Bar

Where your link actually gets opened

Most people never find a bar by carefully researching it. Someone in a group chat writes "where are we going after?" and somebody else pastes a link. Four or five people open that link on their phones, usually while doing something else, and between them they decide in under a minute whether it's worth the walk or the taxi.

Plan around that moment. Your website isn't really selling drinks, because the sale happens at the bar, in person. Its job is to win a quick argument in a chat, and it has to win that argument for people who haven't been in before and are reading on a small screen.

This changes what you should prioritise. A slow-loading video header, a "click to enter" splash page, or a drinks menu that's a photo of a chalkboard all lose that argument. The bar with a plain page that says "Open until 1am. DJ from 10. No cover before 11." wins it.

The four questions asked before anyone gets their coat

Whoever opens your link is trying to answer roughly four things, in roughly this order. The top of your homepage, the part visible without scrolling on a phone, should answer as many of them as possible.

Are you open right now, and until when? Put tonight's hours on the homepage, not only the full weekly table. "Open today until 2am" is more useful than seven rows of times. If your hours change for holidays, private events or a big match, this is where the change has to appear, because a group turning up to a locked door won't come back.

Where exactly are you, and how do people get there? A pin on a map isn't always enough for a bar. If your entrance is down an alley, up a flight of stairs, through an unmarked door or around the back of a hotel, say so plainly and add a photo of the door. Mention the nearest station or tram stop, whether there's parking, and where taxis and rideshares can drop off. This is especially worth getting right for speakeasy-style or basement bars, where being hard to find is part of the appeal but losing a group on the street isn't.

What's on tonight? A quiz, a band, a DJ, a happy hour, a match on the screens, or simply a normal night. Each of those brings a different crowd, and people want to know which one they're walking into. A single line on the homepage saying what's happening tonight is worth more than a full calendar three taps away.

What will it be like? This means the noise level, the crowd, the prices and whether they'll get a table. You can't answer it in one line, which is why the rest of the site exists. But the homepage should hint at it through photos and a short honest description.

On a phone, a persistent bar at the bottom of the screen with Directions, Call and Tonight buttons works well for this situation. Once someone has decided, they want to get to you with one tap.

Showing the room at 10pm, not at 2pm

Most bar photography is taken in daylight while the place is empty, because that's when it's convenient. It shows clean surfaces and good lighting, and it tells a stranger nothing about why they'd want to spend an evening there.

The atmosphere is what you're selling, so photograph it while it's happening. Shoot on a busy night, at the hour you want to be known for, with the lighting as guests actually see it. Show people (with their permission) at the bar, the band mid-set, the corner booth with drinks on the table and a few hands visible. One good photo of a full room on a Friday tells people more than ten interior shots.

Be honest about the vibe even when it puts some people off. If you're loud, packed and standing-room only after 10, show that. The group looking for a quiet catch-up will go elsewhere, which is the right result, and the group looking for a big night will choose you. Photos that make a sports bar look like a wine bar bring in the wrong people, and they leave disappointed reviews.

Write a short description in the same spirit, a few sentences in your own voice. Words like "vibrant atmosphere" and "great drinks" could describe any bar anywhere and tell the reader nothing. Concrete details do the work: "Forty seats, a long zinc bar, records on most nights, and a back garden that's heated from October." If you have a signature thing, like a house cocktail people come back for, a jukebox, a pool table or a dog that lives behind the bar, put it here.

A gallery page is fine, but keep it curated and current. Twenty strong recent photos beat two hundred from an opening party four years ago, especially if the décor has changed since.

A calendar you'll actually keep up to date

Events are often the most important reason someone picks your bar on a particular night. They're also the part of most bar websites that goes stale fastest. A calendar whose most recent entry is three months old does more harm than having no calendar, because it suggests the place might have closed.

Before you design anything, decide honestly who will update it and how often. Then choose a format that fits that answer:

• Recurring events (Tuesday quiz, Thursday jazz, Sunday roast with live acoustic music) should be written as fixed weekly listings that don't need updating every week. "Every Tuesday, 8pm, free entry, teams up to six" is evergreen.
• One-off events (a touring band, a tap takeover, a New Year's party) need individual listings with a date, start time, price or "free," and whether tickets or booking are needed.
• Big screen sport, if it matters to you, deserves its own short list of what you're showing and whether sound will be on. Fans care a lot about that detail.

For each event, give enough to make the decision: what it is, when it starts, what it costs, whether it's ticketed, and whether the bar is open as normal around it or taken over. If an event needs tickets, link directly to the ticket page and say clearly whether walk-ups are possible.

Many bars post events only on social media and embed a feed on their site. That can work as a supplement, but don't rely on it alone. Embedded feeds sometimes break, show nothing to people who aren't logged in, or bury tonight's event under last week's photos. A simple list on your own site that you control is more reliable.

Give each notable event its own page with its own link where you can. That link is exactly what gets shared in a group chat or forwarded by the performer to their followers, and it should open directly on the details rather than the homepage.

