LetsEat! News

Faster site navigation and some mobile updates

Sat, 18 May 2013 13:58:07 -0700

As LetsEat has grown over the years, the number of pages in the dashboard have exploded. To make it faster and easier to navigate around the site, drop down menus have been added to all the main links.

This week, a few new features have also been added to the mobile sites. Widgets in the LetsEat! Marketplace, like the OpenDining and OpenTable ones, now accept a mobile link on their Edit page. This means you can more easily link to the mobile versions of your reservation or ordering apps.

The mobile sites also now allow for custom CSS and JavaScript, so you can do quite a bit more in terms of your mobile design now, with a little help from a web developer.

Add mobile-specific links to your restaurant's website

Mon, 06 May 2013 13:45:00 -0700

If you use external services for things like reservations, surveys, online ordering, etc., you may want certain links to appear only for mobile visitors (like a link to the mobile version of a service).

Links from LetsEat! now offer the option to assign a platform (Web only, Mobile only, or Web/Mobile). This will allow you to set mobile or web only links to other sites.

You can create links to show on a list on a separate page or directly in your website’s navigation by going to Pages » Links.

Add photo headers to your custom pages

Wed, 01 May 2013 15:26:23 -0700

Adding a photo to custom pages has been made simpler with the photo upload feature. Just edit an existing or new custom page, and attach a photo to have it displayed above the page content. It’s as easy as that!

Add more than one menu item at a time with the new multi-upload option

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 22:25:54 -0700

It can take a long time to recreate your menu online, but starting today, Let’s Eat! has a new feature, bulk uploads.

Now, you can add basic information for up to 15 menu items at a time! It’s easy— just go to a menu in your dashboard and click the Multi-upload button to get started.

New Navigation Design

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 21:09:52 -0700

To make more room in the sub-navigation for upcoming features, the navigation has been changed to run vertically instead of horizontally, and has been spiffed up a bit as well. In addition to that, the account-level navigation links have been further separated from the restaurant-level tabs.

Hope you like the changes!

Built-in Web Stats

Sat, 30 Mar 2013 20:01:27 -0700

Ever wonder how much traffic is coming to your restaurant’s website, or which page visitors go to most? LetsEat.at now comes with built-in web statistics for all LetsEat! Pro websites.

WIth the new tracker, you can see basic info like which sites send you the most traffic, your percentage of mobile visitors, daily unique visitors, and most popular pages.

Of course, for more in-depth information, you can still install Google Analytics, but the new web traffic monitor offers a useful and simple to use way to track visitors. Check it out today!

White label dashboard

Thu, 07 Feb 2013 16:39:00 -0800

Manage multiple LetsEat! websites for clients? Want to resell LetsEat.at hosted websites? LetsEat.at now offers an unbranded version of the log in page and dashboard for website resellers and web developers.

Rather than logging into www.LetsEat.at, your clients can log into admin.yourwebsite.com and see your company’s logo in place of LetsEat.at’s.

The white label dashboard is, in most respects, identical to the ordinary dashboard. However, the following features are missing from the interface due to various technical and branding reasons:

- The LetsEat! Marketplace

- Facebook Menu App

- The help section

These features are still available when you log in through LetsEat.at (https://www.letseat.at/login). They are simply hidden from view in the white label version of the dashboard.

This feature is free for all LetsEat! Pro account-holders and is available immediately. There are more details in the help section: http://www.letseat.at/home/restaurant-help/letseat-at-white-label-setup-instructions

Please note that the LetsEat.at’s Terms and Conditions have been updated for this new feature.

Now Accepting Discover Cards

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 18:10:00 -0800

In addition to Visa and MasterCard, LetsEat.at now accepts Discover cards as a payment method. You can update your payment method at any time by going to the Billing tab, then clicking “Update information”.

New to the LetsEat! Marketplace: SeatMe

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 12:13:09 -0800

SeatMe is a powerful application that makes online reservations, waitlist texting, and floor management a breeze through its iPad-based user interface.

LetsEat! is proud to announce that SeatMe is now available for quick installation via the LetsEat! Marketplace. Along with OpenTable, Rez by Urbanspoon, and ReservationGenie, adding online reservations to your restaurant’s website has never been easier. For more information, check out the LetsEat! Marketplace tab in your dashboard.

Updates to the Events Calendar

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 15:06:33 -0800

The events calendar now allows for events that occur over multiple days. When an event occurs over the course of several days (for instance, if your restaurant is shutting down over the holidays), it will pin itself to the top of your events list while it is occurring.

Just a side note— the events calendar now also uses a calendar widget for selecting dates. It should be a lot easier to pick future dates going forward.

Search Engine Optimizing Your Restaurant's Website

Mon, 10 Dec 2012 12:11:29 -0800

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a dense topic. It is a big enough topic that many people make a pretty decent living doing it, and there are dozens of books written about the subject. However, for most restaurant owners, a few minor updates and changes can be enough to make a significant difference in terms of where you rank for select keywords.

