A dealer’s web site may be the most important Internet marketing investment they make. Their web site will most likely be a majority of people’s first impression of the dealership. Much of the latest research shows that the dealer web site is growing in importance a key influence on a car buyer’s decision on where to buy their next vehicle.

The website should have four primary objectives:

More than 80% of prospective car buyers start they search using one of the four major search engines, Google.com, Yahoo.com, MSN.com, or ASK.com. The dealer web site must be customized to include the necessary key words, tags and descriptive text to maximize placement on these search engines. A template based or completely flash based dealer web site or the use of an inventory plug-in will not be optimized for search engines. While a completely flash web site is very attractive, if consumers do not find it, it doesn’t really matter how good it looks.

Portray the brand, image, and culture of the dealership

The dealer web site must look as professional as the physical facility and provide tools that deliver the same level of service a dealer expects their employees to provide to walk-up customers. This includes the ability to research and review new models, quickly search inventory, obtain vehicle history reports, value a trade-in, get approved for financing and schedule service appointments.

Develop trust and confidence in the consumer

Inventory and data accuracy on the dealer web site is paramount to developing trust and confidence. Having up-to-data inventory with significant number of pictures, accurate condition descriptions of vehicles and integrated free vehicle history reports on the dealer web site will develop trust. Seventy-seven percent of prospects that call on a specific vehicle and buy from that dealer will buy a different vehicle that they inquired about. However, if the vehicle they saw on the dealer web site is not in inventory or is misrepresented, they will lose trust and most likely will not purchase a vehicle from that dealer.

Get the consumer to contact or visit the dealership

Ultimately, the dealer web site should drive visitors to contact or visit the dealership. A vehicle purchase is an impulse decision. All pages should prominently display phone contact information, email contact information and driving directions to make easy for the visitor to contact or visit once they get the impulse. Additionally, compelling content like videos and coupons will further encourage a visitor to take the next step in the buying process.