As a business owner in the automotive industry, you know a professionally designed website is essential to engage customers and drive sales. However, developing an attractive, user-friendly website requires technical skills and expertise that you may lack. Using a website builder like Unicorn Platform allows you to create a custom site without needing to learn how to code.
With their drag and drop interface, you have full creative control to showcase your business. Choose from sleek templates tailored for automotive brands and customize everything from fonts and colors to page layouts. Integrate high-quality images of your products and location. Provide detailed listings of your inventory or services. The simple yet powerful editor makes updating content a breeze so you can keep your site fresh.
For automotive website design made simple, Unicorn Platform is the solution. Their easy-to-use tools empower you to build an impressive website that transforms visitors into loyal customers. Focus on growing your business while Unicorn Platform handles the technical details. Let their platform unleash the potential of your online presence.
If you want to learn how to create a high-converting landing page for your car dealership, check out our article on building a high-converting car dealership landing page in minutes.
Automotive Website Design Trends You Need to Know
To design an effective automotive website, it's important to keep up with the latest trends. Here are a few you should know:
Mobile-Friendly Design
With more people accessing the internet via mobile devices, a responsive mobile-friendly design is essential. Use a simple, clean layout with large buttons and text, limiting horizontal scrolling. Optimize images to load quickly. A fast, user-friendly mobile experience is key.
Video Content
Video is engaging and helps to visually demonstrate your products or services. Create videos spotlighting new vehicle models, virtual test drives, customer reviews, and behind-the-scenes footage. Embed videos directly into your website and promote them on social media.
Personalized Experience
Use interactive features like car configurators, calculators, and chatbots to provide a personalized experience for customers. A car configurator, for example, allows customers to customize options and view a 3D model of their dream vehicle. These tools help customers feel invested in your brand.
Social Proof
Build trust by incorporating authentic social proof like customer reviews, testimonials, and ratings on your site. Feature reviews from sites like Google, Facebook, and Yelp. You can also ask happy customers to provide a review or testimonial to display on your website.
Optimized for Search Engines
Optimize your website to rank highly in search engine results pages (SERPs). Use a simple URL structure, page titles, meta descriptions, and headings that contain your target keywords. Internal linking between relevant pages and blogs also helps. An SEO-optimized site will drive more organic traffic from search engines like Google.
With the right design and features, you can create an automotive website that provides an experience customers won't forget. By following trends, you'll build a site that inspires, engages, and converts more leads into sales.
The Key Elements of an Effective Automotive Website
The key to an effective automotive website design is focusing on elements
that inspire trust and confidence in visitors. Here are some of the most
important factors to consider:
Clear Navigation
A simple, intuitive menu makes it easy for visitors to find what they need. Group
pages by make and model, services offered, location, etc. Include dropdown menus
for a clean look.
High-Quality Images
Feature attractive photos of vehicles, your shop, and staff. Images should be optimized for web use.
Include photo galleries to showcase inventory or completed projects.
Descriptive Copy
Use an engaging yet professional tone to describe your business, services, staff qualifications, and more. Mention years of experience, credentials, awards or certifications to build credibility. Discuss how you stand out from competitors.
Easy Contact
Prominently display phone numbers, email, social media links, and an online contact form. Many visitors will want to get in touch to ask questions or book an appointment. Make that as simple as possible.
Positive Reviews
Feature authentic customer reviews and testimonials on your site. These social proofs show visitors that others have had a good experience with your company. Keep reviews sincere and balanced. Address any negative comments promptly and professionally.
Valuable Content
Include helpful blog posts, videos, and other resources related to vehicle care, new technologies, safe driving tips, etc. This demonstrates your expertise and can rank well in search engines. Just be sure content is kept up-to-date.
An automotive website should be as well-designed as the vehicles it features. By focusing on these key elements, you'll gain the trust of visitors and encourage them to do business with your company.