While you may need to pay a specialist or agency to rank well for highly competitive terms, the following articles should help get started with the basics:

Choosing a Good Domain Name for Your Restaurant
Picking and Sticking with Keywords
Writing a Solid Home Page
Having Relevant Titles and Meta Descriptions
Linking in from External Websites

If you follow these articles, you will most likely do well in searches for your restaurant’s name, and possibly some related keywords as well. Unfortunately, all of your competitors are doing the same thing, so your results will vary, depending on where you are located, and what you are aiming for.

If you have any questions about any of these topics, you can email support for advice.

Use a standalone mobile web address

Tue, 09 Oct 2012 15:12:00 -0700

LetsEat.at automatically redirects mobile web users to the mobile version of your website. However, if you would like to add a specifically mobile web address to your takeout menus and business cards, you can now map a m.example.com style web address to your domain.

It’s simple. Just follow the instructions in the help section for setting up a ‘www’ web address, but add a second CNAME for ‘m’ that also points at letseat.at. The instructions in the help section for Godaddy, Namecheap, and LetsEat.at Domains have been updated.

Feel free to email support if you have any questions about this.

Another benefit of this feature is that you can now use LetsEat.at solely as your mobile website if you already have a website hosted with another company that isn’t mobile-optimized.

Add videos from YouTube and Vimeo to your restaurant's website

Fri, 28 Sep 2012 10:08:00 -0700

Videos can be a great way to introduce your restaurant to new customers. With a well-produced video, you can show them the best your restaurant has to offer in just minutes via your website or through their mobile phone.

With LetsEat’s new video import feature, you can add a video from YouTube or Vimeo just by entering its web address! It’s that easy. No Javascript snippets or HTML embed codes, and the videos auto-resize to fit your website’s layout.

To add videos, just log in and go to Pages » Videos.

21 updated website themes

Fri, 21 Sep 2012 15:57:22 -0700

The theme gallery has been updated with a batch of redesigned versions of many of the existing themes.

A lot has changed on the internet since LetsEat.at launched back in 2008, and the updated themes reflect these new technologies.

The new themes are wider and have font sizes that read more comfortably in tablet browsers, as well as in larger monitors. They also support and come default with some of the 50+ new fonts in the font library. All the new versions of the themes use transparent background images, meaning you can now safely use custom background photos without any odd side effects.

Restaurants using the old style themes can continue to do so, as the legacy themes will continue to be supported alongside the new ones.

Add a custom favicon for your website

Wed, 08 Aug 2012 16:14:36 -0700

Favicons are the small icons that appear in browser tabs beside the title of your website. LetsEat! now allows you to create a custom favicon simply by uploading an image file:

To add a favicon to your restaurant’s website, just log in and go to Appearance » Logo Settings.

Web or mobile-specific custom pages

Fri, 03 Aug 2012 18:09:35 -0700

Sometimes, you may need to add a widget or video embed that will only work on desktop computers or specifically on mobile devices. For those situations, you can now specify whether a custom page should appear in both platforms, web only, or mobile only:

New navigation layout!

Sun, 29 Jul 2012 17:46:51 -0700

The dashboard navigation layout has been redesigned to match LetsEat’s updated home page, simplified, and split up into two color-coded navigation areas: restaurant and account-specific. Also, with the new drop down selector, you can switch between restaurant websites by clicking on their name in the navigation. Hope you like it!

Upload an iPhone or iPad icon for your restaurant's mobile website

Thu, 26 Jul 2012 13:04:20 -0700

LetsEat! Pro users can upload an app icon for their website by going to Appearance » Mobile Customizations. With this new feature, when customers save your website to their phone’s home screen, they will see an icon for your website next to the native apps!

Customize the colors and logo of your restaurant's mobile website

Fri, 20 Jul 2012 16:03:26 -0700

Did you know that over 30% of the traffic to your restaurant’s website comes from mobile phones and other handheld devices? Your mobile presence matters more than ever, and your LetsEat.at website is well equipped to handle these new visitors.

Starting today, LetsEat! Pro users can modify the appearance of their mobile website to match their logo and website’s look and feel. Simply log in and go to Appearance » Mobile Customization to change the font colors and upload a mobile-specific logo.

There will be more updates to this section in the coming weeks, so keep an eye out here for more updates (or follow @letseat on Twitter or Like us on Facebook)!

Create additional logins for managers and employees

Thu, 12 Jul 2012 14:07:49 -0700

Want your kitchen manager or one of the bartenders to manage your restaurant’s website without giving them your personal email and password login credentials? Starting today, LetsEat! Pro restaurants can have unlimited additional user logins.

It’s simple—just log in and go to the Users link in the top navigation to create and manage logins:

This is not only great news for restaurant owners, but also for web developers managing multiple clients. The secondary users you create for your websites don’t have authorization or access to billing-related pages. This means that secondary users don’t have access to your credit card update page or invoices, and can’t cancel or downgrade their account without your permission.