What a coffee shop website needs: pages, words and photos

A coffee shop website can be small: a home page with your hours and address at the top, a menu, a short page about the shop and the people, and a contact page. Customers check it for a few practical things before they come in, and the site's job is to answer them fast. If you also roast beans, host events, cater offices or sell wholesale, each gets a page of its own.

The four questions most visitors have

People look up a coffee shop on their phone, usually close by and soon to decide. They want to know:

Are you open now?
Where exactly are you, and can I park?
Do you have what I want (oat milk, decaf, a breakfast sandwich, gluten-free)?
Is it the kind of place I want to sit in?

The first two belong at the very top of the home page. The third is the menu. The fourth is the photos and a few words about the place.

The pages to have

Home. Name, one line about the shop, today's hours, address, phone, and buttons for Menu and Directions.
Menu. Drinks, food and prices, as text.
About. Who runs it, where the coffee comes from, a few true lines.
Visit or Contact. Address, map, parking, phone, email.

Add only what you really do:

Beans if you roast or sell bags, with an order link if you ship
Catering for offices and events: coffee boxes, pastry trays
Events if you host open mics, trivia, art shows or book clubs
Wholesale if you sell to restaurants or offices
Jobs if you hire often

How to make the most of hours, the menu and the atmosphere is covered in more depth in coffee shop websites: hours, menu and the feel of the place.

The home page, top to bottom

On a phone, the first screen should hold:

The shop name and one plain line: "Neighborhood coffee shop in Linden Hills, roasting our own beans since 2015."
Today's hours (or the week's hours in a short list)
The address as a link that opens maps
The phone number as a link that dials

Below that, a warm photo of the shop, then a few short sections: what you serve, what makes you different, a line about events if you host them, and the menu button again.

Think hard about the one line. "Your daily dose of happiness" is pleasant but says nothing. "Specialty coffee, house-made pastries and a big quiet back room for working" tells a remote worker exactly what they need.

Photos worth taking

Coffee shop photos do two jobs: show the drinks and food, and show what the place feels like to sit in. Useful shots:

The counter and espresso machine, with a barista at work
Your seating areas, empty and with customers, in daytime light
Signature drinks: a latte with good foam art, your seasonal special, the cold brew
The pastry case full in the morning
The front of the shop from the street, including any sign or mural people look for
Beans and bags, if you roast

Take them in daylight, near a window, at an hour when the shop looks lived-in but not packed. Ask customers before photographing their faces. Stock photos of latte art look the same on a thousand sites; your own photos are the whole point. Using your own photos instead of stock photos has more on why.

The about page: people and coffee

Customers like knowing who runs their coffee shop. A short about page with a photo of the owners or team, how the shop started, and what you care about is enough. If you source beans from particular farms or roasters, name them. If you are a family business, a veteran-owned shop, or the only place in town that roasts its own coffee, say so plainly.

What to leave out

A menu that is only a photo of the board behind the counter
An embedded Instagram feed as the main content of the home page
Long passages about coffee origins before the reader finds your hours
Holiday drinks still listed in spring
Events from last month
A slow video background that hides the hours

Make contact easy

Coffee shops get fewer calls than restaurants, but the ones that come matter: "Can I order coffee for a meeting of 20?", "Do you have room for our book club on Thursday?", "Are you hiring?". Make each easy:

The phone number at the top, tappable, with a note if calls are best at quieter times
An email address for catering, events and wholesale, so those requests reach the right person
A short form for catering and event requests: date, number of people, what they need, contact details
Your address and a line about parking or bike racks

For keeping your listing and site in step, see Google Business Profile and your website: how they work together.

What to do this week

Put today's hours, address and phone at the top of the home page.
Rewrite the one line about the shop to say what makes it yours.
Type your menu as text, with prices.
Take five photos: the counter, the seating, two drinks, the storefront.
Remove any seasonal item or event that has passed.

If your coffee shop's site is outdated or hard to read on a phone, you can see your site rebuilt first with your own photos and menu, then decide.