Devorah
Your dealership website should be an extension of your showroom: inviting, engaging, and helpful. It should, in fact, act like your best salesperson and get customers excited about buying their next vehicle from you.
The problem is that all too often, things get in the way of your website being as great as it could be. Sometimes, a poorly placed popup or image is literally in the way of your customers finding the information they want. Other times, lack of organization or effective data use are the culprits. Either way, start the new year off right and make sure it’s easy, not hard, for visitors to get what they want from your site.
So what are some of the common dealership website ruiners to avoid? Here they are, in no particular order:
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- Clutter. Five popups all appearing at the same time. Lots of text crowding the page, in different fonts and different sizes. Various coupons all crammed onto the same page. These optical onslaughts are all major site ruiners. They overwhelm visitors, making for an unpleasant shopping experience. And with the popularity of clean, streamlined website design these days, they also make your site appear sloppy and outdated.
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- Popup attacks. In addition to too many popups at the same time, make sure to avoid popups the visitor cannot easily close and videos on autoplay. Nothing will make a visitor leave your site faster than unwelcome noise or offers that won’t take no for an answer. Instead, your popups and offers should be easy to close, and provide moments of focus– that is, they should be clean and appealing, and center the viewer’s attention on them with the right colors and design.
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- Unclear navigation tools. The tabs and links on your page should be logically organized and visually prominent so shoppers can find exactly what they need. It should be crystal clear where to click for every stage of the car shopping process.
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- No smart targeting. If your website is offering every single visitor the same offer at the same time, regardless of their behavior on your site, you’re missing opportunities to convert leads and make more sales. If a visitor has visited a VDP of a particular truck three times, they need to see an offer on that truck. However, someone browsing a wide variety of pages is highly unlikely to convert on that offer. Help your shoppers find what they’re looking for.
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- Brand inconsistency. Does your site consistently reflect your brand colors and themes? Would a visitor who clicked into your site from an ad find the same branding in both places? What about a visitor who uses your site and then visits your showroom? Your branding needs to be consistent everywhere you are.
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- Inaccurate inventory information. Your inventory is the heart and soul of your site. Without current and helpful photos and videos, and without keeping your site synched with your in-store inventory, shoppers really cannot use your site to help them buy a car. That’s not a situation you want.
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- No mobile optimization. More than ever, shoppers are browsing your site from their phones, and they need to be able to do so easily. You can have the world’s greatest website, but if it’s not optimized for mobile, you’re losing a lot of customers who will get frustrated and look for a better user experience. Make sure you are using a website provider that optimizes your site content on devices of every size.
Spend some time trying to shop your own website and see if any of these culprits are getting in the way. If they are, take the time and effort to fix the problem and make your website the best possible car shopping experience– and make 2017 your best year yet.
Call us for a free consultation! 216-242-1320