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What a caterer website needs: pages, words and photos

SiteSmith · · 4 min read

A caterer's website needs to tell a host, within a minute, what kind of food you make, what kinds of events you cater, where you work, roughly what it costs, and how to ask about a date. A handful of pages does it: home, menus, events, about, reviews and a contact page with a good inquiry form. Real photos of your own food at real events matter more than anything else on the site.

Who is reading, and what they are planning

Catering inquiries come from very different people:

  • An office manager ordering lunch for a meeting next Thursday
  • A couple planning a wedding a year out
  • A family arranging a funeral reception at short notice
  • A parent organizing a graduation party in the backyard
  • An event planner looking for a reliable partner

The office manager wants a menu and an order form. The couple wants a tasting and a relationship. The grieving family wants someone who will handle everything quietly. If you cater all of these, the home page should let each find their path: "Office and drop-off catering", "Weddings", "Private parties", "Memorial receptions".

The pages to have

  • Home. What food you make, where you cater, the events you do, and a clear next step.
  • Menus. Sample menus by event type or by meal.
  • Events or services. What each kind of catering includes.
  • About. Who cooks, your kitchen, your story in a few lines.
  • Reviews. What hosts said after their events.
  • Contact or Request a quote. A form built around the event.

If they are a real part of your business, add pages for weddings, corporate catering or a meal-prep or holiday ordering service. How to lay out menus, minimums and the different service styles is covered in detail in catering websites: menus, minimums and event types.

The opening line

"Exceptional cuisine for every occasion" could be any caterer anywhere. Say what you make and where:

  • "Southern comfort food catering for weddings, parties and offices across the Raleigh area."
  • "Fresh Mediterranean catering in Orange County: drop-off trays, buffets and full-service events."
  • "Wood-fired pizza catering at your home or venue, anywhere within an hour of Portland."

Then one line that answers the next question: whether you do small events, big events or both. "From office lunches for 10 to weddings for 300" sorts people quickly.

Food photos: yours, well lit, on location

Hosts are choosing food they have not tasted. Photos carry most of the weight, so they need to be your food.

What helps:

  • Close-ups of signature dishes, in daylight or bright, even light, without heavy filters
  • A buffet or station fully set up at a real event, so hosts see presentation and scale
  • Plated courses if you do served dinners
  • Drop-off trays as they arrive, if you do office catering
  • Your team at work, in uniform, serving
  • Venues you cater at often, which reassures people who booked there

Stock photos of food are easy to spot and they make hosts wonder what your food really looks like. If you need better photos, a phone and a window often do the job; how to take good photos for your website with a phone shows how.

The about page: the kitchen behind the food

People feeding their guests want to trust the kitchen. A short about page should say who leads the cooking and their background, whether you cook in a licensed commercial kitchen, how long you have been catering, and what you care about (local produce, family recipes, scratch cooking). If you hold a food handler or food safety certification or a catering license your area requires, say so plainly. A photo of the chef or owner helps.

What to leave out

  • Menus from three years ago with dishes you no longer make
  • PDF menus that are impossible to read on a phone
  • Pages for services you used to offer
  • Long lists of awards before the food
  • Slideshows that change before anyone can read them
  • Vague "contact us for a custom quote" with no idea of price

On the PDF question: a menu as normal text on the page is easier to read on a phone and easier for search engines to understand. If you want a printable version too, offer the PDF as an extra link. Including your price list as a PDF vs a web page explains why.

The contact path, built around the event

Every catering quote starts from the same facts. Ask for them on the form, in this order:

  • Event date
  • Event type
  • Number of guests, roughly
  • Venue or town
  • Style of service wanted (drop-off, buffet, family style, plated), or "not sure"
  • Any dietary needs
  • Name, phone and email
  • Anything else

Also show your phone number at the top of every page as a tappable link. Funeral receptions and last-minute office orders tend to come by phone, and those callers need a person quickly.

What to do this week

  • Rewrite the home page opening: what you cook, where, and event sizes.
  • Replace any stock food photos with your own, starting with three signature dishes.
  • Turn at least one PDF menu into text on the page.
  • Rebuild the inquiry form around date, event type, guests and service style.
  • Add your usual notice times to the contact page.

If your catering site is out of date and the menus are hard to read on a phone, you can see your site rebuilt first with your real menus and photos, then decide.

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