Model Specific Content Pages - What to do next model year

[Ryan Thompson]

Hey everyone,

I'm going to explain what I am thinking, current tools I'm working with, and hopefully Refresh Nation can give me some guidance.

Current Situation:

Website: http://www.erniedean.ca/

• Little to no unique content on our site .. Site is basically just inventory (added a few service pages already)
• Do not have a dealership blog
• At this time CDK does not have any integration options for a blog.... at least in Canada
• Organic Traffic = 50%
• Paid Traffic = 50%

What I want to do:

• Create UNIQUE pages for our top selling models. See how things go before I attempt to do this for every make/model combination
• Write these articles myself and then send to my copywriter who is kick ass
• Example "2017 Chevrolet Cruze"
  • Highlights and features
  • Different trim levels
  • What the Cruze competes with (focus, civic etc
• The pages will be accessible in the New Vehicles Nav Bar (and hopefully via search engines)

What do I do when the model year ends??

• Remember.. at this time I do not have a blog where these pages simply get buried in the feed
• Don't want 100's of pages in the drop down under "new vehicles"
• Do I simply just remove from the Nav bar and stick them in the footer or "site map"
• Do they just stay indexed and are only available through organic search?
• I'm guessing i'll just have to do an audit and make sure these old pages get linked to the new model year

At some point I'd like to create all this content under a blog such as www.erniedean.ca/blog/chevycruze .. or whatever.

Was that clear? Let me know what you think.

Feel free to share some examples. I don't see many dealers doing this so I'm assuming there are some roadblocks I'm not taking into consideration.

 

[joe.pistell]

1st thought...I love this!

what ever you do... KEEP INJECTING YOUR PERSONALITY INTO YOUR WORK!

 

[joe.pistell]

What I want to do:

• Create UNIQUE pages for our top selling models. See how things go before I attempt to do this for every make/model combination
• Write these articles myself and then send to my copywriter who is kick ass
• Example "2017 Chevrolet Cruze"
  • Highlights and features
  • Different trim levels
  • What the Cruze competes with (focus, civic etc
• The pages will be accessible in the New Vehicles Nav Bar (and hopefully via search engines)

thoughts:

1. Love your construction logic. Start with one model and experiment with the high-level framework. (i.e. make all your mistakes on one model
2. Car Shoppers aren't there for a blog UX, they're at your site to complete a task. Here's a sign that's posted on my wall:

"Customers often buy things because they have a problem they would like to solve….
If you understand the job, how to improve the product becomes obvious.”
-Dr Clayton Christensen
​

IMO, Your model landing page should address the questions that shoppers ask when they hit your store.

1. "what's the difference between Trim1 & Trim2?"
2. "i'd like heated seats, backup camera, 3rd row in any color but blue... what do you have?"
3. "Can you send me an email when you get an new arrival?"
4. etc... (more ideas? What are the Top 3 questions shoppers ask when they arrive at your car dealership?)

IMO, Use the entertaining copy as an accessory to your work, not the foundation. What ever concept you build, it should support SEEING your inventory. Use the "don't make me think" model. IOW, if you force the shopper to go back to your nav bar, then, you've broken their workflow (i.e. you're making them think).

HTH
Joe

 

[joe.pistell]

What do I do when the model year ends??

• Remember.. at this time I do not have a blog where these pages simply get buried in the feed
• Don't want 100's of pages in the drop down under "new vehicles"
• Do I simply just remove from the Nav bar and stick them in the footer or "site map"
• Do they just stay indexed and are only available through organic search?
• I'm guessing i'll just have to do an audit and make sure these old pages get linked to the new model year

In 2016: Your 2016 make/model landing page works for your new units
In 2017: Your 2016 make/model landing page works for your used units (your framework should think of this transition)

VENDOR LOVE TIME
IMO, I'd get a tight relationship with CDK support. I'd preach about your mission, your position in the industry and your public postings. I'd learn all about it's platform (what you're allowed to do and what hacks have been done for other customers... if any).

Because you're creating model specific pages, they have to be located in an area that's relevant to the shopper. IOW, Your content should be found ANYWHERE the shopper is... shopping. Nav bar, VLP, VDP. (note: Cruz should only be in the Cruz workflow, not in the pickup truck workflow)


If you're completely locked down and unable to place the links in an intelligent area, consider the footer, build it and watch what happens in SEO & some PPC.

NOTE: once you've built this, before you go off building more, you should watch what your shoppers are doing on the page that you've built. Do they like it? Do they return back to it?


Go get 'em!
HTH
-Uncle Joe

 

[Ryan Thompson]

In 2016: Your 2016 make/model landing page works for your new units
In 2017: Your 2016 make/model landing page works for your used units (your framework should think of this transition)

VENDOR LOVE TIME
IMO, I'd get a tight relationship with CDK support. I'd preach about your mission, your position in the industry and your public postings. I'd learn all about it's platform (what you're allowed to do and what hacks have been done for other customers... if any).

Because you're creating model specific pages, they have to be located in an area that's relevant to the shopper. IOW, Your content should be found ANYWHERE the shopper is... shopping. Nav bar, VLP, VDP. (note: Cruz should only be in the Cruz workflow, not in the pickup truck workflow)


If you're completely locked down and unable to place the links in an intelligent area, consider the footer, build it and watch what happens in SEO & some PPC.

