Most auto dealerships, whether small, huge, or somewhere in between, have a website. As with the wide variety of television and radio ads that dealers put out, their websites are eclectic. Many are subtle, some are loud, but most share a common theme: they aren’t customer-friendly.
When people want vehicle reviews, they visit Consumer Reports or J.D. Powers and Associates.
When they want invoice prices, they visit Kelley Blue Book or Edmunds.
When they want funny videos, they visit YouTube.
Despite these facts, so many automotive dealership websites are jam packed with extras that are a distraction at best, possible even a nuisance. People visit car dealer websites because they have an idea of what vehicle they want. Now they want to move forward and make contact.
Here is a list of the top 10 features that all automobile dealer web designers should emulate.
1) Easy to find features, especially inventory
If a first-time car dealer website visitor cannot find the most popular page on the website within 5 seconds after the page is loaded, the website is not doing its job. The most visited page on a site is the used car inventory and it should be front, center, and obvious. The inventory page is easy to find at New Jersey Chevy Dealers. Other features listed below should be nearly as easy to find.
2) Simple navigation through inventory
Many websites offer rotating, interactive, guided tours of each of their vehicles. They give every bit of information available from vehicle weight to ideal tire pressure. While this information and the incredible show of technology is impressive, there should be a way to find the real info – year, miles, options, and price.
The used car inventory should be quick to navigate and quicker to filter, search, and sort. New car inventories are slowly disappearing for reasons that will be mentioned below, but it too should be easy. An easy inventory to navigate is Los Angeles Nissan Dealers. Once a customer finds a vehicle of interest, they can take all of the 730 degree super car tours they want, but in the meantime, a well designed auto dealer web site should simply deliver what the customer wants – information.
3) Build and price features
The competitive nature of today’s new car market mixed with the ever-expanding knowledge base available to customers considering new vehicles has forced many dealers to open their options and not rely on in-stock vehicles. Custom ordering and dealer locates used to be more expensive because of the trouble, expense, and timing issues. Dealers would rather sell what they had available today.
Most can no longer rely on their stock. This shift in thought allows the consumer to pick their dealerships based on merit and proximity instead of searching inventory after inventory to match their desired vehicle.
Build and price features on new car dealer websites, such as the one at Louisiana Honda Dealers, allows this to happen. Versus just listing what vehicles they have on their lot, they are encouraged to list all possible vehicle configurations. Dealers have access to these vehicles one way or another. They might as well offer them to their customers.
4) Credit applications
Online credit applications on dealership websites are not just for those with special financing needs. Today’s world of faster transactions demands that people, even those with great credit, have their financing prepared and ready to sign when they get to the dealership.
The days of 8 hour car transactions are, for the most part, over. If a dealership isn’t ready with a simple, fast, and secure credit application on their website, they just aren’t ready for business in the 21st century. A great example of an easy to find, interactive and well designed credit application can be found at Toyota Dealerships in Minneapolis.
5) Digital brochures
Customers used to come to dealerships with newspapers, poorly ripped out clippings from newspapers, notebook with information scrawled on a page, or a combination.
Many car dealer websites now have digital brochures. These are printable pages with vehicle information and pictures, plus contact information all on one nice sheet. Great digital brochures can be found at Portland Lincoln Dealers. A paper clip or a back pocket are all that is needed for a car shopper to have a full day’s worth of knowledge and notes as they embark on their car buying adventures.
6) Quick Quote
Again, this goes back to the desire for instant information. Some customers do not want to search for vehicles. These “Let me tell you what I’m looking for” customers want a way to be in and out of a dealership’s website within a couple of minutes. Properly position quick quote buttons make this possible.
A dealer website with a well positioned and simple enough quick quote button is Los Angeles Honda Dealers. It was built by Auto Dealer Websites.
7) Specials
We love specials. It’s part of human nature. Having coupons and specials for one or all departments is one of the reasons people go to certain web pages. Even if they already plan on visiting a particular dealership, they may go to the website just to see the specials.
8 ) Service and Parts contacts
Not everyone who visits an automotive website are there to buy a car. All of the different departments need some level of a presence. Service and parts are the two most common departments that people want.
Some websites have a simple contact form. Others add coupons. There are some that have a fully interactive and feature laden parts and service pages on their site. An average version is normally all that is needed – something with a little information, a few coupons, and a contact form should be plenty.
9) Map, hours, contact information
It seems like a no-brainer, but it happens. Dealerships spend hundreds or thousands of dollars per month for a great looking website that doesn’t offer an easy way for visitors to contact them.
It really does happen. No samples will be given here, but they do exist. Here is a sample of a good one at Los Angeles Kia Dealers.
10) Information about the dealership
The vast majority of customers don’t care about the history of a dealership, any of its departments, or any of the people who work there. Still, there are those who do care, and for these people, it is important to have “about us” pages.
They shouldn’t just be fluff pages. There should be information that would be of interest to those who read every word on a website, like the one at Portland Honda Dealers.
FINAL NOTE
Car dealer websites normally get one opportunity to make a lasting first impression. It is imperative that they are customer build and completely different from anybody else. Many dealers opt for template websites hoping to save a little money. When it’s taken into account that the profit from one extra car deal per month is normally more than the difference between a template and a good custom site, one has to question the logic of going generic.
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Read more car buying tips here, but please forgive the shameless and pathetic self-promotion of some of my sites using gibberish. I wish that Google made it easier for good sites to make it to the top without stooping so low, but hey, someday, right:
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Search Engine Optimization. SEO. It is a buzzword among web designers and specialist companies. Few people truly understand what it is or how it works beyond the promises to increase rankings on search engines and thus increase traffic to a website.