If selling cars is a numbers game, then more traffic is always better, right? Well, yes and no.
Let’s Talk Traffic
To increase sales you need more showroom visits, which means you need more opportunities to convert to leads, which establishes the need for more traffic. Right? But…more traffic doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re going to have more opportunity.
A common question I receive on this subject is, “what percentage of my traffic should my organic represent? Should my organic traffic be 25% of my website traffic? Should it be 50%, 70%?” There is no one-size-fits-all answer. We have to figure out what kind of traffic we’re getting; and what’s most important at the end of the day is that we get high-quality traffic that’s seeking to convert.
What is “High-Quality Traffic”?
We call this transactional traffic VS informational traffic. To explain, it’s the difference between a consumer looking to transact (ex: schedule a test drive, or service appointment) or simply looking for more information (ex: “towing capacity”, “trim levels”, “oil change intervals”). Bottom-line: if they didn’t show up intending to convert right now, you don’t get that conversion opportunity. So, we want to focus on the transactional traffic – even in smaller numbers – as they’re much more important than large amounts of informational traffic.
Recap
- When assessing the value of organic traffic, focus on quality over quantity.
- The quality of traffic is defined by the intent of the searcher.
- If a search is informational in nature, it is less likely to be a conversion opportunity right now.
- Focus on transactional searches that convey a clear intent to do business with your dealership in either sales or service.