Everything a cafe owner should know about being online.
Plain-English guides, written for people who run cafes — not for people who build websites. No jargon, no scare tactics, and where the honest answer is “you don’t need to pay for that”, we say so. Yes, we build cafe websites for a living. The guides are still straight.
Does my cafe need a website? An honest answer.
The honest cases for and against a cafe website — and the one specific reason most cafes do need one.
7 min readRead →Pay-monthly vs one-off website for a NZ cafe — the honest maths.
The anti-subscription articles have a point — and a blind spot. The three-year cost of both models for a real NZ cafe, with update fees included, argued from both sides.
7 min readRead →Cafe website vs Instagram: what Google actually sees.
A side-by-side look at what Google can actually read on a website versus an Instagram page, and the both/and setup that wins.
8 min readRead →Is Instagram enough for a cafe in 2026?
What Instagram still does brilliantly for a cafe, who it structurally never reaches, and when Instagram-only is honestly fine.
6 min readRead →
The 60 seconds before they choose your cafe.
A walkthrough of the real 60-second check customers run before visiting — and where cafes quietly fail each step.
5 min readRead →
What a cafe website should cost in 2026.
Every route to a cafe website priced honestly — DIY, agency, restaurant platform or subscription — plus the hidden costs and quote red flags.
7 min readRead →How much does a cafe website cost in New Zealand?
The 2026 NZ market, priced honestly: what Kiwi cafes actually pay for a website on every route — DIY, template studio, subscription, freelancer or agency — plus GST traps and the costs nobody itemises.
8 min readRead →Wix, Squarespace, or done-for-you — what should a cafe actually use?
The honest comparison of DIY builders, agencies and done-for-you subscriptions — measured in whose time gets spent, not feature lists.
7 min readRead →What the best cafe websites get right.
The seven patterns every good cafe website shares, a worked example annotated section by section, and a steal-this checklist.
9 min readRead →What a cafe website should include — and the expensive stuff it shouldn't.
The complete one-page spec — six elements done right and done wrong — plus the don't-pay-for list of expensive extras.
6 min readRead →
How to put your menu online — and why a PDF is the worst way.
PDF, image or real page — how each menu format looks to Google and a phone, plus step-by-step instructions for every route.
6 min readRead →
The 20-minute Google Business Profile setup every cafe should do.
The free 20-minute setup that matters more than your website — claiming, ranking fields, photos, reviews and monthly upkeep.
8 min readRead →
Opening a cafe: get online in the right order.
The eight-weeks-to-opening-day checklist — domain before signwriter, profile before launch, and everything in the order that saves rework.
6 min readRead →Why your cafe isn't showing on Google Maps — and the 7 fixes.
The seven reasons cafes go missing from Google Maps, in order of likelihood, with the exact fix for each.
6 min readRead →
The 10 photos every cafe website needs (your phone is enough).
The ten-shot list for your website and Google profile, a framing tip for each, and the five-minute edit — no camera required.
5 min readRead →