While no two digital marketing footprints are the same, there are some common themes, particularly when conducting website “audits.” Websites are a foundational element of any digital marketing strategy, and they can also represent one of the larger fixed expense line items in your budget.

Among other things, your website represents an organic SEO opportunity, a knowledge platform for your customers and your 24/7 showroom. The money that your dealership and your vendors spend in the digital space is designed to funnel your customers to the website and, ultimately, further down the path to purchase.

When you conduct your monthly review of website metrics, you likely consider items like page views, bounce rates and average session duration, but how often do you tie the poor (or positive) performance metrics to the health of your website? Poor conversion and website metrics are often due to the following:

1. Inconsistent Information: Your customers are visiting your website to learn something about your dealership, whether it is detailed on vehicle features or operating hours for service. You don’t want something like varying hours of operation across platforms to cause any roadblocks to someone visiting your dealership. Whatever it may be, customers should be able to see information correctly and consistently, regardless of where they choose to find the answer.
2. Outdated Blog Posts: Blogs provide endless opportunities to boost your organic SEO content, enhance search result rankings and inform your customers. Content older than a year is less relevant and may highlight old models, features no longer offered, etc. Therefore, content should remain relevant, timely and informative.
3. Blank Specials Pages: Few people visit your website expecting to pay full price for a vehicle. More often than not, they will browse your “Specials” section to decide if they are still “just shopping” or leaning toward some intent to purchase. This moment can make or break the decision to stay or leave.
4. Outdated Research Pages: It can be difficult to maintain model accuracy during model year changeovers, but customers still visit the online showroom to conduct their own research. Align your research pages with current models, may feature new technology or are arriving soon. This is also an opportunity to align your site content with the manufacturer’s message regarding product announcements.
5. Aging Site Copy: It’s unlikely that a brand-new 2019 vehicle is still available in 2021, but your website might even reflect this to your customers. Your site copy can date your dealership, so be mindful of the last time it was reviewed for accuracy. Now more than ever, it is vital to keep the copy updated to reflect the changing times.

Issues like these may require a conversation about accountability, but they may represent something more. For years, our team has been reviewing dealerships’ digital marketing efforts with the ultimate goal of helping deliver additional profitability through efficiency-focused digital solutions. For more information, reach out to us at dealerships@dhg.com.