Does an out-of-date website or Facebook page lose a café customers?

Cupán Studio sells café websites. We build them for cafés in Ireland, so we have an interest in the answer.

In our view it can. The person who started one boards.ie thread checked two restaurants' pages, found that they had not been updated since 2011 or since the previous September, and wrote "we have decided to go elsewhere". They later said where they decided to eat "has no relevance to this thread", so the thread shows a stale page being noticed, not a proven lost sale. A stale page can tell a customer little they can trust. The cheapest fix is one page with the menu, prices and hours that someone updates when they change. The thread is from 2014. In our view, the platforms have changed since 2014; the question has not.

Where the question came from

A poster started a thread on boards.ie on 1 March 2014, in a thread titled "Why are business' not embracing the web/social media." It had 21 replies. The poster wanted to check two local restaurants' menus online before going out. They wrote that one restaurant's "website and Facebook page were last updated in 2011" and the other's Facebook page "was last updated last September", and "we have decided to go elsewhere". The spelling in the thread is theirs.

What happened in the thread?

A customer looked for menus online, found one website and Facebook page last updated in 2011 and another Facebook page last updated the previous September, and wrote "we have decided to go elsewhere". The poster calls the two restaurants "decent enough" from past visits and the only fault they name is when the pages were last updated. One reply suggested "Maybe they didn't update those because were busy creating better and nicer dishes" (1 March 2014). When challenged, the poster wrote on 1 March 2014 that where they decided to eat "has no relevance to this thread" and they were "simply using it as an example". So I do not claim the pages cost those restaurants a booking. I take the plain facts from the first post and leave the argument about it to the replies below.

What did people say for keeping it updated?

Several said a business needs at least its basic details online. On 1 March 2014 one commenter wrote "It makes sense to have at least the most basic business info out there on a website or Facebook page." Another, the same day, used the golden pages as a comparison: "20 year ago you'd be hard pressed to find a business who didn't have an add in the golden pages, or at least a listing. You can't afford to not have an active online presence today."

Why people said businesses do not keep them updated

One commenter explained why, in their view, businesses do not update. On 1 March 2014 they wrote "Time & Money, they don't have time to update social or have money to pay someone to do it." Another comment that day called the no-time argument a poor excuse: "The don't have time thing is a poor excuse." Some disagreed that pages matter much at all. On 1 March 2014 one commenter wrote "Because the real world is not online." Another, the same day, replied to the original post: "Personally I'd want to sit in the restaurant, choose my meal from the actual paper menu and enjoy the experience."

Later on 1 March 2014, the commenter who wrote that the real world is not online added: "A lot of businesses do not have an active online presence and many that do have active websites tend to have brochureware websites that are left without being updated for up to or over a year."

What does a customer want to find?

From this thread, a menu, and for at least one person, more than what a business writes about itself. The original poster went looking for menus. A commenter on 1 March 2014 added "if I am looking at restaurants, what I want are decent 3rd party independent reviews and details of any awards won etc! I would never put any value in what someone writes about their own place on their page/ site!" That is one person, not a survey. I keep to what the thread says and do not claim it is true of everyone.

What can a café do?

In our view, keep one page that is right. Put the menu with prices, opening hours and phone on it as text, and change it on the day they change. Put the date it was last updated on the page, so a visitor can see it is current. Link it from your Google listing. A page with an old date is no better than the ones in the thread, so if you cannot keep one up, keep fewer things on it. If your only page is on Facebook, see Facebook page instead of a website for a café. The free check shows what a search tool or an AI assistant can read from a café's website.

Sources

• boards.ie, "Why are business' not embracing the web/social media.", 1 March 2014, read 17 October 2026.
• Cupán Studio, adding a menu to your Google Business Profile, read 17 October 2026.

This is a summary of a public boards.ie thread of 1 March 2014, read on 17 October 2026, not advice for your shop. Cupán Studio builds websites for cafés in Ireland.