You can probably guess the #1 reason people visit a dealership’s website, but what’s #2 and why does it matter? 

We’ve conducted a survey for 7 years running now, asking people why they visit a dealer’s website. The #1 reason is no surprise, they want to check out what you’ve got for sale.

But what’s their second most important reason?

The #2 reason people visit dealer’s websites is to figure out what their car is worth.

This is great news because it means they’re coming directly to you, not a 3rd party who’s then going to want to re-sell you that lead later. You can get that first party lead, if you’ve got your website optimized for it.

Here’s what not to do.

Don’t just put a link in your menu and call it a day. This is the #2 reason, so you’ve got to make it prominent and nearly ubiquitous.  That means:

You need a banner on your homepage. You need a banner on the search results page and vehicle display page. If you’ve got a stack of call-to-action buttons, add it in there. 

The goal here is to make it easy for a consumer to find, meeting them where they are and when they’re ready. The end result is that you’ll see your first-party leads double and triple, and you’ll keep that hard earned traffic on your website and not bouncing off.