NOTE: once you've built this, before you go off building more, you should watch what your shoppers are doing on the page that you've built. Do they like it? Do they return back to it?


Go get 'em!
HTH
-Uncle Joe

Joe thanks so much for the detailed response. I like the idea of getting CDK on my side and giving them valuable insights to help develop their product.

Coming from the vendor side I always had those 10 kick ass dealer customers that I would do ANYTHING for. Support problem... I'm on it. Billing problem.... ON IT. New product we have an need a beta dealer.. they are the first I call.

I never understood treating your vendors like dicks. They should be an extension of your team. This is especially important in small stores like mine where resources (both technology and people) are extremely limited.

I'll keep noodling this but would love some more feedback Refresh Nation.

 

[craigh]

I think Joe did a great job of addressing most of your questions.
I went through the site and had a few thoughts:

1. The homepage slider has 15 sliders. Do you really have 15 noteworthy things that need to be there? If you do, they shouldn't be there because I imagine slides 6-15 get next to no visibility
2. The website content is sparse in general. In addition to building out vehicle pages, I would build out more informational pages surrounding Service and Maintenance
3. Some of the inventory page disclaimers seem to reference 2014 and 2015 fuel efficiency ratings - seems a bit dated.
4. I would definitely build out the custom vehicle pages the way you and Joe described. First, create a page and make sure it's in the sitemap 24 hours later (if not immediately) so you know you're not wasting time on that front. Do some testing - not all customers, areas or OEMs are the same, so your mileage may vary. I don't know how effective a "compare to the Civic" page would be in Alliston, but definitely give it a shot!

 

[Gayle Rogers]

Ryan,
Joe and Craig both gave you some great advice. Here are the things I would add.

• From our experience Cobalt will not allow you to add custom HTML into their content system, so you may want to consider building your content on a subdomain blog that you can control better. Additionally, if you ever change vendors you can take all your work/equity with you.
• When you build vehicle pages you can do one of two things:
  • Build out a 2016 Chevy Cruze page and then replace it with a 2017 page when you are ready. You don't remove the 2016 page, just relegate it out of navigation and link to it from the 2017 page. You will also need to make sure update on page navigation from the 2016 page.
  • Build a base Chevy Cruze page, basic information, pictures, etc. (try to stay away from too many year specifics) and then build separate pages (year, trim, color, used, etc.) that you link to from the base pages. Every year you update the base page with the most recent information. I recommend this approach because it gives you a solid consistent model page. (if you go the subdomain blog route, you can easily add the info Joe recommended (latest posts, comparisons, reviews etc.) to this page.)
• I would also recommend building a landing page with pictures of all your models as a hub for these base pages, as opposed to navigation drop downs for all of them...much easier to organize.
• Start with your 2017 pages now...You'll thank me in about 6 months.

 

[Ryan Thompson]

Ryan,
Joe and Craig both gave you some great advice. Here are the things I would add.

• From our experience Cobalt will not allow you to add custom HTML into their content system, so you may want to consider building your content on a subdomain blog that you can control better. Additionally, if you ever change vendors you can take all your work/equity with you.
• When you build vehicle pages you can do one of two things:
  • Build out a 2016 Chevy Cruze page and then replace it with a 2017 page when you are ready. You don't remove the 2016 page, just relegate it out of navigation and link to it from the 2017 page. You will also need to make sure update on page navigation from the 2016 page.
  • Build a base Chevy Cruze page, basic information, pictures, etc. (try to stay away from too many year specifics) and then build separate pages (year, trim, color, used, etc.) that you link to from the base pages. Every year you update the base page with the most recent information. I recommend this approach because it gives you a solid consistent model page. (if you go the subdomain blog route, you can easily add the info Joe recommended (latest posts, comparisons, reviews etc.) to this page.)
• I would also recommend building a landing page with pictures of all your models as a hub for these base pages, as opposed to navigation drop downs for all of them...much easier to organize.
• Start with your 2017 pages now...You'll thank me in about 6 months.

Gayle I appreciate your feedback. I've already been leaning towards just cranking out some 2017 content now vs spending a lot of time when the model year is almost...... done (well kinda).

Right now I'm simply sending them a word doc with the copy and some images and letting them build out the pages. Are the H1/H2 titles etc; perfectly optimized?? I'm not sure.

Here is one I did for Emissions Testing - http://www.erniedean.ca/Drive-Clean

 

[Ryan Thompson]

The homepage slider has 15 sliders. Do you really have 15 noteworthy things that need to be there? If you do, they shouldn't be there because I imagine slides 6-15 get next to no visibility

Yes.. this pisses me off. There are a bunch that are programmed by GM which I cannot remove. I"m battling the sliders one day at a time.

 

[Gayle Rogers]

@Ryan Thompson great start on the page. IMO - You are doing the right thing...get the process of building pages moving. That said, I would make sure you keep an eye on the code side elements (see below). I would suggest that you send over basic optimization direction with your page content. Also check your page on Mobile...Not sure if that was intended, but they stripped out all the content for the mobile page. I know you can't do everything at once and you are probably drinking from a fire hose, but always good to watch the details.