Best Automotive Website Designs
Some of the best automotive website designs incorporate elements that provide an optimal user experience. When designing your automotive website, consider including the following features:
Clean Layout
A clean, uncluttered layout is essential for any automotive website. Remove unnecessary elements and organize content in a logical flow. Group similar topics, products or services together. Leave plenty of white space to make it easy on the eyes. A simple yet sophisticated design will make a great first impression.
High Quality Images
Since vehicles are visual products, high quality images are a must. Include multiple photos of each vehicle from different angles, both interior and exterior. Images should be large, crisp and clear. For the best results, use professional photography. Images are key for showcasing your inventory.
Detailed Product Pages
Each vehicle listing should have its own page with comprehensive details. Provide the make, model, year, mileage, condition, features and any additional details on the vehicle history or reconditioning. Share photos of the actual vehicle. Price and call-to-action buttons should be prominently displayed. The more information you can provide, the better.
Responsive Design
With the majority of people accessing websites via mobile devices, a responsive design is essential. Content and images should resize and reorganize to fit any screen size. CTA buttons and other interactive elements should also be mobile-friendly. A responsive design will ensure an optimal experience for all visitors regardless of the device used.
Prominent Contact Information
Your business’s contact information should be clearly visible on each page of the website, especially the homepage and product pages. Provide your business name, address, phone number and email. Many visitors will be ready to inquire about purchasing a vehicle, so placing contact details prominently will enable them to reach out right away.
Following these best practices for automotive website design will create an experience that informs and engages your visitors. With a clean layout, quality images, detailed product pages, a responsive design and prominent contact information, you'll have an automotive website that drives results.
Choosing the Right Automotive Website Builder
When choosing an automotive website builder, there are several factors to consider. The platform you select should have the functionality and features to meet your specific needs while also being easy to use.
Ease of Use
An intuitive drag and drop builder with pre-designed templates helps ensure a short learning curve. Look for a platform that is easy to navigate and customize without needing advanced technical skills. For automotive websites, a builder with vehicle listings, inventory management, and eCommerce functionality tailored for car dealerships is ideal.
Design Flexibility
A range of professionally designed templates provides a good starting point, but you also want flexibility to customize the look and feel to match your brand. Consider builders that offer full customization of fonts, colors, images, and layouts. For automotive sites, make sure you can add eye-catching vehicle images, custom forms, calls-to-action, and other elements to highlight your inventory.
Integrations
Seamless integrations with third-party tools you already use can help streamline processes. Look for builders that offer native or pre-built integrations with CRM software, email marketing services, social media platforms, and automotive industry tools. For instance, integration with inventory management and vehicle listing services saves time by automatically syncing your vehicle data and images to your website.
Responsive Design
In today's multi-device world, a responsive design that displays properly on any screen size is essential. Choose a builder with templates and functionality optimized for mobile, tablets, and desktops. Your automotive website should be easy to navigate on the go so customers can find vehicle information or contact you anytime from their preferred device.
Affordability
Price is always a consideration, so compare plans and costs across different website builders. Some offer free trials, monthly or annual pricing, and discounts for nonprofits or small businesses. Look for a platform with a plan that suits your budget and needs. Automotive website builders with built-in lead generation tools and eCommerce can provide the highest value for your investment.
In summary, the ideal automotive website builder is easy to use, customizable, integrated, responsive, and affordable. Evaluating platforms based on these key factors will help you choose a solution to showcase your inventory and connect with customers. With the right builder, you can have a professional automotive website up and running in no time.
The Benefits of Using Unicorn Platform
Using the Unicorn Platform for your automotive website design offers several key benefits:
User-Friendly Interface
The Unicorn Platform features an intuitive drag and drop builder, making it easy to create professional automotive websites without any coding experience. You can simply select from a wide range of pre-designed blocks and templates to build your site. Editing and updating content is simple with the user-friendly page editor.
Mobile Responsive
Websites built with the Unicorn Platform are fully responsive, meaning they automatically adapt to fit any screen size from smartphones to desktop computers. Your automotive website will look great and function well on all devices. Responsive design is crucial for search engine optimization and user experience.
