Modern Car Business swiftly becomes more and more about the internet: people look for, compare and choose cars using the global web. Internet presence is as essential for car dealerships as for any other business - people will rarely go looking for a car through all the local dealerships. But having just a web page about your dealership is not enough. You need it to be functional and good-looking too. Such a website not only attracts customers but also makes business’ life easier. Following business trends goes a long way. A great comprehensive website is one of the best routes to ensuring you stand out from competitors.
Why is it so important to have a car dealership website?
Today if a person wants to buy a car, they will rarely go out and look for one. Most people will find the car they want online first, and only then will they decide on a dealership. If you have a well-designed website that is being advertised, the customer flow won’t make you wait. Your job as a dealer is to stand out!
But why would you need one if you are just a small business in your town?
- A website helps you promote your cars and services not only locally, but on the biggest platform, there is - the internet.
- Website makes it easier to connect with new customers and keep connected to the old ones because it is always easier to go to the website rather than pull up to the dealership parking lot.
- Building credibility with a website is less complicated: your can demonstrate your experience and reputation with reviews and blog posts. Raising brand awareness is only possible with an excellent website, so be sure to have one to boost your sales.
- Competing with bigger businesses is possible with a well-designed, functional website. Other dealerships are out there making themselves nice websites and attracting customers, so don’t miss out on this opportunity!
- You can control your brand and keep it fresh and up-to-date with press releases, blog posts, and stock updates.
Make a dealership website with a beautiful, user-friendly interface that will attract customers and make your competitors jealous.
Whether you have a car rental or a car dealership, you still definitely need a website. Without one, you will not find clients outside of your town or city, thus will not increase sales.
Where to begin:
- Get a domain name - it needs to be on-point with your business and either be the name of your company/brand or the field of it. Be sure to check if someone else has the name of your choice by googling it - you wouldn’t want your potential customers to go to competitors.
- Get web hosting - obviously enough, and your website won’t work if you don’t have web hosting that will make it work 24/7. Find a cheap and reliable solution so that customers may find you at any time of the day. And always check for reviews! You wouldn’t want your website to be down unexpectedly for a long time.
Key features every car dealership website should have.
- Logical and intuitive system of filters - giving your customers the ability to filter options according to their needs and preferences easily is a basic, necessary step. Allowing them to save filters will make customers return to your website. Having a nice functional system of filters makes the conversion rate go up by up to 30%!
- All parameters - you need to tell your customers everything about a car, though you should emphasize its good sides. And you also want to justify the price of the car by listing all the features that make certain cars pricier than others.
- Photos and videos of the vehicle - even though you should not forget about loading optimization, you still need enough pictures so that customers understand what car they are looking at. Honest pictures of every scratch and damage make customers trust you, which is essential in business.
- Vehicles comparison - depending on the number of cars, you are selling, this feature will help your customers to find the car they need faster. By comparing certain cars the potential buyer might become an actual buyer - so make sure you have a nice comparison page.
- Reviews and news - tell customers about your special deals and discounts! And don’t forget to add the reviews section - so that clients can say some nice things about your business. It will help you build credibility.
- Comfortable admin panel - you have personnel responsible for adding and updating information about your products and services - make it easier and faster.
- Vehicles comparison - depending on the number of cars you are selling, this feature will help your customers to find the car they need faster.
Important things you can get only with custom solutions.
- Internal accounting - you can view the whole history of a car in your admin panel, including cost history. Forget about dealing with paper: Our software will help you sort all the documents and file for taxes.
- Responsive design - as of June 2022, almost 70% of all internet traffic comes form phone users. It is crucial to build an optimized mobile version of the website, and cheaper than a mobile application, not to mention definitely more popular.
- SEO optimization - makes it effortless to promote your website to the top of the Google search, allowing you to get more clients with little-to-none expenses. Such promotion is not only cheaper but more effective in the long run. There is always a specialist on the team watching website health,
- Client base - have a mailing list of existing and potential clients.
- API integration - your cars and products can be listed on bigger platforms, making finding clients easier. More platforms on which the cars can be listed = more sales. But keep in mind that integrating too many platforms may influence a website’s workflow, so be sure to buy a nice and reliable hosting.
How can I make a car dealership website?
If you need a decent generic website fast, you can use a website builder:
1. Wix - one of the best dealership templates. Easily customizable, you can make the website as you will. Not only that, Wix offers some great features: Wix SEO Wiz - get found online sooner with this advertisement tool. Media galleries - when you upload pictures of your cars, you can change their size and their layout as you please. Wix App Market - a great many apps that will allow you to chat with your customers, reserve a car, or add advertisement apps.2. Squarespace - although it has no dealership templates, you can choose a template of your liking and customize it to be a dealership website. Despite not having a specifically designed car dealership template, Squarespace has customizable, great-quality templates. You can change the font, color scheme, and layout of individual elements. Some great features include Gallery Blocks and Pages - you can choose whether you like to display your car’s pictures in a gallery block or on a separate gallery page. Momento360 - you can implement 360 car photos. Map block - you can embed your dealership’s location on your website.
3. Site123 - is the best option if you are a beginner. The simple, user-friendly design of Site123 allows you to build your car dealership website easily, and edit it as you please. Template selection is not quite as good as the other two, but still, their templates are not complicated and have some basic features you will probably want. Site123 has some nice features: SEO tools - they let you set meta tags keywords, and add meta information to your pictures, meaning your website will be higher on search pages. Marketing tools - this service allows you to add social media apps to your websites, like Pinterest, Twitter, and Facebook, so you can reach a broader audience. Great customer service - SITE123 provides you with quality customer service and detailed guides on how to build the website.
Despite those services providing you with tools helping you to create a car dealership website, the said website will never be 100% unique. You will only be able to use simple, cliché solutions that will only slightly make your and your personnel’s work easier. Even with the SEO tools that those services offer, your website will have a significantly harder time reaching the top of the search. You won’t be able to implement, for example, a custom CRM (customer relationship management) system specifically designed for your field of business. Integrating API won’t be possible, so you will not be able to list your cars and services on other platforms. You won’t get business and competitors analysis and competent suggestions by professionals with regard to your business.
A dedicated development will always be more profitable. When you create a website from scratch, you can choose whatever you like: Your website can be unique, you can add any feature and customize it however you see fit.
Custom solutions include a specifically designed CRM system, dedicated mobile version, complete customization, and individual approach.
Want to build a website for your dealership? TagfulTech will help you out! With our talented team of 10+ years of experience building industry-specific websites and specialized architecture, we’ll be sure to deliver you the best possible solution.