The food truck industry is unique from brick and mortar restaurants and eateries in many ways, especially when it comes to their website marketing needs. The feel, functions, plug-ins, and support systems must accommodate the differences common to a food truck owner’s entire online business model. If you’ve happened to find this article, as an operator of a mobile eatery, then you’ve come to the right place as The SEO Chefs have provided a clear cut and convenient look at what you need to know before deciding upon the direction of your new, or updated, website.
5 Things Food Truck Owners Need to Know About Getting a Website for Their Business
1. Mobile Food Services Need Mobile Websites More Than Anyone
2015 will be the first full year where online traffic arriving from smartphones and tablets is higher than that coming from desktop. This is already a fact for the food truck industry. Your customers are out on the street, on their work break, shopping, traveling, or simply cruising along trying to find out where the new and/or trendy food trucks are located. They are not sitting down on a desktop or laptop. When they discover your truck’s website, it needs to display and function perfectly on their smartphone or tablet. If not, they will become frustrated and head right back to Google (or food truck app) to find your competitor who can clearly provide the information (menu, location, etc…) that they are immediately looking for. The only way to ensure that your website is ready to accept this mobile traffic, is to have your site built, or converted to, responsive design.
2. Small to Medium Business Budget Friendly Without Sacrificing Quality
Until that day comes when you’re franchising your food truck business you’re likely operating with a small to medium business marketing budget. You may not be looking for website development and design of the same vain as a major restaurant chain. However, this does not mean that you should have to sacrifice quality in any way. Unfortunately, many design firms insensitive to the needs of the food truck industry will leave you with a subpar site in the end. You will need to find a specialized website development firm that can accommodate your budget while providing you access to all of the necessary functions to maintain a successful online presence. There are a few exclusive firms, such as The SEO Chefs, that offer VERY low cost monthly website template subscription alternatives. These plans allow food truck owners to launch a great looking and functioning site for a cost lower than your monthly gas bill, even if you are parked in the same location practically every day.
3. Social Media Integration
Social media is integral to the success of food trucks. The varying social channels that are out there to date allow positive word-of-mouth about your mobile eatery to spread, and allow you to engage your customers in appreciation and with up and coming promotions which only serves to bring further goodwill (and revenue) for your business. Your new (or updated) website must allow for 100% social network integration. This includes comprehensive coverage of the social media icons on your site that link to your profiles, like/share/comment plug-ins incorporated into every relevant page of content (your blog posts, etc…), and other widgets that allow feeds from your active social profile walls to display on key areas of your website.
4. Local Search Engine Optimization to Beat the Local Competition
You’re in a very competitive market. Aside from word-of-mouth and happenstance occurrences where customers find your business parked along their path, the hungry public is on Google looking for alternatives in their direct area. They are searching items such as “best food trucks in (city/area)” and the like. You want to make sure that you not only rank better than your competition, but better than the directories (Yelp, UrbanSpoon, etc…) that may not have your best interests in mind (as in, you’re not a paid advertiser with them). The only way to accomplish this, is by having your website set-up and optimized for local search engine optimization (SEO) and to maintain SEO on a monthly basis (especially when you operate in a competitive market).
5. Quick Turn-Around Time & Ongoing Support
We’ve combined “turn-around time” for site completion with “support” because both recognize that as a food truck owner on the go, time is of absolute essence to you. You need to trust that when you enter into an agreement to have your website built (or updated) that it will be done within the exact timeframe that it was promised. You also need the comfort of knowing that should any hiccup occur with the functioning of your site, or hosting, that someone is there to either find and address the problem before you or your customers even know about it, or at the very least respond to your call (or email, etc…) regarding the issue immediately. The SEO Chefs accommodate these necessities by offering website templates that will be completed within three days of contract signing, or keeping within the estimated date of completion for custom jobs, and will be there to support you and your site for the duration of your subscription.
Ready to get started on a new website or site upgrade for your food truck/s? Contact The SEO Chefs at your earliest convenience to get rolling on this exciting next phase for your mobile business.