Fast forward to the present, 2020. If I were running a dealership today I would still do the daily physical drive around. But the second thing I would do is conduct a “drive around” my website. More people are visiting virtual dealerships today than physical ones, by a lot. And based on hundreds of dealership websites I’ve visited in just the past year, this is an area that needs to be reviewed daily from the top down. As the saying goes, “you must inspect what you expect”. This holds true for your virtual dealership just as much (if not more) than your physical one.

Fixed Operations often takes a back seat, even when dealership websites are monitored regularly. As an industry, we have nailed down the funnel on the sales side. We have a great process to help drive shoppers to our Search Results Pages, then they make their way to the Vehicle Detail Page, then they convert to an appointment. We have so much content on the sales side that it creates a great user experience.

On the Fixed Ops side, however, that same smooth User Experience, for most dealerships, simply doesn’t exist. On average we find dealerships have 8-10 pages of service, parts, and accessories content. That is simply not enough to be relevant in Google’s eyes.