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A New Winner For Worst Dealer Website EVER

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Daniel J. Mondello

Daniel J. Mondello

Boss
Oct 17, 2011
181
49
First Name
Dan
#1
Found this treasure while doing a routine competition sweep. Brighton Ford in Brighton Michigan. This baby has it all VDP load time issues like you read about, serious scroll fatigue concerns, difficult to find Hours and Directions information and page (IMO), and my personal favorite, Iframe within an iframe within an iframe within an iframe "Rebates and Incentives", "Value Your Trade", "Confirm Availability", and "Ask a Question" VDP forms. Vehicle Inventory[stock_type]=new

Most of the Incentives and Find out if I qualify options on the VDP (below the fold) are inoperable. The navigation is also crazy... i know now that it was right in front of my face but it took a few long seconds to locate the Contact Us, and Hours and Directions navigation... and there is no Mobile version (adaptive, responsive...) version of the site.

Now before you all jump all over me I admit as far as looks go it isn't bad. I like the flat UI-ish approach... But in terms of SEO (look at the urls this thing generates--- GROSS!) and overall functionality this is not a good website.

Again don't forget to play with the Forms seen here ---> Brighton Ford | Howell Ann Arbor Wixom New and Used Ford Dealer

Have fun kids. Looking forward all the "Dan is Way Off on This One" responses hahaha
 
#2
Dan, I have to agree with you. When you click on Vehicles, you see a drop down with only three new vehicles listed. You have to know to click on New or Used to get another menu to select models. Looking at a nearly $40K new Explorer, the first item in the description is heated steering wheel. All stock photos but that isn't the website vendor's fault. We've on been at this for over a decade and most dealerships still don't have a clue.
 
#3
Whoever designed this site decided that they want people to focus in as many areas possible with no defined order. Some of it is a good effort but I think there's no established design hierarchy which really bugs me. You want to lead them through the site the same way you'd lead someone through a brochure or menu. Broken features are frustrating too.

The navigation could use a lot of work. It's my goal when designing websites or software to make people feel like they can dominate and be in control of what they're doing. You definitely don't want people confused only to give up and land on a competitor's site.

For their search navigation, they (as well as some other vendors) should stop hiding items with scrollbars. People still don't see these options and the rest of the page scrolls quite a bit so what's the difference?

They shouldn't have gotten rid of the pagination either - how do you link to search results?

I agree, they really need to get this mobile friendly.
 
#5
JoePistell said:
Making a website is easy.
Making a website that sells MORE cars... ain't easy.
Click to expand...

Joe,


But we don't know if that crazy site is selling more cars? What thought did you have the first time you saw Ling Cars?


Check this site out. It is my site and I'm posting it because I'm surprised about the numbers. We have sites in the teens and a few in the twenties, but nothing like this.

We didn't produce these numbers by creating this website alone, it is a combination of many other things. The site is a very small portion of a great advertising combination. This dealer also has a very clear customer target and goal so they were very specific about what they wanted.

This advertising project was done by the dealer and with great input by Greg Goeble (Dealer Strong).

The site: Mad City Sales | Used Car Dealer | Madison Wisconsin go specifically to the inventory and see what you have to do to see the inventory. It goes against what we know and normally build.

Now check the leads ratio (these are just form leads, no phone calls or chats):

Screen Shot 2014-08-19 at 6.55.02 AM.jpg

Should we conform to what we know or explore different ways? Is the website the produces the leads or the advertising and vehicle merchandising?
 
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#6
yagoparamo said:
Joe,


What thought did you have the first time you saw Ling Cars?
Click to expand...

Laughter followed by awe.


She's gifted.
demo3-optimised.gif

Behold... The most creative FAQ in ANY INDUSTRY!
(must see the video, a classic for all the ages!)
CAR LEASING CHEAP LEASE CARS SALES CAR LEASING CHEAP BUSINESS HIRE DEALS
 
#7
yagoparamo said:
...

The site: Mad City Sales | Used Car Dealer | Madison Wisconsin go specifically to the inventory and see what you have to do to see the inventory. It goes against what we know and normally build.

Now check the leads ratio (these are just form leads, no phone calls or chats):

View attachment 2160

Should we conform to what we know or explore different ways? Is the website the produces the leads or the advertising and vehicle merchandising?
Click to expand...


First, we should know our clients and the shoppers they wish to service.

What they have is a old school squeeze page where the shopper is forced to give contact info to see inventory. I know this tactic ONLY works with "credit challenged shoppers". Guess what...


Screen Shot.jpg
Yup, "Buy a used car for 5 cents down... even with past credit problems!"


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2r0q4vDAEM


To fully understand stats, you need context, context, context.
 
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