When the world feels out of control, one of the best things you can do is pick a problem you can solve. You get the satisfaction of having fixed something and the utility of whatever it was you fixed. While you’re responsibly staying at home, it’s a good time to look at your website and make certain it’s humming along precisely as you need it to.
So here are five things that should be optimized so that when this is over, you’ll have the best website possible.
- SEO
The first thing your website has to do, before anything else, is be found. It could be the fastest, best-designed, most gorgeous site there is, but if no one knows it exists, it might as well be the site for Space Jam that’s still live for some reason.
Source (space jam site, and yes this is real, the same one that went live over 20 years ago): https://www.spacejam.com/
There are tons of reasons SEO is important, and chances are you already know what they are. We’ve gone on and on in the past about how vital SEO is to the long term success of your dealership. Here’s a figure: 65% of people will click on the first five results of a search and ignore the rest. So be in those top five spots and from there, your glorious site can be appreciated.
Source (important): https://www.reliablesoft.net/what-is-search-engine-optimization-and-why-is-it-important/
If you’re looking for specific ways to positively impact your SEO, well, we’ve talked about that.
- Loading speed
Okay, your site is in the top five of every relevant search. That won’t do anyone any good if it takes a half hour to load. While site speed is a component of SEO (as are most things but let me pretend they’re completely distinct for a moment), it has other ramifications as well.
Source (speed): https://powerdigitalmarketing.com/blog/the-importance-of-site-speed-in-2018/#gref
The short version is that the longer your site takes to load; the more people will bounce. While the “three-second rule” is largely made up, it can serve as a useful guideline. It’s not that three seconds is a hard barrier, but rather that a quick loading time is in your best interests.
Source (three second): https://www.telegraph.co.uk/food-and-drink/news/three-second-rule-is-a-myth-says-new-research/
Test your site’s speed, and if it’s not to your liking, you have two options. If you’re not a DealerOn client, you can tinker with it, removing features and testing the speed again. If you are, you call us and tell us to fix it. Then we fix it.
Source (test): https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/
- Mobile friendliness
One thing to keep in mind about modern web browsing is that the idea of people using their desktops exclusively is no longer the case. 57% of all web traffic comes from smartphones and tablets. So you want to ensure that your site will work on the devices your visitors are actually using.
Source (57%): https://searchengineland.com/report-57-percent-traffic-now-smartphones-tablets-281150
The ultimate goal is to have a responsive site rather than merely a friendly one, but if you can’t manage the former, make sure you have the latter.
- Navigation
Once people find your site on the device of their choice, they’re going to need to get around it. A dealership’s website often has many more pages than most, to account for your constantly-updating inventory. Your visitors need to be able to get around your site as easily as possible to find the car or cars they want.
Navigation isn’t as catchy as SEO or mobile-friendliness, but it remains one of the cornerstones of good web design for a reason. Now is the time to ensure your site is as user friendly as possible.
Source (navigation): https://www.readyartwork.com/5-reasons-navigation-important/
- Readability
Okay, this sounds super-obvious, but bear with me because it’s so obvious you might not even be thinking about it. After a site is found, loaded, viewed on whatever device, and navigated, does it do any good if it can’t be read?
A site’s readability is one of those things you only notice if it’s bad. “Readability” encompasses several related traits. There’s the obvious, can the text actually be seen or is it white text on a white background? There’s also the matter of choosing the right font and the right font size for the most pleasant user experience. Lastly, there’s mechanical issues with the text itself. While hiring a full time copy editor isn’t in the budget, DealerOn or even freelancers can do the job just as well. If that’s still too rich for your blood, at least get someone to proofread your copy. A second pair of eyes can make all the difference.
These five fixes will do wonders for your website, and it’s a good project to undertake while you have some extra time indoors.
