What a food truck website needs: pages, words and photos

A food truck website needs only a few pages, but each has a clear job: tell people what you serve, where to find you, and how to book you for an event. Most visitors are either hungry right now or planning a party, a wedding or an office lunch. A simple site that serves both, with photos of your real food and your real truck, is all most trucks need.

Two very different visitors

The hungry customer found you on Google or Instagram and wants to know: what kind of food, roughly what it costs, and where you are today. They are often standing on a street a few blocks away.

The event booker is a bride, a brewery owner, an HR manager, a school PTA or a neighborhood association. They want to know: do you cater events like ours, how many people can you serve, what do you need from us, and are you free on our date.

The home page should point each one to the right place: "Where we are this week" and "Book the truck for your event".

The pages to have

Home. Truck name, what you serve in one line, your area, and the two main buttons.
Menu. Your regular items as text, with prices.
Schedule or Find us. Where the truck will be.
Events and catering. What you offer for private events and how to book.
About. Who runs the truck and the story behind the food.
Contact. Phone, email, a booking form, and your social accounts.

That is the whole site for most trucks. How to keep the schedule current without it becoming a chore is covered in food truck websites: where you'll be this week.

The opening line

Many truck sites open with a logo and a slogan. The visitor still wonders what the food is. Be direct:

"Korean-Mexican tacos and rice bowls, on the streets of Tampa and at your next event."
"Wood-fired Neapolitan pizza from a vintage truck, serving Boise breweries and private parties."
"Smash burgers and hand-cut fries around Columbus. Find us at lunch downtown, Tuesday to Friday."

Then the two buttons, right underneath.

Keep the menu short and readable on a phone, just like your board on the truck:

Item name, a short description, the price
Marks for vegetarian, vegan or gluten-free items if you have them
A line about allergens if relevant ("Our fryer is shared; fries are cooked with breaded items")
Whether you take cards, cash or both
A note if the menu changes by event or season

Write it as text, not a photo of your menu board. A photo is hard to read on a small screen and impossible for Google to read.

If you have a separate catering menu for events (packages, a set number of items, per-person pricing), put it on the events page, not here, so street customers are not confused.

Photos that sell the food and the truck

Food truck customers buy with their eyes, and event bookers also want to see the truck. Take photos of:

Your three best sellers, close up, in daylight, as they come out of the window
The truck itself, from the front and side, so bookers can see its size and look
The truck at an event, with a line of happy customers (with permission if faces are clear)
You and your crew in the window
A setup at a wedding or brewery, if you do those, so planners can picture it

Daylight from the open window is often the best light you have. For more, see how to take good photos for your website with a phone.

The about page

People like knowing who is behind the window. Two or three short paragraphs: who you are, where the recipes come from, how long you have been rolling, and what you care about. A photo of you at the truck. If you hold the permits and inspections your city requires, you can mention that you are fully licensed and inspected; event bookers and venues often ask.

What to leave out

A schedule from last month that you stopped updating
An embedded social feed as the only menu or schedule
Long blocks of text about your brand values
Slow video headers that play before anything else
Pages for menu items you no longer make

Make reaching you easy

Truck owners are busy at the window during service, so say when and how to reach you:

A phone number that dials when tapped, with a note: "We can't pick up during service; text us and we'll reply after."
An email address for event bookings
A short booking form: event date, event type, location, number of guests, hours you need the truck, name, phone, email
Links to your Instagram and Facebook, where you post daily locations

For putting social accounts on your site in a way that helps rather than distracts, see putting your social media on your website.

What to do this week

Rewrite the first line: what you serve and where.
Add the two main buttons: "Where we are this week" and "Book the truck".
Type your menu as text with prices.
Take photos of three best sellers and the whole truck.
Add a short event booking form that asks for date, location and guest count.

If your truck has a site but it is out of date or hard to use on a phone, you can see your site rebuilt first with your current menu and photos.