Give Customers a Better View of Your Vehicles with Better Comments
No matter how many hours they spend researching vehicles on the Internet, nearly all customers want to see a vehicle in person before they buy it. There’s no better way to make sure a car or truck fits your needs than to experience it for yourself. Of course, that’s not so easy to do when many states are now asking folks not to leave their homes unless absolutely necessary. But while opportunities to visit your store may be limited, there are many tactics you can rely on to help. We recommend sharpening your focus on vehicle comments that make it easier for customers to see you online when they can’t see you on the lot.
Getting Seen by Search Engines
The first stop for most online shoppers is Google, which dominates with nearly 90% of the global market share for search engines. That means your first step is getting your vehicle comments “seen” by Google’s SEO algorithms so you’re up near the top of the results list, where customers can find you. Getting on that first page is vital since a recent study by Backlinko showed that only 0.78% of Google users click on a second-page listing.
Now, to raise your Google rankings, your comments have to feature the same search terms as your customers are using. And relying on outdated or technical words, like “DOHC” or “16X7J wheels,” won’t get the job done. Very few people search for cars using these terms, so why waste the limited space of a vehicle comment by including them? Our DAN writers don’t. Instead, they’re plugged into the industry and know how to speak the same language as your customers.
Painting a Picture with Words
How you put those words together is another key to your success. Flat, robotic language is a major turn-off that will have customers quickly clicking on to somewhere else. The best vehicle descriptions have a natural flow that machines can’t match, and good comments tell a compelling story about why your specific car is a perfect fit for that specific person.
It’s just as important that your descriptions are informative, credible, and professional, especially in today’s environment. When a comment doesn’t mention a popular piece of equipment, like a blind-spot monitor, customers have to go elsewhere to find what they’re looking for. The flipside to this comes if you mention that monitor and the vehicle doesn’t actually have one. Given the issues around COVID-19, a shopper already faces extra hassles looking for a car. Then imagine how they’d feel after going through those obstacles only to discover the safety technology they were counting on isn’t in the vehicle after all. You won’t only lose that sale, but you could lose a lot more through lousy word-of-mouth. Finally, remember that anything you put online is a reflection of your dealership. People are likely to think that your operation is sloppy and prone to mistakes if that’s the way your vehicle descriptions are. With this in mind, our DAN team carefully proofs and edits our comments before they’re sent to you.
Don’t Forget About the Photos
Although this is the part of the process that DAN doesn’t handle, getting the right pictures is part of a one-two punch for knockout vehicle descriptions. In fact, clear photos are more helpful than ever because it’s so challenging nowadays for shoppers to see the vehicles at your dealership. Take note of a new trend, too. According to a recent report from the New York Times, folks stuck at home during the crisis are moving away from their smartphones and going online with laptop and desktop computers. Their bigger screens are much better suited for showing off your inventory than the smaller phone displays.
Take the time to photograph anything and everything you think a customer would typically look at during an in-person walk around, from the engine bay to the infotainment system. Don’t worry about producing works of art, but do make an effort to take focused, well-lit pictures of a clean vehicle. Images are only half, and unless everything inside every picture is manually tagged for SEO, you need Vehicle Descriptions to help Google help you.
Our Point of View
The right vehicle descriptions have always been an excellent tool for getting your cars and trucks in front of modern customers, who often prefer spending time online rather than at dealerships. Today, when most dealer-friendly shoppers may not want to visit because of the virus, your Web presence looms even larger. It’s the ideal opportunity for you to see the difference that daN comments can make.
