Checklist for the perfect car dealership website

As a basis for a successful website, it is important to consider and implement a few important points so that the customer gains trust.

Challenge

Generate your website to be the centre of your online marketing.

Are you completely satisfied with your website or do you have doubts because the site is not up to date in terms of technology and legal requirements, does not meet the demands of customers and too little time is invested in a professional online presence in day-to-day business? With the goal-oriented checklist, you will receive suggestions for improvement for perfect marketing. We inspire you to further develop and optimise your website, which will ultimately pay off at every level of your business.

A professional website must fulfil four functions

A user-friendly website fulfils four basic functions:

1. Needs of the different customer groups
   First and foremost, the website must satisfy the customer's need for information.
2. Objective
   To achieve the business objectives, the website needs target-oriented elements.
3. Technology
   From a technical point of view, the focus is on the presentation on mobile devices, the loading times of the website and Google as the leading search engine.
4. Legal aspects
   Data protection in accordance with DSGVO and the imprint are essential for a website.

👍 Tip
In addition to customers, think about your employees who are already part of the company and are proud of the professional and modern design of the car dealership's website. At the same time, potential new employees will feel attracted by a user-friendly and clear website.

What is important for a car dealership website?

What should you check? What are the important questions for a car dealership website?

• Can customers search and find all makes and models online at the dealership?
• Is it possible for your customers to set filters according to new and used cars?
• Is information about the workshop and accessories available?
• Is it possible for the customer to make an appointment online?
• Does the site offer information on services, financing and leasing?
• Do customers have the option to arrange a test drive online?
• Is the information on the accessibility of the car dealership correct and sufficient? Telephone number, e-mail, Google map display

Gain the trust of customers through reviews

• Are the ratings of customers, references and partnerships visible?
• Have you posted photos of events and media coverage on the site?

Worth knowing:

Ensure up-to-date listings on Google My Business for your dealership and thus for efficient marketing so that you can be found in local searches. The display of the listing in My Business is shown before the search in Google.

The trust gained from the customer will improve the ranking through reviews and optimise the generation of leads. You can find more tips under the topic SEO.

👍 Tip

Use tools to analyse customer satisfaction with the website, for example through Google Analytics. The possibility for online enquiries offers added value to the customer and is at the same time an important element to continuously ensure the quality of the website. The tool also offers further overviews of various relevant indications regarding content quality:

• Dwell time
• Number of requests
• Bounce rate

The analysis of the entry page shows via which page the user found the website as well as the visited pages per call.

A professional website strengthens the goals

Online enquiries

Offer online consultations by means of live chats and/or the possibility by means of assigning appointments as well as direct enquiry in the shopping cart.

Attracting walk-in customers

Present your promotions and services in an overall view so that customers can get an overview and thus build trust in your dealership.

Attracting newsletter subscribers

By offering informative newsletters with relevant content, you will not only reach existing customers, but also potential future customers and at the same time receive further relevant data.

Gaining referrals via social media

Enable your offers and the dealership's page to be shared via social media and email via a link.

Links

Include social media channels and other platforms on your website.

Information about the clients

With surveys and cookies, you get to know your customers better; guide the visitor through the website according to where they should go, what they should be shown and how they should act. In this way, you give prospective customers a search result with the aim of fulfilling their existing desire. Consistently implement the definition of your goals for the website.

Call-to-action

Every advertising medium and thus also the website should conclude with a call-to-action. This is the action that you want the user to take, whether it is providing an email address, contacting you by phone or the option of contacting you to answer questions or make an appointment. The user should be able to use the call-to-action button throughout the entire website.

Customer data

When registering, the procedure over several stages is advantageous. In order to keep the threshold as low as possible, only the e-mail address is required in the first step. The second step involves the confirmation of the e-mail address, which is necessary from a legal point of view. Offer the customer a voucher or participation in a competition as a thank you for leaving their data.

Worth knowing: In order to use marketing via newsletters in a segmented and targeted way, customer data is essential.

Technology

There are a few ways to improve visitor numbers:

SEO - How to get your website found

Google is the decisive search channel for most users. Your website must be set up according to Google's criteria and filled with relevant content so that it can be found. Relevant for this are, among other things, the right keywords with the corresponding relevance, which are linked to your website. The content must be suitable and interesting for the customer and optimised for use via smartphone.

Loading time of the website

If the loading time for the website is too long, users will leave within a short time. Minimising the loading time is achieved through compression using CSS, HTML and JavaScript and represents a significant advantage for the success of a website.

Mobile view

The mobile view of the website is one of the most important factors regarding the search results for a website. Since 2018, Google has only evaluated the mobile version of a website for search results. For this reason, the page should be especially geared to the mobile focus.

Legal regulations

The website must comply with various legal requirements. These include the

• General Data Protection Regulation (DSGVO)
• Confirmation by the user of the use of cookies. Furthermore, the imprint and the privacy policy must be available. If you have any questions or uncertainties, we recommend that you seek legal advice on these two topics.