How to Tell When Your Car Dealer Website Needs a Redesign

When you’re in the car dealing business, your website will be one of the most important parts of your marketing strategy.

It’s the first thing potential customers see when they search for you online, meaning it’s often where they form their first impressions of you. In other words, it’s like they’re meeting you for the first time, and they’ll decide whether they want to buy from you based on what they see online.

While your site can do a lot to attract new customers by helping them learn about your business and why they should buy from you, some website designs can have the opposite effect. If your website is hard to find, has a confusing layout, or is simply outdated, it could end up driving customers away.

If you’re concerned that your website may be having a negative impact on your sales, MotorDesk can present you with the solution. We offer a range of designs for your car dealer website, all intended to make your site more appealing and user-friendly.

So, how can you tell whether your car dealer site is in need of a redesign? We’ve put together a list of signs to look out for. If any of these apply to your website, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us so that we can help get you back on track.

Your website is hard to navigate

When someone clicks on your website for the first time, it’s typically because they’re looking for a car dealer and think you could be the right dealer to buy from.

But before they make any decisions, they’ll naturally want to know more about you. The problem is that if your website is difficult to navigate, they may decide that it’s not worth the bother.

If links to other pages aren’t organised into an easily-identifiable menu, lots of people will give up and look elsewhere, meaning you lose out on a customer.

You haven’t updated your website design for several years

Website design trends change and evolve over time. While your website may have been very modern and up to date when you originally had it set up, things have probably moved on since then. Think about what websites looked like 10 or 15 years ago compared to now – the difference is drastic.

If you don’t update your website design, visitors to the site may get the impression that you don’t pay attention to detail, which can be really off-putting. If your design is particularly outdated, they might even wonder if your business still exists.

Your sales are down

An outdated or confusing website design can have a significant impact on your revenue. For many people, convenience is of high priority when looking for a car dealer.

This means that if your website is hard to use, they’re not going to stay on the webpage and spend time figuring out how it works. It’s much more likely that they’ll close the page and return to the search results to find a car dealer with a usable website. As a consequence, your sales will experience a downturn.

You’ve had negative customer feedback

Sometimes, customers will tell you directly that your website is a problem, but what you’ll probably find is that they express it in other ways.

For example, if you search for your business on review websites, you may encounter negative reviews and low ratings that the reviewer justifies by explaining that they did not understand your website. This can seriously affect your reputation, so if you start to notice comments like this, you should be sure to get a redesign as soon as possible.

Your website is hard to find via a search engine

In an ideal world, your website would be the first result when someone searches for a car dealer online. But an outdated website design can mean that your site is no longer search engine optimised, resulting in reduced traffic to your website. A new design with updated copy can boost your position in the search results.

Your bounce rate is high 

Your bounce rate is the number of people who click on your website and then leave without exploring beyond the first page. In other words, they’ve formed a first impression and decided they’re not interested in what you have to offer, so they don’t see the point in delving any deeper.

A high bounce rate often translates to fewer customers, so it’s important to ensure that the first page people see is both usable and engaging – you have to give people a reason to stay on your site.

Do the above circumstances sound familiar to you? If so, please don’t hesitate to contact us today to learn more about how we could help equip your car dealership with a much-improved website that will be instrumental in delivering results.