Why Web Accessibility Matters in Today’s Doorstep Delivery Food Service Culture

Written by Justine Nightingale
Wednesday, August 24, 2022 at 08:00am CDT

Food delivery has increased exponentially over the last few years, and it certainly looks like it is here to stay.

People like the convenience of doorstep delivery, and in our culture of getting things when we want them, many people love the ability to order from their favorite restaurants at any time. They want the convenience of ordering from home.

Because delivery and online ordering are integral to a restaurant’s business model, let’s look at why web accessibility matters in today’s doorstep delivery food service culture.

First, let’s look at what an inaccessible website looks like.

Inaccessible Websites Hurt Doorstep Delivery

Before we talk about why web accessibility matters, you may want an overview of what an inaccessible site looks like.

If someone builds a restaurant website without thinking about the end users and their overall user experience, it usually means the creation of an inaccessible website. A website is also not user friendly if it was built to consider some website visitors but not others.

Many people encounter physical barriers on websites, and if they do, they usually bounce off.

So how can you spot these barriers? If you don’t have any type of disability, these barriers can be hard to spot. In order to find these barriers, you can always ask others, or you can step back and look at your website with a new eye.

For example, take a look at your videos. Do they have captions? Does your audio play automatically? Do you provide alternative text for your images?

You want to really look at your website to find spots that may be stumbling blocks.

Accessibility is Vital for Delivery Customers

In our on demand digital arena, you don’t want to treat website accessibility as an afterthought. Website accessibility is so much more than how people can access your website and navigate it.

Your goal is to make sure all of your website visitors can actually use your website and make a purchase from it. You want to eliminate any issues to the purchase point.

Many people today have permanent disabilities, but others have temporary and conditional ones, and still others have situational disabilities. You want to break down any barriers these people might have to ordering delivery food from your restaurant.

Accessibility is Vital to Your Bottom Line

Disabled customers are your potential diners. They have money just like your abled customers, and your disabled customers want doorstep delivery as well. By removing barriers to ordering, you’re increasing your revenue.

When we talk about accessibility, it’s more than making your website accessible for people with visual and auditory impairments. You’ll find that when your website is more accessible, it works better for people without disabilities as well as those with one.

• Creating an accessible website means everyone has a better overall user experience.
• Making an accessible website means making sure your site is fast enough that someone with a slow internet connection can access it.
• It might mean making it so easy to navigate that an older person not familiar with how the internet works can still place a delivery order.
• It also might mean making sure your website is mobile friendly so people without a home computer can order doorstep delivery.
• Your accessible website may also help someone with a temporary disability. For example, they may have had eye surgery, or they broke their wrist.
• An accessible website also means planning for people who have situational disabilitie. This might be someone who is sensitive to bright lights and loud audio.

Website accessibility is a mindset. It requires web developers of restaurant websites to carefully think through everything in the design or refresh of your website. You must prepare to make your site easy to use for anyone in your city. (tweet this)

When you make your site accessible, you’ll find you’ll increase your online orders. You will leap over the competition if their websites aren’t accessible. Your doorstep delivery food service will grow, and your bottom line will flourish.

Web Accessibility Matters for SEO

Another way an accessible website matters in today’s doorstep delivery food service is that by enhancing your website, you make your site easier to find for search engines such as Google.

Accessible websites are easier to crawl by search engines.

This is because most accessible websites have improved the following:

• They have provided alternative (alt) text for all their images.
• These websites have headings and a hierarchy that describes the content and its purpose. This makes it easier for those with disabilities to navigate a website and learn what content is most important. To do this, accessible websites utilize keywords in a strategic way, again making them easier to search.
• Accessible websites concentrate on descriptive page titles. This is one of the most important ranking factors for search engines. Page titles help those using screen readers navigate your website.

The most important take away for your restaurant is that when you make improvements to your website to accommodate assistive technology such as screen readers, you naturally make your website friendlier to search engines. (tweet this)

Final Thoughts

In our doorstep delivery food service culture, food delivery is so much more than people ordering a pizza or Chinese food. It’s a new way of life that many restaurants across the country have already embraced.

To really succeed in doorstep delivery, your restaurant needs an accessible website that is easy to use and navigate for literally anyone. You want to eliminate all barriers to your website, and you want everyone to be able to place a delivery order.

You don’t want anyone to bounce off your website because they couldn’t access your site’s features.

This requires thought, research, and strategic planning. The culture of “I want it when I want it,” coupled with your diners’ desire to eat at home has created an entire doorstep delivery food service culture.

There’s never been a better time to either refresh your website or create a new one with web accessibility in mind.

Your customers will appreciate it, you may beat out the competition, and your revenue will increase simply by making your site accessible to everyone.

At Restaurant Engine, we create great, responsive websites. You can also count on us to create a website that is accessible and available to all. Let us help you create the perfect site that draws customers in, improves your conversion rate, and enables you to grow your business! Ready to take the plunge and create a new website? Get your free website consultation today!

Images: Rowan Freeman and Aleisha Kalina on Unsplash