Other than having inventory that doesn’t appeal to potential customers, poor website design is often the primary reason for a dealer website’s failure. If your website fails to engage the user, they’re not going to stay on your site. Remember – your dealer website is almost always your first impression with customers.

• Poor Usability & Navigation. If a user is unable to find what they want or navigate through their website easily, research shows that they will most often leave your website. Don’t clutter your pages with large text, handfuls of images, and non-relevant links– you’re confusing the customer. Simple and easy works best.
• Inventory is too difficult to find. If you are a large dealership, your website needs to have advanced search fields to help the user narrow down their search results. Just like #1, if a user can’t find what they are looking for easily, they will leave your website.
• Homepage text is too cluttered. If your homepage has 5 different colored text with 6 different font sizes, you’re blinding the end user. Your website is resource for users so get rid of all the extra fluff. Be sure to include relevant information that a user looking to purchase equipment would need/want to know.
• Lack of Call-to-actions. On every page of your website, you should have a call-to-action specific to that page. For example, for your parts & service page, what do you want the user to ultimately do? Contact you! So place a link to the contact us form or your phone number and tell your users to contact your dealership. Another example is in the homepage, if you want users to visit your inventory, place a link that goes directly to your inventory page. It’s that simple!
• Your website looks like it hasn’t been updated in a year! Having a website that has current information is not only vital to your users that want new information on your website but it helps your search engine rankings. Search engines favor websites that continually add useful content. Your website is an extension of your brick-and-mortar, open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and you need it to represent what your business does today, not what it did a year ago. Lastly, if you are regularly providing new and relevant information about your dealership on your website, you are giving them a reason to come back!