press releases

revving those search engines!

by Tessa Denison, Creative Director, Denison Design Ltd

The main priority for any car dealership website is search engine optimisation (SEO). Obtaining top places on major search engines will result in more website visitors, consequently generating more enquiries and sales. However, not only is it difficult to achieve SEO, but once you have the visitors, how do you retain them? Tessa Denison, creative director of web designers, Denison Design, explains how to achieve this.

When aiming for SEO, the first point to consider is the regular updating of website content, for example copy and photography. If the content is changed frequently then web listings – those near the top of a search results list – can be improved. With a car dealership website it is generally necessary to keep content updated anyway, as cars are sold regularly, special offers occur and new stock is constantly added.

The ability to update a website easily initially comes from constructing it according to “web standards” guidelines and using valid HTML and cascading style sheets (CSS). CSS enables the web developer to separate the appearance or style of a web page from its structure and content. Producing websites in such a way makes them much easier and cost effective to update and significantly improves the download time.

SEO can also be optimised by carefully integrating key words into the body copy of the text. For example, with car dealership websites incorporate words such as motor, vehicle and car into text as often as possible so that the website is more likely to be picked up by search engines when individuals enter those words.

SEO is all about driving traffic to your company website. However, it is important to be driving relevant traffic – those that are potential customers. To achieve this, targeted advertising can help. Stock on sites such as Car Source, www.carsource.co.uk, which is postcode driven, ensure geographically relevant customers can be targeted.

If SEO is achieved to the maximum extent possible, then more customers will be attracted to your company website. Then, it is key to produce a website that will retain them long enough to influence purchase decisions.

The first consideration to achieve this is the design of the all important home page as this is where the customer’s initial impression of the site comes from. Once landed there is around three seconds to capture the audience before interest is lost and the visitor has clicked off to another site. Avoid this by including a selection of new car offers on the home page which will generate enquiries and encourage visitors to explore the site further.

To encourage exploration it is important that navigation is simple and this means having the most important information, such as a search facility, on the home page or just one click away.

It is unlikely that customers of car dealerships will want to make a transaction online so one of the main objectives of the website is to generate enquiries. Therefore, make contact details easily accessible. This includes a contact name, telephone number, address and e-mail.

Be sure to provide a phone number that is always answered. Similarly, ensure e-mail enquiries are prioritised as customers will often trade with the dealer who gets in-touch first.

The next consideration for impressing and retaining potential customers is stock and pricing. The important point here is consistency so don’t disappoint customers by featuring a car on the website which was in fact sold three days ago from the forecourt! Similarly, if a car is reduced on the forecourt then it should also be reduced on the website.

With pricing and stock correct the next area to look at is the use of quality pictures/photography. When assessing different vehicles, consumers want to see images. It is most effective to include multiple shots of cars which are clear and professional. It is advisable to include pictures of the inside and outside of the vehicle and any special features so customers can see precisely what they could be buying.

However, the difficulty with large numbers of images is that they increase download time, a major factor contributing negatively to the retention of site visitors. Therefore, always compress images as opposed to ‘resizing’ them. Resizing an image and simply making it smaller means the larger image it is associated with takes just as long to download. Another option is to download a lower resolution version of the car shots first, with the quality gradually improving.

Designing a successful car dealership website is not easy - there is a significant amount of content and images to manage, and plenty of competition for customers. However, if you want consumers to use your website then it must be designed to drive them there and park them there. So turn on the ignition, get into gear and get working on it!