Is your website ready for the selling season?

Is your website primed to drive in-store and online sales for the busy selling season that’s just around the corner? Not sure? These five key questions will help you conduct a simple dealership website self-audit and craft a corresponding website optimization action plan. Print this guide, pull up your website, and let’s get rolling!

Question 1: Is your site’s design in line with your in-store image and branding?

Your website’s virtual storefront is the first impression you will make on a great majority of your store’s prospective customers, so it is critical that your website is reflective of the brand image you’ve cultivated at your brick and mortar location. This goes beyond the prominent display of your store logo. Be sure to consider the following:

• Is your site’s design modern and up to date? Web design has come a long way in the last decade, and if you’ve got a site that looks fresh out of the early 2000s, it is time to redesign.
• Does your site feature professional-quality photos? While some stock photography and smartphone photos are acceptable, be sure that your store is well represented with high-quality imagery.
• Are your specials and promos up to date? You wouldn’t dream of leaving a Christmas tree up in your store until February; don’t commit the same faux pas on your website.
• Is your site’s content free of spelling and grammatical errors? Typos show carelessness, and if you can’t sweat the details when it comes to your website, it will make site visitors question your overall dedication to quality.

Question 2: Can shoppers easily find what they’re looking for?

One of the key goals of your website is to make it easy for a visitor to raise his or her hand and say, “I’d like to do business with you.” That virtual hand up may come from a form submission, an eCommerce sale or a good old-fashioned phone call.

You likely know your own website inside and out, and while you can easily navigate around your website, the same may not be true for your site visitors. Enlist a user with limited knowledge of your site to spend an hour or so testing your website. Sit with the user as he or she navigates your site. Don’t help, but ask them to think out loud and be brutally honest — was it easy or aggravating for them to find what they were looking for? Start with these common activities:

• Find phone number and address
• Find store hours
• Find a specific new unit and request a quote
• Schedule service
• Find a replacement part and add it to a cart (if applicable)
• Complete the eCommerce sale (if applicable)

If your test user was unable to complete these common tasks with ease, other shoppers are likely to abandon your site as well. Don’t let a poor user experience sabotage your sales. Talk to your website provider to develop a plan of action to make it as simple as possible for your customers to find what they need.

Question 3: Is your site optimized for mobile browsing?

Mobile browsing has officially eclipsed desktop browsing. According to a recent comScore report, smartphones and tablets combined now account for 60 percent of all online traffic.

When we talk about optimizing your site for mobile, you really have two options. The first is a responsive site that scales to fit the user’s screen, and the second is a dedicated mobile website. However you optimize your site, it is key that you create a mobile shopping experience that meets the unique needs of mobile users.

Question 4: Is every piece of stock that’s on your showroom floor fully represented on your website?

If not, you’re missing a major opportunity to drive the leads that drive your business. According to a 2013 GE Capital Retail study, a whopping 81 percent of shoppers research major purchases online before they ever come in-store.

Details count: Here are a few specifications you won’t want to miss:

• Model Year
• Manufacturer
• Model
• New/Used
• Condition
• Color
• Engine Type

Question 5: Are technical glitches hurting your site in search?

From poor SEO to slow load times, there are a whole host of issues that may be lurking on you site that are a bit trickier for you to diagnose. Thanks to a handy online tool you can find at www.woorank.com, you can generate a report which will give you a full list of optimization issues present on your website.

While some of the results in your report will be a bit overwhelmingly technical, start with the actionable advice regarding issues including social media, online reviews and other content-focused areas.

When it comes to the more technical results, I’d encourage you to share your findings with your website provider and work together to develop an action plan to get you site fully primed for the 2015 selling season.

Colleen Malloy is ARI’s director of marketing. Malloy has more than a decade of experience in the powersports industry and previously served as the editor of Motorcycle & Powersports News. ARI creates award-winning software solutions that help equipment manufacturers, distributors and dealers Sell More Stuff! — online and in-store. ARI removes the complexity of selling and servicing new and used inventory, parts, garments and accessories for customers in automotive tire and wheel, powersports, outdoor power equipment, marine, RV and white goods industries. More than 22,000 equipment dealers, 195 distributors and 140 manufacturers worldwide leverage ARI’s website and eCatalog platforms to Sell More Stuff!

Email: colleen.malloy@arinet.com

Phone: 414/973-4323

Website: arinet.com