Automotive manufacturers in Europe (OEMs) that are looking to upgrade their website technology for their franchise network, can avoid making the same mistakes that OEMs in the United States have made over the past 10 years.

One may think that “the markets in the USA and the EU are very different” however, the technology needed to properly merchandise new and used cars is very much the same worldwide.

PCG, the creator of the Automotive Website Awards (AWA) in the United States, is in a position to share their knowledge with OEMs worldwide.  The AWA’s are the most prestigious awards for automotive retail technology in the United States.

Every year PCG evaluates, benchmarks, and scores over thirty automotive website technology providers to help OEMs make a smart choice for their online marketing of vehicles.  The awards also include recognition with CRM, chat, digital advertising, and mobile marketing excellence.

Websites in The EU

PCG has recently conducted an evaluation of over 100 automotive websites in the EU and have found that over 70% of the websites they tested fail the very basic recommendation by Google for Search Engine Optimization (SEO).  PCG also inspected website technology used by some of the largest dealer groups in the EU and was discouraged with the findings of the research team.

In fact, many dealer franchise websites that PCG inspected still use “iframes” to display local inventory. When utilizing framed inventory technology, the cars listed on the dealership website are invisible to Google local search.  This puts local dealers at a disadvantage and requires the dealers to be dependent on third party classified advertising portals.

As the automotive sales in the EU rebound and a renewed focus on digital marketing investments by OEMS, I have decided to share my automotive website technology checklist.

I have listed my top 10.5 recommendations in the hope that my advice will save OEMs from repeating the same painful mistakes that I have witnessed in the United States over the past 9 years.

Time will only tell if the manufacturers will listen to advice from the field and not from fast talking sales professionals from website companies or marketing agencies that have a different agenda.

Top 10.5 Requirements For Automotive Websites in the EU

  1. Website technology must have an adaptive/responsive framework. – With mobile visitors on the rise, OEM and dealership websites must present content that is perfectly sized for desktop, tablet, and smartphone screens.  OEMs must end the practice of providing a poor shopping for mobile shoppers. Google will penalize websites that have different desktop and mobile website content so it is time to get serious about mobile shoppers and embrace a “mobile first” strategy.
  2. Website technology must implement structured data. – Website pages can be optimized based on the utilization of structured data, as defined by www.schema.org.  Automotive websites that list vehicles for sales must leverage structured data to enhance search results on the major search engines.  Websites that have implemented structured data for their videos, offers, and vehicles have an advantage in search engine visibility.
  3. Websites must display individual, optimized website pages for new and used cars. – Shoppers want to inspect the vehicles that they plan to purchase online.  Each vehicle that is “in-stock” should have its own website page, which I will refer to as a “Vehicle Detail Page” (VDP).  In the EU, many vehicles are custom ordered; so, new car inventory may be low for some OEMs at franchise locations.  This fact should not delay the creation of unique vehicle detail pages (VDP) for new vehicles that are available for purchase today.  OEMs and dealers must end the practice of listing only used cars on their website with a unique VDP.
  4. Vehicle Detail Pages (VDP) must be Google compliant.  – Google provides a free Search engine Optimization (SEO) Guide which indicates that every website page should have a descriptive and readable URL, unique page title, and accurate page description.  It is amazing that so many automotive websites violate these recommendations.
  5. Eliminate “framed” inventory solutions. – Websites must eliminate the use of <iframe> technology, which allows the insertion of vehicle inventory pages from third party web servers.  This is a lazy form of technology which penalizes the OEM or franchise websites, and blocks any benefits of organic traffic based on in-stock vehicles.  Websites should merchandise and optimize every in-stock vehicle so that traffic can be generated both organically as well as directly through optimized SEM campaigns that advertise based on vehicle make and model.
  6. Website technology must make it easy to integrate video – Since online video is one of the most influential media formats to engage online shoppers, website technology must make it easy to embed video on all pages.  Websites should allow YouTube embedded video as well as newer video hosting platforms that include automated video sitemaps and structured data wrappers for inline SEO.
  7. Website technology must be transparent with Google Analytics, Google Webmaster Tools, and Google Adwords. – Website technology providers must be willing to be transparent.  They must install the free tools that Google provides to enable independent inspection of traffic, conversion, and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).  Website should implement Google Analytics “event” tracking to provide insights into website activity and engagement.
  8. Website technology must support dynamic phone numbers based on referral source.  As mobile traffic increases, so will phone calls.  Websites must be able to support third party dynamic phone numbers, so that referral click traffic can be presented with unique phone numbers to associated phone call “conversions” with click costs.  Websites that do not allow third party codes are dangerous in that they will limit free market competition for online advertising solutions.
  9. Website technology must document, store, and provide the ability to analyze visitor activity – The days of providing a basic website framework are over.  Website technology providers must provide detailed reports on website activity including sources of traffic, form submissions, and Vehicle Detail Page (VDP) views by stock number. OEM websites and franchise dealer websites must consider themselves to be e-commerce websites and have the appropriate details on website engagement so that conversion can be optimized.
  10. Websites are part of a marketing infrastructure and must have an open API – Websites are one part of an online marketing strategy but they are not the complete picture.  Website technology must provide an open Application Program Interface (API) for third party dashboards to pull data to contribute to a data warehouse.  OEMs and dealers do not want another login to add to their list of daily reports and online vendor reports.  By providing an open API, OEMs and larger dealer groups can automate their digital reports using tools like VistaDash. Closed reporting systems are a dead end for OEMs that want to energize their dealer network.

10.5     Local Citations- Website companies must facilitate the education and implementation of adding websites to local directories, which is needed to help improve local search results.  Google uses local citations when evaluating local authority. Add the complete business name, phone number and description to help Google recognize the local relevance. Citations are a key element of Google’s local search algorithm.

So, there you have it! You have my top 10.5 suggestions for website technology to power OEM and franchise dealer websites in the EU.

Top Website Technology in the US

If OEMs are looking for examples of strong website technology companies from the US, that received the highest marks in the 2014 AWA awards, can research from the list below:

The website platform with the greatest support for International markets is Motortrak, based in the UK and USA, and also an AWA winner (http://www.MotorTrak.com) will be coming out with a responsive platform this year.

Since website companies in the United States may not be providing websites for EU countries, I would like to offer my services to OEMs to define the criteria for the website specifications needed for success in each local market.

OEMs and dealer groups that would like additional insights into the technology to power their online marketing strategies can contact me via email at brian@pcgmailer.com.

About the Author

Brian Pasch is the founder of PCG companies. PCG provides customized marketing and training solutions for businesses that are committed to dominate their local market.