As the events of 2020 have shown, reaching and engaging your customers online is more important than ever.
With effective web design, car dealerships can create a better user experience and achieve more time on-site and improved conversion rates. In this installment, we’ll look at elements of effective web design and what our team is doing to ensure that your dealership’s online presence is dialed in for performance.
In Part 1 of this 3-part series on effective website design, we’ll start by covering the intuitive layout of a site.
Make It Easy With Intuitive Design
Utilizing intuitive design means that when a customer interacts with your website, they will know exactly what to do, where to go and how to accomplish a task. Whether they are visiting your site to shop for a new SUV, see your new car specials, apply for financing or schedule a service appointment, intuitive design makes it all easy.
Web users (and car shoppers) can be impatient, especially when they have other options. Take the guesswork out of interacting with your website by providing clear and simple navigation. After all, frustration can lead to bouncing from your site altogether, which doesn’t bode well for conversions.
Reserving your most valuable online real estate — the top of the homepage — for the most commonly visited pages of your site makes it easy for customers to get where they’re going.
In this screenshot, the store uses the top of the homepage to promote its new and pre-owned inventory and service scheduler, plus a link to sell your car. These products and services are the bread and butter of their business, so it makes sense to place them front and center.
Beyond new or used inventory pages, every dealer has products and services they know are highly valuable to consumers and the business alike. Placing prominent links to your used car specials, truck inventory, service scheduler or other high-traffic pages “above the fold” on the homepage lets users skip the scrolling and navigating altogether and reach their goal.
In this next example, the dealer adds lease specials and service specials above the fold. These specials are not only valuable to the store and customers, but they also create urgency.
Don’t squander your customers’ patience with a complex or clunky site design. If you can manage to focus each user’s attention and provide quick access to what they’re looking for, you’ll be on your way to increased engagement and conversion.
That’s all for Part 1 of our Effective Dealership Website Design series. Look out for Part 2, where our team will cover responsive websites.