Best PracticesDealership MarketingIndustry News & Trends

Current State of Dealership Websites – PCG Research Reveals

Considering a new website for your dealership?

Before taking the plunge, you may want to consider downloading the latest PCG Research report on the current state of automotive dealership websites here in the States.

Be prepared, the report is 30 pages deep. Thirty pages of valuable information that will help steer you down a more educated path of decision making while comparing some of the top selling website platforms that are offered to dealers.

The report that Brian and the PCG Research team have put together this year outlines a new set of standards, a constructive checklist for dealers to utilize.

Here is one of the summary tables included in the report which compares key features between some of the largest website providers:

PCG Website Features Study

 

Dealers who are researching the latest features and innovations in website platforms will be well served by reading this report. Based on PCG research and knowledge of the website marketplace, here are several conclusions highlighted in the report:

  • Despite more dealers switching to responsive/adaptive websites, the broader dealer community has been slow to embrace a full commitment to deliver an optimized shopping experience for consumers using a smartphone.
  • Content delivery across desktop and mobile devices is inconsistent. Dealers are assuming consistency and/or are not aware how to inspect their website for content consistency.
  • Conversion tracking and attribution are still elusive metrics for many automotive dealers especially in regards to finance and fixed operations marketing investments.
  • As digital retailing software matures, allowing consumers to complete most of their vehicle purchase steps online, website companies must work to create software solutions to make the transactions seamless.
  • Third-party website plugins are masking true visitor conversion metrics in Google Analytics. The auto industry must collaborate to define consistent metrics and actions that define conversion for auto dealers. This includes allowing Google Tag Manager to be installed on all web platforms.
  • Website standards, such as those recommended by schema.org, are not taken seriously by some website development companies. This shows a disconnect with broader eCommerce development standards and best practices.
  • As Google and Bing claim to reward websites based on their mobile speed and content formatting, the current automotive platforms differ greatly on their approach to mobile optimization.
  • Website platforms seeking to deliver a robust set of features must create a seamless, intuitive management console. While some platforms have accomplished this, others have cobbled together many third-party tools that make management and reporting challenging.

Even if you’re not looking to change your dealership website platform, do yourself a favor and take a minute to download the PCG Research report, for free, while Brian’s generous offer stands.

Download The Next Generation of Automotive Websites at http://bit.ly/PCGWebReport

After you’ve downloaded the report and read through the study, share with PCG Research and the DealerRefresh community on the key takeaways you found most interesting. We would like to hear from you.

Founder of DealerRefresh - 20+ Years of dealership Sales, Management, Training, Marketing and Leadership.