Five Tips to Drive Quality Traffic to Your Site Via Google Yahoo, and Bing
Dealerships nationwide are in a pickle. Buyers are using the web now more than ever before to discover which models are to their liking and within their budget. Simultaneously, nearly all dealers have a website displaying their inventory but the competition is so fierce that it’s hard to get noticed. Have you tried searching for your store with a generic phrase and realized that you’re on the third or fourth or even fifth search page? Did you also notice that manufacturer websites and classifieds are on the first search page? Yeah, we did too. That’s why we’ve come up with a list of five tips to increase your daily traffic. Besides enhancing your ability to capture first-generation leads, you’ll also take control of your site so that you won’t have to rely on so many vendors for third-party leads or clicks.
- Enhance the user-experience (UX). We can’t say this enough. The most frustrated complaint we hear from shoppers is dealership websites are dull or too flashy. No one wants to read a laundry list of specs that include things like A/C and power windows. Instead, spruce up your VDP page with a new descriptor about how great this particular model is. It doesn’t have to be an essay, just a few sentences and you’ll be able to catch more buzz. Also, don’t forget that shoppers want to feel in control, so bombarding them with tons of pop-ups and flashing signs or neon colors needs to stop. Tone it all down and give customers the info they need in a convenient way.
- Content, content, content. For internet bots, it’s not just what you say but how you say it. Grammatical mistakes, spelling errors, and outdated information turns off both the bot and customers. Ask a friend or relative who doesn’t work with you to take a look at your website. Their fresh eyes will catch the problematic text faster than you or your sales team will. While you’re at it, make sure you don’t have any broken links. There’s nothing worse than getting excited about a lease offer, a coupon, or an auto and being greeted by an error page. That’s a fantastic strategy for losing a client.
- Relevant Keywords. This phrase gets thrown around a lot so you might be thinking, “Well, duh! I sell cars, so I’m going to use car-related keywords.” That’s the right impulse! But, if you think about, so is everyone else you’re competing within your area. It’s tricky coming up with exciting new phrases for our industry because, frankly, how many different ways can you call a truck red? Looking at the demographics surrounding your showroom is the key. Is your neighborhood filled with young adult hipster millennials, working-class families or affluent retired people? You know who your clientele is, so the language on your site and advertising needs to match theirs.
- Get on Bing and Yahoo. Here’s a little secret. Everyone is always talking about Google, but the truth is that one out of every three PCs or smartphones is utilizing Bing or Yahoo. In fact, they’re the default search engines for Microsoft, Firefox, Siri, and Windows. More and more people are turning to these two search engines because they’re less ad-heavy than Google: 79% of the automotive-related searches on the internet take place on these two. By requesting the Bing or Yahoo bot to crawl your website, you’ll be available to a whole new group of shoppers. (If your site shows up on one, it’ll show up on the other. When the popularity rises through one search engine, it can have a positive effect on your ranking on the other.
- Create backlinks. No one knows precisely how domain rank, the number used to position websites on a search engine results page, is calculated. However, the latest studies have found a correlation between backlinks and domain rank. A backlink is a citation found on another website. In theory, this means that if you have a link on a highly-ranked classified site (one of those that always shows up on the first page of a search), you’ll get a few brownie points for making that connection. Unfortunately, classified sites use a “do not follow” for their backlinks, so nothing gets generated. This opens up an opportunity to get involved in the community. Can you help sponsor a local youth group or little league? Ask them to put your logo and a link to your site on their page and watch your backlinks (and good traffic) increase significantly.
You already have a website, so make it the best it can be. Dealer sites have incredible potential to connect with potential customers, but only if you consider their point of view. Give them the descriptors and information they want; it will entice them to visit the store. By revamping the possibilities of this platform, you’ll have an opportunity to enhance your positioning on search engine results pages and, therefore, increase your traffic. With such a positive first impression, you’re sure to see your ROI increase exponentially.