The drinks list as a reason to choose you

Your drinks menu has two jobs online. It tells people what kind of place you are, and it heads off the price shock that sends some groups straight back out the door.

Publish it as real text on a web page, not as a PDF download or a photo of a printed menu. PDFs are awkward to read on a phone, often load slowly, and are easy to forget to update. A text menu can be read, zoomed and shared, and you can edit it in a couple of minutes when a beer runs out.

Organise it around how your customers think. A cocktail bar should lead with its cocktails, with a short description of each that gives a sense of taste rather than just listing ingredients. A craft beer bar should say what's usually on tap and how often it rotates, and might show the current tap list if someone will maintain it. A wine bar might group by style or by glass versus bottle. A neighbourhood pub can keep it simple: the usual draughts, a few spirits, soft drinks.

Include prices. Bars sometimes leave them off out of worry that they'll look expensive, but people are going to find out at the bar regardless. It's better for a group to know in advance and arrive comfortable than to feel ambushed and leave after one round. If you have happy hour pricing, give the times and what's included.

Show non-alcoholic options properly, not as a footnote. Some people in any group won't be drinking, and the person organising the night will often check whether there's something good for them.

If you serve food, say what and until when. "Kitchen closes at 9" matters a great deal to someone arriving at 9:15 hungry. If you don't serve food, say whether people can bring their own or order in, since groups often ask.

The person planning a birthday, a leaving do or a work party

Alongside the tonight crowd there's a second visitor with a completely different timeline. They're organising something weeks ahead for 15, 30 or 80 people, and they're comparing several venues. For many bars these bookings are valuable, and the website is often where the shortlist gets made.

This person needs a dedicated page, and it should answer the questions they'd otherwise have to email about:

• Which spaces can be booked (a section, a back room, the whole venue) and roughly how many people each holds, seated and standing.
• What's included or possible: a reserved area, a bar tab, set drinks packages, food platters, music or AV, a cake.
• How booking works: whether there's a deposit, minimum spend or hire fee, and on which nights. If you'd rather not publish exact figures, at least explain how pricing is structured so people aren't surprised later.
• Photos of the bookable space set up for a group, not just the main bar.

Then give them one clear way to enquire, a short form asking for date, group size, rough budget and type of occasion. Commit to a response time you can actually meet. These enquiries often go to several venues at once, and the first one to reply with clear answers usually gets the booking.

If you take ordinary table reservations, link the booking tool clearly and say whether you keep space for walk-ins. "We hold half the room for walk-ins every night" reassures spontaneous groups who might otherwise assume they'd be turned away.

Things nobody adds until someone gets turned away at the door

A bad experience at the door is one of the quickest ways to earn an angry review, and many of those moments come from things a short "Good to know" section would have covered. Write it from the questions your staff hear most often:

• ID and age. If you check ID, say so and say which kinds you accept, especially if foreign passports or digital IDs cause confusion. If there are times when under-age guests are allowed with adults, or not, state that clearly. Follow your local licensing rules here, and keep the wording consistent with what your door staff actually do.
• Dress code and door policy. If you have one, describe it in specific terms. "No sportswear after 9pm" is useful. "Smart casual" on its own leaves people guessing.
• Cover charges and entry. Say when there is one, how much, and whether it's card or cash.
• Payment. If you're card-only or cash-only, say so.
• Accessibility. Say whether there's step-free access, whether the toilets are accessible, and how loud it gets. If the honest answer is "down a steep staircase," say that too, so people can plan.
• Dogs and children. Many people ask, and the answer often depends on the time of day.
• Large groups without a booking. Say whether they're welcome and up to what size.

None of this has to be cold or legalistic. Written in the same voice as the rest of the site, it comes across as considerate, and it saves your staff the same conversation repeated every Friday.

Keeping it true at 6pm on a Friday

A bar website goes out of date faster than almost any other small-business site. Drinks change, events come and go, hours move around holidays, and staff who know how to update things leave. Plan for upkeep before you plan anything else, because a beautiful site with last season's menu and last month's events undermines itself.

A few decisions make that easier:

• Choose a setup that someone on your team can edit from a phone. If changing tonight's hours needs a developer, it won't happen at 6pm when the boiler breaks and you have to close early.
• Keep the things that change on as few pages as possible. Tonight's hours and tonight's event should be edited in one place and shown wherever they're needed.
• Use a short notice banner at the top of the site for temporary news: closed for a private event, holiday hours, the garden's open for the season. Take it down as soon as it's out of date, because an old notice is as misleading as a missing one.
• Match your listings. Your hours on map apps and review sites should agree with your own site. When they don't, people tend to trust whichever one they saw last, and some of them will turn up to a closed bar.
• Set a weekly check. Ten minutes, same day each week, to look at the homepage, the events list and the drinks menu on a phone as a stranger would.

A bar's website rarely needs many pages. It needs a handful of pages that are accurate, fast to read on a phone, and honest about what a night with you is like. If someone in a group chat can open your link, see that you're open, see what's on and get a real feel for the room in a few seconds, the site has done its job.