TECHNOLOGY
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Forty percent of dealership website visitors prefer using their mobile device to their
desktop computer. That number can only grow. If your site isn't optimized for mobile
visitors, you could be losing customers.
(And Can't) Measure: Take a
look at the reporting ofered by
your website provider to determine what you can track. You
need to be able to measure visits, visitors, and leads by trafc
source (direct trafc, nonpaid
search trafc, paid search traffc). Being able to measure these
stats allows you to track key
metrics like leads per day, conversion rate and ROI. Knowing
those numbers will allow you
to measure the efectiveness of
your marketing resources.
As you become more sophisticated, you can start to test and
optimize changes to your website or your online marketing
mix. Over time, you can optimize your site and your marketing spend to meet your dealership's online goals — be they for
leads, sales or proft. But this is
only possible if your website provider ofers that functionality.
4. Get Google Analytics:
No matter how sophisticated
your website provider's reporting platform is, having Google
Analytics on your website is a
no-brainer. Remember President Reagan's advice to "trust,
but verify" when it comes to
your website provider's analytics. Compare them to Google
Analytics numbers. It is not reasonable to expect them to match
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exactly, because your provider
may use f lters and rules that
aren't precisely the same as
Google's. But they should be
fairly close and they should
trend in the same direction.
You should also augment
your provider's data with
Google Analytics reporting in
case you switch providers at
some point. You need a complete history of your website's
performance from an unbiased
third party. Also, Google Analytics is a fexible platform that
allows you to create reports and
track key metrics that your website provider may not provide.
5. Calls to action ofer actual benefts: Don't force website
visitors to scroll down to fnd
the most important information. Make sure you have links
to the most popular pages, such
as "New and Used Inventory,"
"Contact Us" and "Specials" visible when the page loads. Your
phone numbers should be in
large, bold font. And they should
be located in a prominent place
so customers don't have to scour
your site to contact your team.
Any calls to action should be
above the fold. You don't want
to miss out on leads because
your customers can't f nd the
form at the precise moment they
want to submit their contact in-