If you own a bar, it's important to have a strong online presence that can showcase your establishment to potential patrons. Researching WordPress bar themes is a great first step. To ensure that your bar website stands out from the rest, you'll also need a clear vision of what you want to present to visitors, and how best to present it.

Let's review some key elements to consider when planning your bar website, beginning with how to choose from the many WordPress bar themes. Then, we'll take a look at some of the functionalities that a bar website should have.

Before getting started

It's always a good idea to begin with a dash of inspiration, which can come from almost anywhere. One great way to get inspired is by browsing the websites of other businesses within your industry.

While researching other websites, think about the information they present to visitors. For a bar or lounge website, you'll likely see the different drinks available, the food menu, and options for event hosting. They might also try to channel the bar's atmosphere. Once you've done some research, prepare a list of the items that you want to showcase on your site. Once you choose a theme, you'll be able to display them in an appealing way specific to your own establishment.

Hiring a professional to photograph your bar and menu items isn't a bad idea if it fits within your budget. This will help to shape the design of your website and inform your theme selection process.

Finding the right theme

You already have a multitude of themes to choose from (including commercial theme options); Jetpack users also have access to additional starter themes (and even more options with a paid plan).

Jetpack themes

When browsing through themes, it's important to consider the ambiance of your bar. Is it formal, or laid-back and relaxed? Understanding your customer base and their preferences plays a big role in customizing your website's appearance. If you use a formal tone online, but your bar is usually frequented by patrons looking to relax and unwind after a hard day at work, you're going to be targeting the wrong audience with your website. This could lead to disappointed, misled, or confused customers.

Finding the right theme to convey your bar's style and brand doesn't always happen on the first try. To find a theme that meets your needs, try looking for one that was designed with similar businesses in mind. Searching for restaurant, cafe, or hotel themes might yield the result you're looking for.

Put customers first by prioritizing functionality

When building a website, many business owners only focus on aesthetics. The problem with this approach is that it doesn't always take user experience into account. Great user experiences play a major role in turning an online visitor into a paying customer. If your website is difficult to navigate or use, you risk seeing your visitors leave your pages with no intention of returning. It's important, then, to prioritize what your visitors will see and do on your website. To that end, here are a few features to include on your bar's site to better serve future patrons.

Social sharing

Social media platforms help small businesses advertise on a budget. Word-of-mouth comes in the form of online reviews and recommendations, so you'll want to make your site content shareable across different social networks.

Publicize automatically shares your content on Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms. Not only can you post new content straight from your WordPress site, you can also enable sharing buttons that allow visitors to introduce your content, your website, and your business to their own followers. Since bars are great places to meet up with friends, it makes sense to maintain a presence on the platforms where your customers and their friends connect.

Search engine optimization

Regardless of the size of your business, you can ensure your content is search-engine optimized (SEO) to help it rank well on relevant queries. Plugins like Yoast SEO or All in One SEO Pack allow site owners to apply solid SEO practices that make their businesses easier to discover.

For information about combining these plugins, check out Moz's "Beginner Guide to SEO" to ensure that you're covering every base.

Event management

When you host beer festivals, wine tastings, and other bar-friendly events you give customers reasons to step into your establishment. One of the best places to advertise events is on your website.

Upcoming Events is a Jetpack widget that provides a quick way to display forthcoming events on your site. To power this feature, you just need a calendar application that supports an iCalendar URL, like Google Calendar. Once you sync your calendar to the Upcoming Events widget, you can display events across your website.

Alternatively, if you aren't a Google Calendar user, you can choose to display events using a plugin like The Events Calendar. This tool allows users to create and manage events from within the WordPress dashboard.

Contact information

The physical location of your bar is an extremely important detail to feature on your website. How else will customers find you? To assist, Jetpack offers a Contact Info widget that will display your location, hours of operation, contact information, and an optional Google Map view so that first-time visitors can quickly locate your bar while out and about.

Cheers! You're almost done

Once you decide on your site's functionality and settle on a theme, it will be time to build your bar's website. While it may seem like a daunting task at first, with the right theme, plugins, and knowledge, the possibilities are endless.