For a digital-age automotive dealership, a robust web presence is a crucial tool for successfully reaching your target audience, marketing your brand and differentiating your dealership.
A user-friendly, well-optimized website is especially important because modern buyers expect dealerships to provide information and experiences that will help them zero in on the right options for them, so it’s essential to ensure yours makes the grade.
Your website is an opportunity to engage shoppers as you would in your store. Offering buyers a seamless online user experience complete with plenty of helpful resources is a powerful way to make a fantastic first impression and win their trust.
Here we’ll go over some best practices for car dealer websites to help you get yours where it needs to be.
Why Are Dealership Websites Important for Automotive Sales?
Modern buyers shop online and expect dealerships to have fully functional websites. Ensuring yours is optimized and organized helps attract customers, introduce them to what you have to offer, and show them why you deserve their business.
Enhancing the Customer Experience Through Automotive Digital Retail
A good automotive website should look and feel like a virtual version of your showroom. For example, it should be clean, organized, inviting and aesthetically pleasing, and most importantly, entice them to hang out and look around a bit.
It should also make the experience of doing so intuitive, enriching and fun. Here are some essential website design tips for delivering the positive user experience your customers expect and deserve.
Pay attention to aesthetics
Think clean design elements, dynamic visuals and a professional feel. Balance this with an intuitive navigation experience that makes it easy for visitors to find what they’re looking for and discover additional helpful resources.
Optimize your site for mobile
Everyone is walking around with a computer in their hand, so ensure your site is well optimized for mobile by implementing a responsive web design and prioritizing lightning-quick load speeds.
Make it personal
Customers expect personalized interactions that are relevant to their needs. Leverage cookies and tracking data to make recommendations based on visitor behavior and preferences. Implement fun experiences and tools that can help buyers make decisions.
Be helpful
Prospective car buyers have a lot of questions. Providing helpful content and resources that can make the process easier is a solid way to encourage trust. It’s also one of the best ways to boost SEO and visibility on Google.
Be transparent
A car is a huge purchase and represents a significant investment. Use your website to show customers you believe in transparency, reinforcing trust in the process. Consider leveraging testimonials to show how important your customers are to you.
Driving Sales Through Effective Digital Retail Websites
Next-level automotive dealership websites do more than introduce potential customers to some of their options. They’re indispensable tools that complement the experience of shopping with you in person.
Some customers may be comfortable completing most or all of the buying process online, but many will be eager to come in for a test drive or finalize a sale in person. You’ll also have customers who start their journey in person and then check out your website for more information afterward.
Effective digital retail websites create a seamless bridge between any potential customer’s offline and online experiences with a brand. Here are some tips to keep in mind.
Pay attention to SEO
Attract the right customers for your dealership by optimizing for keywords and long-tail key phrases they’re searching to find resources like yours. Incorporate these terms into relevant, comprehensive content that addresses common questions and concerns.
Be thorough
Naturally, prospective car buyers will want to check out your inventory and some of the packages you have available online, so offer those things. But most will also have questions about F&I options and similar details. Consider implementing helpful features and options like virtual F&I processes to help meet these needs.
Provide social proof
Your potential customers will be scanning your website for signals that your dealership is trustworthy, so don’t miss opportunities to provide those. Showcase awards or accolades your dealership has earned, or leverage customer testimonials and reviews.
Offer choices
The beauty of a solid automotive retail website is it can take some of the pressure of an in-person interaction off the table, making the car-buying process more accessible. Provide a personalized buying experience that makes it easy for customers to complete as much of the process as they like online.
Optimization Strategies for Automotive Dealership Websites
Effective website optimization is about understanding how to tailor best practices and proven techniques to your benefit. Let’s dig into some expert tips for doing exactly that.
Prioritize local SEO
Although there are exceptions, most car buyers buy from dealerships in their area, making local SEO a must. Claim and optimize your dealership’s Google My Business profile. Include location-specific pages on your website and incorporate localized keywords into your SEO strategy.
Use internal links
Internal links are helpful, efficient ways to help website visitors navigate your site and quickly locate additional resources that could help them. They also help Google understand how different pages on your site relate to one another, which can result in more authority and a higher ranking.
Enrich your site with interactive features
Interactivity brings many benefits to the table for modern automotive dealerships. Educating and assisting your customers via these experiences and features helps them retain information more effectively. It also turns them into active participants in their buyer's journey. Some examples to consider include:
- Interactive calculators
- Virtual F&I experiences
- Virtual vehicle tours, feature overviews, etc.
- Opportunities to schedule in-person test drives
Give product pages lots of attention
Customer questions will vary depending on what they value and want, and they'll need answers before they buy. This is where your product pages come in, and they should contain tons of detail for this reason. Some examples include:
- Descriptions of the driving experience – videos are a plus
- Practical information about cargo space, horsepower, connectivity and other features
- Customer reviews or testimonials about the vehicle or product option
- Detailed specs, measurements and more
- Available warranties, upgrades and customization options
Successfully Implementing Best Digital Retail Practices for Dealerships
The ultimate purpose of a good automotive digital retail website is to help your dealership adapt to the needs of today’s consumers. Let’s go over a few best practices for making this transition successfully.
Create a steady stream of quality content
Google thrives on freshness and relevancy, and so does your audience. Make sure your site fits the bill by transforming your dealership blog into a reliable source of fresh, relevant content that empowers buyers to make smart buying decisions. Establish a content creation schedule that includes all your marketing channels to coordinate your efforts and stay on track.
Make it easy for customers to connect
While it’s true that many modern car buyers like the no-pressure approach a comprehensive automotive website brings to the table, they also like knowing additional help is just a few keystrokes away. Include tools and resources like chat support on your site.
Prioritize compliance
Regulatory compliance is key when it comes to automotive digital retail. Stay in the know when it comes to current laws, regulations and quality standards, and seek legal guidance before changing anything that might affect compliance.
Take the Next Steps in Your Automotive Digital Retail Journey
An incredible automotive website is more than just a resource that helps you meet the expectations of modern consumers. A site that’s well-organized, innovative and helpful can easily become one of the factors that sets your site apart from the competition.
Ready to take the next step toward maximizing the potential of your automotive dealership website? Download our website scorecard today to start your journey.
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