Best dealership website you've seen?

[isales]

what do you guys think about Cobalt's websites for GM dealers?

 

[tomfohr]

I've got this problem solved Chad. I posted it somewhere here in the forums 3-4 years ago.

Joe,
By any chance do you got a link to that? What was your fix for this?

 

[tomfohr]

We just finished up our design meeting for both our Auto Group portal site and our individual child sites for our individual stores... I'll post some pics of the final mock ups when i get them... I'm very excited with what we came up with!

 

[joe.pistell]

This is a great example of how to build a great bounce stat AND jack up conversions:

Lindsay Acura, Columbus' only Precision Team Dealership of Distinction in Sales, Service and Satisfaction

Ouch.
Popover hides nav, I couldn't find the Red X to get to the auto-playing video.

This makes me think about this thread.
When you want a custom solution and add improvements to your site, YOU must know how to track the performance of the products you've added --AND-- how they interact with the rest of your website.

 

[GrantG]

This is a great example of how to build a great bounce stat AND jack up conversions:

Uncle Joe- I searched through the entire Lindsay site and came away with some pros and cons. They have built microsites to attract and recruit employees. SMART!

I love the page dedicated to Acura's contribution to Ohio's economy. The video walk around for each model done by a member of the Lindsay family. All in all the content seems to be well thought and customer focused. Kuddos on the photos booth.

Here's the bad....Not a great site nav layout compared to the DDC and clickmotive Acura options. The inventory pics could be amazing if lighting is diffused a bit better.

Don't get me wrong, I think Lindsay GETS IT and is trying to provide the best customer experience and get great SEO rankings with fresh content. With the right partnerships they could have the best Acura site around.

Now that I have seen this I have some work to do....

 

[joe.pistell]

Grant,

I'm with you on all of the above, they're doing great work!

BUT... the point I was raising was how attention to detail is important AND an understanding that adding or removing "stuff" on your pages can create unintended consequences or unintended victories!

SPECIFICALLY:
-Did adding the pop-over form increase leads? If so, did they create more sales?
-Did this new form cause a reduction in another lead?
-Did this form impact any web metrics? (bounce, # of VDPs seen, Return visitors?)
-How many people filled out the form?
-Were they new visitors or returning?
-How many of your visitors X'd out of the page?
-How long did it take them to find the X'd out feature?

 

[GrantG]

Joe- I was thinking similar questions when I navigated through the page. I found the x out right away (within 2 sec). With the video playing in the background I wanted to get to it right away. I can image customer's may do the same thing ESPECIALLY if they are at work with the boss listening. That is the downfall to-auto run videos.

Who knows, maybe the busy intro to the site promotes multiply visits where the forms get used.

 

[StrongLLC]

Best search UI ever Lowe's Home Improvement: Appliances, Tools, Hardware, Paint, Flooring I am not worthy....

This is a great question. We've all done it..."I want to build X...I wonder who else has built the same thing well...Let's go hunting." But Uncle Joe's comment here is the most insightful answer to the question. Look outside of Automotive. Be a customer. This is one of the main reasons why dealer sites are behind the curve, IMHO...We are only trying to be as good as another dealer and follow what they did instead of innovating and testing things. Next time you go shopping for yourself online, be a conscious customer. Think about what you do when you navigate and why. You can use tools like Evernote to keep track of your thoughts and websites when surfing.

 

[tomfohr]

I think a super smooth UI and a content rich website is the true recipe... This generation is so much about instant gratification and have little to no patience so I think even the smallest things will turn them off and bounce them off the site. It's got to meet their expectation and give them what they are looking for...EASY! A good example is look how much negititve feedback Ford's MyFord Touch got... It could do anything you wanted or expected it to do for the most part... It was just too difficult and the UI froze too much and people were complaining by the thousands for a lag changing screens that 10 years ago would have been a faster load time then any of us has had with an Internet website.

I'm excited to get the moch ups of our site the first week of April and see what everyone thinks of it

 

[tomfohr]

I think a super smooth UI and a content rich website is the true recipe... This generation is so much about instant gratification and have little to no patience so I think even the smallest things will turn them off and bounce them off the site. It's got to meet their expectation and give them what they are looking for...EASY! A good example is look how much negititve feedback Ford's MyFord Touch got... It could do anything you wanted or expected it to do for the most part... It was just too difficult and the UI froze too much and people were complaining by the thousands for a lag changing screens that 10 years ago would have been a faster load time then any of us has had with an Internet website.

I'm excited to get the moch ups of our site the first week of April and see what everyone thinks of it

So here is our initial moch up... there are some obvious tweaks that we will need to make (ex. rotating banner not covered by search bar). All of the quick links will open advanced search options over the rotating banner like most VinSolutions sites do (see www.thegmzone.com) for example.

Thoughts? Opinoins? Sugguestions? I'd love to hear them all!