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Report: Restaurant mobile websites slow to load digital orders

If mobile websites included a click-to-order button that routed customers to a geolocation API, the brands' mobile experiences would be better suited to handle each query.

September 25, 2014 by Alicia Kelso — Editor, QSRWeb.com

Big name restaurant brands have been investing heavily in their digital ordering platforms and for good reason – consumers are becoming more digitally dependent, orders are more accurate, it's convenient for those on the go, and the platform offers more upselling opportunities.

Many brands have also touted the platform's contribution to faster service: Customers who order ahead of time can skip the line. Such benefits are why big-name brands such as Taco Bell and Dunkin' Donuts are planning mobile ordering rollouts in the near future.

"With the growth of mobile and all of the great things it can do today that we couldn't do two years ago, mobile ordering is the logical next step," Dunkin' Brands' VP of Global Consumer Engagement, Scott Hudler, said last week during the company's investor day. "For the consumer, there is a huge benefit to skip the line, and improve order accuracy and speed. For us, there's the throughput and anything we can do to improve throughput we're excited about."

However, there also seem to be some growing pains for this fledgling feature. A new report from The Search Agency, an online marketing firm, shows that speed of service for the front-end user – the customer placing an order – may be an issue.  

The report found that the top 50 restaurant and catering companies' mobile sites took more than 70 seconds to load – slow by today's busy consumers' standards. Additionally, less than half of all mobile sites – 40 percent – have a click-to-order or click-to-reserve button, which affects mobile conversion rates.  

Also, "The Mobile Experience Scorecard – Restaurants & Catering" report found that while 32 percent of the sites analyzed use Responsive Web Design (Google's recommended mobile format), none of the sites serving the format passed the page speed test, with the average page load time over 1 minute.

In other words, many restaurant brands are still riding a sharp learning curve when it comes to the mobile experience. With more than 60 percent of Americans now in possession of a smartphone, and nearly 70 percent of consumers having ordered food via a mobile device, progress should be a priority.

"We're seeing a trend that shows that many brands are attempting to answer Google's call to use RWD, but the implementation of these sites is proving difficult, as they are resulting in longer page load times and often a poor overall experience," Delia Perez, SVP account delivery and strategy at The Search Agency, said in a news release.

The report analyzed mobile SEO elements, geolocation APIs, click-to-order or reserve capabilities, account sign-in availability, social media share options, app download options and format type.

User experience scorecard

The components were measured on a scale of 0-5, with 5 being the highest score. Some brand highlights from the report include:

Papa John's received the highest score (3.815) in the report's user experience scorecard, and garnered the fastest load time. Papa John's had a load time score of 1.02 seconds, as well as:

• The prominence of its sign-in availability;
• Click-to-order button;
• Geolocation API;
• App download capability; and
• Small image files (image file size has a strong impact on website load time, the report said).

The pizza chain was followed by Panda Express (3.715), Domino's (3.38), Wendy's (3.305) and Jimmy Johns (3.25) to round out the top five.

Chuck E. Cheese's, Sonic and Starbucks were also in the top 10.

The bottom five brands were Taco Bell (1.88), Olive Garden (1.88), Dave and Buster's (1.53), Chipotle (1.465) and Golden Corral (1.075). Chick-fil-A, Little Caesars, McDonald's and Subway were also in the bottom 10.

SEO measurement

For the SEO measurement – the report's first time analyzing this attribute – Perez said the SEO ranking showed that 47 of the 50 sites were "crawlable," meaning the pages can be indexed by a search engine.

"This is a good first step, but more work is needed in the areas of meta descriptions and click depth," Perez said.

Evaluations were also made for "SEO Ranking Best Practices," such as avoiding large page size, having missing meta descriptions or title tag information, and the presence of click depth warnings.

Texas Roadhouse, Denny's, EAT24 and Allmenus tied with the highest scores (5) on the SEO scorecard. Also earning high scores (4.5 and above) were TGI Fridays, Jimmy John's, Chuck E. Cheese's, Dave and Buster's, Arby's, Wingstop and Buffalo Wild Wings.

The  brands with 3.55 scores or below at the bottom of the list were Outback Steakhouse, Olive Garden, Chilis, Joe's Crab Shack, Sonic and Jack in the Box.

Results of the SEO Ranking scorecard found that 87 percent of mobile sites were missing meta descriptions and 64 percent showed click depth warnings.

RWD versus dedicated mobile sites

Of the 50 sites analyzed in the report, the majority (60 percent) serve dedicated mobile sites and 32 percent use RWD. This trend to forgo RWD, despite Google's push, is likely an effort to save load time, The Search Agency said, as the sites using RWD had an average load time of 73.9 seconds while those using dedicated mobile sites loaded in an average of 46.34 seconds.

"Despite this load time handicap, our results indicate an average 25.25-percent increase in RWD reformatting in this vertical against all other verticals," the report said. "The fact is these companies are indeed reformatting to meet Google's request, regardless of impending page speed issues."

Location-specific information

Nearly 100 percent of the restaurant sites evaluated include a geolocation API. However, with a majority missing a click-to-order or reserve feature, upselling and customer data collection opportunities are missing.

"The reality is mobile phones are not just GPS devices," the report said. "… Brands should be optimizing their user experiences on mobile to serve any and all of these possible intentions (finding a sit down meal, ordering food for pick up, making reservations for future visits, etc.). Howver, the majority of brands have only optimized their experiences for one conversion path, initiated by a location-based query."

If mobile websites included a click-to-order button that routed customers to a geolocation API, the brands' mobile experiences would be better suited to handle each query and put the customers in control of their own conversions.

All but two of the brand websites, Graze and Pizza Hut, included an automatic or manual geolocation API when served on a mobile device. However, only 40 percent had click-to-order or click-to-reserve functionality.

Best practices

Finally, in response to this research, The Search Agency has issued a list of best practices for restaurant brands as the need to enhance mobile websites becomes more urgent. They include:

• Consider using RWD, which consolidates the SEO value of the site to a single domain. It can also be adapted to future devices.
• Provide a user experience based on your target audience. Have simple, click-to-navigate buttons, location detections and important information placed above the fold (top of the screen).
• Load times are one of the most important factors for continuing consumer interaction through the purchase.
• Get a third party opinion on your mobile site.

^{Photo provided by Pixabay.}

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