How to Improve Your Online Presence as a Motor Trader

It doesn’t matter if you’ve been trading for two or 20 years, having a good online presence could help boost your business, your sales and your reputation.

Look For Directories

Finding where to list your motor trade website online can be as easy as googling ‘garages in [your town]’. Look at the first few pages of search results for options, and see what comes up - you may also need to try and search for different locations. Perhaps search for some of the services you offer and see what different webpages are returned. You will most likely find results for websites such as Yelp, Yell and directories local to your motor trade business location. After listing your business on these directories, you may see that these directories/websites then come up in online searches for your business name.

When searching for your business name you may also find that your business details have already been listed on search engines such as Google and Bing, but the information may be incomplete or inaccurate. This is a missed opportunity to give customers quick access to useful information about your business, and there’s usually an easy-to-find link to claim the business listing as yours so that you can edit the information that Google or Bing shows about your business. It shouldn’t take long and could be the difference between a customer giving you a call, or taking their business elsewhere.

Search Engine Optimisation

Out of all the things you can do to boost your online presence as a motor trader, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is one of the most important and effective methods. You may have noticed many of your competitors were listed in the search results when searching for ‘MOT services in [your location]’, including national companies too. SEO can be a long and often difficult task, but there are many resources online that can teach you the ropes of SEO to help you apply it to your website. Alternatively, there are specialist SEO companies out there that can manage this for you.

It’s a great way of getting traffic from Google and Bing for free, and the more effort you put into getting organic traffic (clicks from Google/Bing that weren’t acquired from the ads that load at the top of the page) the less you may need to spend on other advertising methods.

Social Media

Although Facebook recently announced that they will be shifting their focus onto user created content rather than business pages, it’s still important to have a presence on Facebook, as well as Twitter. Both social media websites can be a great way to broadcast special offers and new products to your audience or customer base. The same can be said for Instagram and YouTube. For example, if you are a valeter you may upload a photo to Instagram showing the latest high-performance car you have valeted (though make sure you have the car owner’s permission before you do).

Social media can also offer a cheap way to interact with your customer base and potential clients - by using Facebook Messenger you could have a free-to-use online chat system that can be customised to let customers know what times you are active, and other important information, in case you aren’t able to respond to a message straight away. Don’t forget though, if you start a conversation with a customer online and don’t finish it, or ignore them altogether, it could lead to unhappy customers, so always make sure you manage any communications effectively. With social media, it is easy for people to register their dissatisfaction and share it with others, so always work hard on answering all queries or questions, and interacting effectively with your customers.

Make Sure Your Website Is Easy to Use

There’s no point in improving your online presence if all that your website visitors find when clicking through to your website is an ugly and unusable site. Making sure that visitors can find information easily on your website is crucial, and showing them where to go to purchase your services is just as important.

If your motor trade business is a garage and a potential customer can’t find how to book an MOT on your website, then from a customer point of view the website is useless. Make sure you have a good way to navigate your site, such as a navigation bar at the top of your website that lists your most important and relevant pages such as:

• Home
• Services
• Contact Us
• Find Us

Depending on what type of motor trade business you run, you can include more options. For example, if you sell used cars, it would be useful to have a page dedicated to the cars you currently have in stock, along with photographs, prices, and any other relevant information about the car. Making sure the customer has all the information they need to make an informed decision can help turn that website visitor into a customer.

Motor Trade Insurance

Being visible online isn’t the only thing your motor trade business needs; having the best Motor Trade insurance policy for your business is just as crucial. Find out what you need to insure by calling 0800 221 8077 and speaking to a member of our Motor Trade insurance team. Alternatively, you can click ‘Get a Quote’ below, leave some details, and one of our experts will be in touch!