Website Walk Around: Columbiana CJD

[joe.pistell]

On this thread I wrote:

Sorry to interrupt, but Wow!! Where's the car? Columbiana's passion to sell is all I see.

@DanielRobison replied and asked for a chat about his site, so here it is

Here's what started our chat:

Wow!! Where's the car?

Columbiana's passion to sell is all I see.

 

[joe.pistell]

Daniel,

Let's start with you .

What do you want your website to do and how do you know when it's working?

 

[JessicaRuth]

I feel like my personal space is being invaded just looking at that.

 

[craigh]

To be fair, I think the video is the default Dealer.com pop-up that comes on the first page you land on.
If your entrance page is a VDP, you'll see the pop-up - if you go to another page first I don't get that pop-up on the VDPs.

Unfortunately, it's not much better underneath the pop-up.

 

[JessicaRuth]

To be fair........that doesn't make any of that hot mess acceptable.

 

[craigh]

Oh, I agree. The header and navigation are a really rough start and it doesn't improve when you move onwards.
I tried to find something I liked, but unfortunately it isn't easy. Many of the links go off the site or look like this: http://www.columbianachryslerjeepdodge.net/get-financed-now.htm

 

[joe.pistell]

Beware personal opinions. IMO, you can't start the analysis until you have defined the design goals:

​

"What do you want your website to do and how do you know when it's working?"

Until you've defined this, the HIPPO* will have the last word.

@DanielRobison?


*HIghest Paid Person's Opinion

 

[joe.pistell]

"What do you want your website to do and how do you know when it's working?"

This is a leading question. I already know the answer, "Columbiana's passion to sell is all I see." A make over will fail unless it aligns with Daniels goals, OR, Daniel's goals may need to change.

For example, Daniel's may be the lone ISM in a store full of lot lizards. A makeover may cost him tens of thousands of dollars. And, if this is the case, Daniel's GM is at fault (i.e. Daniel's Payplan needs a makeover to align with the new strategy).

 

[craigh]

Beware personal opinions.

I agree, but unfortunately my opinion is the only one I have in stock at this moment.

Daniel is no stranger to critical analysis, so I'd love for him to join the conversation.

http://smartautoad.blogspot.ca/2015/04/sem-its-not-rocket-science-part-2.html

 

[DanielRobison]

WOW! Ask and ye shall receive! Thanks all for your input. Now when I click on my website first and then go to a vehicle this is how it looks. (BTW, I shut off the video popups on entry of the site).



I am entertaining getting rid of some of the links to credit apps which is overwhelming on both dealerships website and I really don't think we're getting enough action on these links to keep them in the forefront. Anyone proud of their dealer.com website and could show me a link I would be happy to entertain changing to it. Who's having lots of success with their website? Especially a low bounce rate and people staying on your site for long periods of time. Here's my stats for Columbiana. Time on site avg 8:18, conversion rate 2.8% and bounce rate 24.93% (a big jump from last year at 16.14%). But our conversion rate is up 31.3% so more people are turning in to buying customers or, at the least, potential buyers. With dealer.com you are limited to their "cookie cutter" website so anyone with stats on their site that are knocking it out of the park let us know what your doing and give us a link to your site. Thanks again!