OPTIMIZE YOUR WEBSITE FOR LEAD GENERATION: A GUIDE FOR AUTOMOTIVE DEALERSHIPS
A strong online presence is crucial for automotive dealerships. Your website is your main conduit for delivering information and leads, therefore, your website needs to be well-optimized and easy to navigate. We’ve laid out five effective strategies to optimize your automotive dealership website for lead generation, ensuring that you maximize your online visibility and convert website visitors into valuable leads.
USER-FRIENDLY WEBSITE DESIGN
Just like your physical dealership, you want to create an exceptional experience on your website. The first item on your to do list to optimize your website for lead generation is to ensure your website is visually appealing:
Replacing stock imagery with the smiling faces of your staff.
Include drone footage of your dealerships and inventory on the homepage.
Ensure seamless browsing experience across different devices. With more Mobile users, your website needs to be optimized for mobile.
Take a look at your Main Navigation and keep in mind the following items:
Are your most important links farthest to the left?
How many links are in your submenus? Will your customers get overwhelmed or lost by the sheer number of links?
Do you have any repeated links?
OPTIMIZE YOUR WEBSITE FOR LEADS WITH ENGAGING AND RELEVANT CONTENT
Another way to optimize your website for leads is to incorporate informative and engaging content throughout your website that will attract and keep potential customers on your site. Detailed vehicle descriptions, specifications, and features can increase visitor time on the website as customers dive into which vehicle fits them most.
Consider adding a blog section to provide insights into new vehicles, buying tips, and company news. This not only helps with search engine optimization (SEO) but also showcases who you are as a dealership and builds trust with the consumer.
IMPLEMENT SEO BEST PRACTICES
To increase your website’s visibility and organic traffic, implement search engine optimization (SEO) best practices. That means:
Each page should have unique content. Not just within your site but compared to other sites as well. This is especially true if you have a manufacturer approved provider, you need to make sure that the content they write for you is different from the content they right for other dealerships with the same brand.
Conduct keyword research to identify relevant search terms that potential customers might use.
Optimize your website’s meta tags, headers, and content to incorporate these keywords naturally.
Ensure your website loads quickly and is optimized for mobile devices.
Make sure your Google Business Profile (GBP) is up to date. Google is placing more emphasis on GBP and keeping it maintained is key.
Not sure if your team has this covered? Give us a shout!
OPTIMIZE YOUR WEBSITE TO CAPTURE LEADS WITH EFFECTIVE FORMS
As you undoubtedly know, lead capture forms are vital for collecting customer information. With less and less people filling out forms it’s even more important to optimize your contact forms for user experience and submission.
Keep forms short, simple, and easy to fill out.
Request only essential information, such as name and email address. Consider making including a phone number optional and/or offer text messaging.
Implement live chat functionality for immediate assistance and capture leads in real-time.
UTILIZE TESTIMONIALS AND REVIEWS
Positive reviews can significantly impact a potential customer’s decision-making process. Featuring customer testimonials and reviews prominently on your website will establish trust and credibility. Consider including video testimonials as well. Encourage satisfied customers to leave reviews on popular review platforms and respond promptly to both positive and negative feedback.
ANALYZE AND OPTIMIZE PERFORMANCE
Regularly analyze your website’s performance to identify areas for improvement. Utilize website analytics tools, such as Google Analytics, to track key metrics like bounce rate, conversion rate, and user behavior. Identify pages with high exit rates or low conversion rates and optimize them for better performance. Many website providers also have a heat map which will show you what people are interacting with on your site. From there you can A/B test your CTAs, forms, and landing pages to maximize lead generation effectiveness.