingredients of a bar or café website
Immersive photography
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Go to natural lightShoot before the serve to capture the depth of field.
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Vary the scale: wide shots of the room to show the setting, macro shots of hands and materials to create a sense of proximity.
Information hierarchy
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A visitor must find the opening times and address without scrolling (header or hero).
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La reservation must remain accessible (sticky button) on mobile; 64 % of bookings are made from a smartphone.
Technical performance
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Image size < 200 kb, WebP format, lazy-loading.
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CDN hosting, server caching, CSS/JS minification.
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Monthly Core Web Vitals audit; above 90/100, otherwise Google downgrades.
Conversion and reinsurance
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Bank deposit or card imprint to reduce the no-show from 30 to 50 %.
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Secure Payment" badge visible near the validate button.
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Multilingual chatbot for allergen questions or group requests.
Content marketing
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Monthly blog, long-tail keywords "homemade cold brew recipe".
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Short video (vertical) reusable on Reels and TikTok, integrated silent autoplay.
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Segmented newsletter: local residents vs. visiting tourists, for targeted offers (local happy-hour, discovery brunch).
Each ingredient must be measured out like a cocktail: too much sugar kills the alcohol, too much animation kills the conversion. The art lies in marrying visual sobriety with sensitive storytelling.
Our tailor-made services for bars and cafés
We're not just selling a "website", we're selling an entire complete digital experience tailored to the reality of a public house:
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Home page immersive: full-width photo, incisive slogan, call to action.
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Contact form or booking module synchronised with your diary, automatic reminder by email or SMS.
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Online shop The new website: an integrated e-commerce solution for coffee beans, cocktail boxes and gift cards.
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Filtered Google reviews we select your best reviews and present them in the most engaging way.
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Listing of your services happy hours, live concerts, Sunday brunch, sports broadcasts - each service is optimised to appear in Google Maps.
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Local referencing amplified: management of the Google Business Profile, hyper-geolocalised netlinking, optimisation of internal linking.
More pages? A blog section to share your cold brew recipes? A calendar of live events? Anything is possibleWe build your project like a barman composes a signature cocktail: with precision, creativity and a sense of showmanship.
Why choose Hotel Web Design rather than a general contractor?
Sector specialisation We know the constraints of a bar (after-work rush, keg logistics, mixology margins) as well as those of a café (low winter season, return on brunch investment).
Hybrid team design, dev, copywriting, photography; a complete brigade, led by a project manager who understands your gross margins and your coffee/water ratio.
Transparency of KPIs Before you even sign up, we set you a target (conversion rate, average basket value, SEO positioning). Every month, a clear report arrives in your inbox.
Product culture Our devs read customer feedback, our designers consult analytics; here, no one creates in a vacuum: everything is cross-referenced, discussed and tested.
A step-by-step roadmap for your future site
Week 1: Audit
We look at your current charter, your objectives and your irritants. Two-hour interview, tour of the establishment, photo session.
Weeks 2-3: Storyboard & wireframes
We deliver a mind map of the mobile-first pathways, a clickable Figma prototype, and we gather your feedback.
Week 4: Art direction
Colour palette, typography, hero shooting guidelines, micro-video shooting plan.
Weeks 5-7: Development & integration
Setting up the CMS, cutting out the design, implementing the booking, shop and reviews modules. Performance and accessibility tests.
Week 8: Acceptance & deployment
Training session for your team, SEO checklist, Google Hotels connection. Soft-launch with your best customers for on-the-ground feedback.
Post-launch
GA4 monitoring, heatmaps, A/B tests on cocktail sheets, seasonal adjustments, targeted newsletters.
Join the Digital Counter: call to action
You wouldn't buy a wine without tasting it. In the same way, we won't ask you to invest without tasting it. digital tasting. Book a 30-minute slot: we'll analyse your online presence, point out three immediate corrective actions and, if the chemistry works, sketch out a project tailored to your needs. No technobabble or endless slides: just a frank, costed discussion based on your service constraints and your ambitions.
Conclusion: when the site becomes your best server
A bar without atmosphere is a mojito without mint: technically correct, but unforgettable for nobody. Similarly, a generic website won't excite Google or your future customers.
In 2025, digital is no longer an option: it's the natural extension of your counter. A fast, immersive, transactional website can double an evening's sales, create a new revenue stream (e-commerce, gift cards) and build a loyal community far beyond the neighbourhood.
Our job? Applying the finesse of a mixologist or the precision of a barista to digital design. Our mission? To continue serving memorable experiences in your glasses. Together, let's toast these two worlds as a toast to the very best in technology and hospitality. Here's to you - and your future site!
