Why Is This Important?
All companies strive to attract high-quality traffic to their website that not only engages but also converts into product sales. By assessing various elements such as page layout and widget engagement, this case study highlights a set of best practices for automotive dealer website homepage design elements.
The Challenge
Develop a standardized set of best practices for homepage design that not only captivates and retains user attention but also ensures consistency and high-quality user interaction across all dealer websites. Key areas of investigation included identifying which widgets and types of content most effectively captivated and engaged users.
Solution
From November 2023 to January 2024, a detailed analysis of 643,000 user sessions across 17 automotive dealer websites was conducted by Ansira. The goal was to not only pinpoint what drives user interaction but also to develop and implement these findings into actionable design strategies. Ultimately, the intent is to provide a roadmap to optimize homepage layouts to significantly enhance user engagement and overall experience, ensuring that the Ansira website platform remains dynamic and effective in meeting user needs.
The study meticulously examined homepage performance metrics, focusing on the impact of various widgets and page layouts on user engagement. These findings guide strategies to optimize homepage layouts, enhancing user experience and engagement, and ensuring the platform effectively meets consumers’ needs.
Results
The cross-device analysis reveals that nearly 80% of user clicks target vehicle inventory, highlighting its position above the fold as critical. The inventory search bar garners the highest user engagement, while hero slides and vehicle showcase widgets lag significantly behind, with roughly 1% of clicks on hero slides. Moreover, less than half of the visitors scroll beyond the midpoint of the homepage.
How Can You Implement These Findings?
If you’re an automotive dealer or really a local rooftop in any vertical that has a website highlighting your products, given its high engagement, the inventory search bar should be prominently displayed above the fold to maximize visibility. Hero slides, which receive minimal interaction, should not only feature compelling offers but those offers should also be prioritized in the top 1 or 2 positions if possible; otherwise, consider relocating the hero slide to a lower position on the page. Since a significant portion of users do not scroll far, it’s essential to position key content and calls-to-action (CTAs) above the fold, ensuring they effectively guide users towards inventory and service pages.
If you’d like more best practices for enhancing your local website engagement, visit our resource center for more information, you can also reach out to talk to one of our Ansira Website Platform experts.