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The Modesto Arch reading Water Wealth Contentment Health over a downtown street

Web design in Modesto for a city that makes and ships things.

WebDevCity is a Turlock web design studio that builds and maintains websites for Modesto businesses and nonprofits, from food processors and manufacturers to the downtown theater district.

Get a free quote Call 209-535-2200

Photo: Carl Skaggs, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

A food-and-farm city with a downtown that fills up

Modesto is the county seat and largest city of Stanislaus County, and one of the larger cities in California at about 218,000 people. It sits in the middle of the Central Valley, and the economy shows it: almonds, fruit and dairy, and the food processing that goes with them. E.&J. Gallo Winery is one of the major employers, alongside government agencies and school districts.

The City of Modesto's own economic development site lists the industries it courts: manufacturing, logistics and distribution, retail and healthcare. It also describes a food and beverage sector that reaches out to the farms around the city. A company in any of those fields is probably selling to other businesses, and a website for that kind of seller has a different job from a restaurant's.

Downtown is the other side of town. The Gallo Center for the Arts, the 1934 State Theatre, the Modesto Symphony Orchestra and the DoMo Walls murals bring people downtown on show nights and weekends. The arch over the street still carries the old motto, Water Wealth Contentment Health.

Then there is summer. Modesto is George Lucas's hometown and the cruising-culture setting of American Graffiti, and every year Graffiti Summer brings car people and sightseers into town. If your business sees more visitors that time of year, your website should say so: event-week hours, specials and directions.

Four jobs a Modesto website does

Which one is yours decides how we plan the pages.

  • Selling to other businesses

    A manufacturer, distributor or freight company is usually found by a buyer who needs a specific thing. The site needs a page for each product line or service, a capabilities summary a purchasing person can skim, and a quote request form that asks for what you need to answer it.

  • Food and farm-supply companies

    Wholesale and retail customers want different things. We keep them on separate paths, put seasonal products and ordering details where buyers look, and only mention certifications or standards you actually hold.

  • Downtown restaurants and shops

    On a show night people check your hours and the menu from the sidewalk. The menu should be text, not a PDF that pinches and zooms, and the front page should tell them whether you are open late.

  • Graffiti Summer and other event weeks

    Visitors search for places to eat, park and shop near the events. One page that you update each year, at the same address, keeps the traffic and the search history from year to year.

Modesto local-SEO checklist

Written for Modesto owners, with the first two steps worth doing even if you never hire anyone.

  • Set up Google Business Profile with Modesto as your city

    Use the address customers go to, or the service area if you travel to them. Add the nearby towns you cover, and pick the category your customers would type.

  • Post event-night hours

    If you are near the Gallo Center or the State Theatre, or you serve the Graffiti Summer crowd, change your hours on the profile and the website before the busy nights, not after.

  • Keep one permanent Graffiti Summer page

    A single page, updated every year, collects links and search history instead of starting over each June. Put your hours, your parking notes and any specials on it.

  • Write buyer-facing pages if you sell B2B

    One page per product line or service, written for a purchasing manager, not for Google. Name Modesto and the places you ship to.

  • Talk to the Choose Modesto economic development team

    If you are in manufacturing, logistics, retail, healthcare or food and beverage, ask what the city lists for local employers and how a business gets included.

  • Ask for reviews after each job or visit

    A short reply to every review, good or bad, shows you are still there. Do not offer a discount in exchange for one.

Working with Modesto from just down the road

Modesto is up Highway 99 from our Turlock office, so most of the first conversations are easy to set up.

Meeting
We can drive up to your shop, plant or office, or do the first conversation by phone or video. Whichever you pick, we start with a walk through how you actually sell.
Phone
209-535-2200, Monday to Saturday, 8:00am to 5:00pm. Sunday closed.
Seasonal changes
If your hours, menu or specials change with events, we set the site up so you can edit those yourself without calling anyone.
The quote
Free and written, with a plain list of the pages and features it covers.

Our home page for local owners is Turlock. We also work in Merced and Stockton.

Modesto resources worth knowing

Start with these before you spend any money on marketing.

We are not affiliated with or endorsed by any of these. We list them because they help owners in Modesto.

Three live sites to look at

If you want to see our work before you call, start with the Automotive Collision Repair site for a shop that customers visit in person, then PLT Limos, a ride service where booking is the point. Repair and Maintenance Co shows how we handle a services company. More on our work and what we do.

Modesto questions, answered

Something else on your mind? Call 209-535-2200.

Do you build websites for Modesto manufacturers and distributors?

Yes. For a business that sells to other businesses we plan around what a buyer wants to know: what you make or move, what you can handle, and how to request a quote. We would talk through your product lines before drawing any pages.

Can you build a page for Graffiti Summer or another Modesto event?

Yes. We build one page that stays at the same address and gets updated each year with your hours, specials and parking notes. That way the page builds up search history instead of starting over.

Do you come to Modesto, or is it all by phone?

Either. We can drive up Highway 99 to meet at your location, or do it by phone or video if that suits your schedule better.

My downtown restaurant posts its menu as a PDF. Is that a problem?

Often, yes. PDFs are slow to open and hard to read on a phone, and search engines read them less well. We put the menu on the page as text, which is easier to update and easier to find.

We already have a Facebook page. Do we still need a website?

Yes. A Facebook page is rented space, and the rules can change. Your own website is the one place you control, and it is what shows up when someone searches for what you do in Modesto.

Planning a Modesto website?

Tell us what you sell and who buys it. We will reply with questions and a free, written quote.

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