What’s worse than going on your own dealership site and feeling like it isn’t up to snuff? Getting that feeling, but not knowing what the problem is or how to fix it.
There can be many reasons for lackluster website performance, but the root cause is often the same: the site isn’t living up to what shoppers want from it.
Welcome to Jazel’s Problem-Solving Blog Series. Join us as we delve into some of the most common and agonizing dealership website problems – and of course, explore the satisfying solutions.
In our first post, we’ll look at search-bar bounces.
Dealership Website Problem #1: Search Bar Frustration Bounces
The good old “frustration bounce” is familiar to anyone whose business relies on a website. It happens all the time: Someone is using a site, they get too annoyed trying to use it, and leave – unlikely to return.
Here’s how it often happens on dealership sites:
Our shopper, Marty, gets to the dealership homepage and sees a search bar. Great! He types in the same thing he entered into Google a few minutes ago, waits, and the search returns no results. He tries again… and nothing.
Only if he phrases his search query just right will he get any results at all, but who has the patience for that? Now he’s annoyed with this dealership at his very first interaction, and 100% ready to look elsewhere. We’ve all been there, Marty.
How To Solve It:
A better search bar – specifically Jazel’s RealSearch®.
That solution sounds simple, but it means your website has to live up to the standards set by the search engines like Google and Bing – the tools that shoppers use and rely upon on a daily basis.
RealSearch®, our proprietary dealership website search tool, delivers algorithmic-based search results that are ranked by relevance. In addition, every feature and detail on a VDP is searchable. You can even search by stock number – allowing dealership staff to direct a shopper to specific vehicles on the site.
With real algorithmic-based search results, shoppers can find vehicles by searching for any feature or description on your Vehicle Detail Pages (VDPs). They can even filter and sort results by relevance. Oh yeah, did we mention it also autocorrects?
It is also worth remembering that if your search bar can’t measure up to what shoppers expect from one, your site is better off without it. While searchers might not find things quite as fast – they won’t be totally turned off by a tool that doesn’t do its job.
The reality is that in the era of Google-level expectations, you just can’t afford to disappoint.
Curious? Learn even more about the power of RealSearch® here.
Stay tuned for our next solution!