Opening a place: what the site needs before the doors open
In the run-up to an opening, everything is half finished. The furniture is late, the permits take their time, and the website sits somewhere around twentieth on the list.
That is the right order. The site does not need to be finished on opening day. It needs six things, and the rest can wait.
Part 1: before opening day
1. Name, address and what you sell
The first screen has to answer three questions: what place, where, and what kind of food. Two lines is enough. “A pizzeria on Hämeentie in Kallio. Neapolitan pizza and a glass of wine.”
Do not open with the story of the founders’ trip to Italy. It is a good text, but it belongs further down.
2. Opening hours, including opening day
Write the hours as they are in the first week, not as they will be some time later. If the first days are short or invitation only, say so.
Put the same details in your Google Business Profile. That is where most customers check the hours.
3. Phone number and email
The number has to be tappable on a phone. The email has to be answered. If you will not have time to answer during opening week, say so: “We usually answer email the next working day.”
4. The map and how to get there
An address is not enough in large buildings or shopping centres. Spell out the entrance, the floor, the parking and the nearest stop. This is the detail asked about most on the phone and the cheapest one to write down once.
5. A list of what you serve
It does not have to be the final menu. It is enough that the reader understands the level and the style: six dishes with prices, or the price of lunch and what it includes.
Prices are worth showing. Without a price, a large share of readers assume the more expensive one.
6. A few real photos
Three is enough: the front, the room, and one dish. Taken with a phone in daylight. Stock photos are recognisable, and they make a new place look suspicious.
If the room is still unfinished, photograph what is ready. One empty, well-laid table beats a stock image of somebody else’s restaurant.
Sort out the domain and email first
This is worth doing before the site exists at all: the address and the email are the first things you need.
Register the domain as soon as the name is decided, preferably before the sign is ordered. Take a short one that can be said over the phone: kallionpizzeria.fi is better than pizzeria-kallio-helsinki.fi. Make sure it is registered to your company.
Set up email on your own domain. A company email at a gmail address works technically, but to a supplier or a landlord it looks like the place is temporary.
Part 2: can wait until the first few weeks
These are genuinely useful, but none of them is a reason to delay publishing.
- The full menu and allergens. The first weeks will change the menu anyway. Put it up once it has settled.
- The story behind the place. Write it calmly once the first rush is over.
- Group bookings and private events. Important for sales, but rarely in the first week.
- Finnish and Swedish versions. Necessary if you have tourists among your customers. They do not hold up the opening.
- A newsletter or an event calendar. Only when there is something to tell and someone with time to write it.
- Gift cards and an online shop. Their own project. Do not tie the opening to it.
- Embedded social feeds. They slow the page down and they break. A plain link is enough.
Publish the site before the doors open
Put the site up a couple of weeks before the opening, even if it only says the name, the address, the opening day and one photo. That gives search engines time to find it, and gives you a link to share when the local paper or the shopkeeper next door asks.
It also lets you test the practical things calmly: does the email work, do enquiries arrive, does the page open on a phone on a poor connection.
What actually happens during opening week
The site gets visited at two moments: when someone first hears about the place, and when someone is already on their way to the door. Both read it on a phone, in a hurry, often on the street.
That is why the first six points are those six. They answer “what is this”, “is it open” and “how do I get there”.
Once the opening is over
Book half an hour in the calendar two weeks out. Go through three things then: are the opening hours still right, has anything changed in the prices, and is there anything on the menu you no longer sell.
Two out of the three have usually changed. That is normal, and it is why updating has to be easy. With us you send the change in a message and we handle it — you do not log in to anything in the middle of the lunch rush.
If you are opening a place right now, get in touch early. We will make it, but a calmer schedule makes better texts.