SEO Optimized
The Unicorn Platform creates websites following search engine optimization best practices to help improve your rankings in Google and other search engines. Things like page titles, URL structures, image alt text, and semantic HTML markup are all handled for you. You can also further optimize your site by adding page descriptions, blog posts, and high-quality content.
E-commerce Integration
For those in the automotive industry selling products or services, the Unicorn Platform integrates seamlessly with Shopify, WooCommerce, and other e-commerce platforms. You can easily link your online store to your Unicorn website, accept payments, manage orders, and more.
24/7 Customer Support
Unicorn Platform offers helpful documentation and resources to guide you through building your automotive website. If you get stuck or have any questions, the support team is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to assist you. They can help you troubleshoot any issues and make sure you have the best experience using the platform.
In summary, the Unicorn Platform is an ideal solution for creating a professional, search engine-friendly automotive website with a user-friendly interface, responsive design, built-in SEO features, e-commerce integration, and dedicated support. Using this powerful yet easy to use website builder will allow you to establish an effective online presence for your automotive business.
Top Automotive Website Design Examples
When designing an automotive website, it’s important to showcase stunning visuals of vehicles while also highlighting key features and services. Some of the top automotive website designs do an excellent job of balancing visual appeal with utility.
CarGurus
CarGurus is one of the largest automotive shopping sites, allowing visitors to search new and used car listings from thousands of dealers nationwide. Their homepage instantly grabs attention with large, high-quality photos of featured vehicles. However, the site also excels at providing useful tools and resources for shoppers like price analysis features, reviews, and buying guides. The overall design is clean and minimal, with plenty of white space allowing the vehicles and tools to shine through.
Tesla
As a leader in electric vehicle innovation, Tesla’s website is futuristic yet minimalistic. The homepage video and vehicle images are visually stunning. However, the site also does an excellent job of educating visitors about the brand and its values. For example, one section highlights Tesla’s mission to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy. The site is also highly functional, allowing visitors to easily schedule test drives, estimate costs with their savings calculator, and explore financing options.
Porsche
Porsche’s website evokes the same level of luxury and performance as their vehicles. Dramatic photos of Porsche sports cars and SUVs span the width of the screen, with minimal text overlaid. As you scroll, additional sections provide an in-depth look at Porsche’s latest models, their brand heritage, customization options, and available technology like adaptive suspension and torque vectoring systems. The dark color scheme and choice of fonts exude sophistication. Overall, the site is a visual masterpiece that also highlights the technical excellence Porsche is known for.
In summary, some of the top automotive website designs find the optimal balance between visuals that inspire and content that informs. They showcase the brand experience as much as the vehicles themselves. By following their lead, you can create an automotive website that will capture attention and build interest in your products or services.
Automotive Website Design Best Practices
When designing an automotive website, there are several best practices to keep in mind. Following these guidelines will ensure an optimized user experience and help convert more visitors into customers.
Focus on High-Quality Visuals
High-resolution, attractive photos and videos of vehicles are essential for an automotive website. Use a professional photographer to capture photos of the latest models from multiple angles. Video walkarounds, test drives, and virtual tours are highly engaging for users and help convey what it feels like to experience the vehicle in person.
Optimize for Mobile
The majority of users will access your website on their mobile devices, so the design must be fully responsive. All elements, including photos, videos, forms, and CTAs should resize and reorient for an optimal mobile experience. The mobile version should retain all the key features and functionality as the desktop site.
Streamline the User Experience
An intuitive user experience is key. Group similar models together and make vehicle pages easy to navigate. Include filtering options to help users find exactly what they need. The vehicle pages should highlight specs, features, pricing, incentives, and a photo gallery. Include Calls-to-Action to schedule a test drive or get a quote.
Share Customer Reviews and Ratings
Customer reviews and ratings are very influential in the automotive industry. Include a dedicated section for reviews of your business and highlight reviews mentioning specific vehicles. Reviews help build trust and credibility which can motivate users to take action.
Offer Strong Calls-to-Action
CTAs prompt visitors to engage further with your site. Some recommended automotive CTAs include: Schedule a Test Drive, Get Your Quote, Value Your Trade, and Shop New Inventory. Place CTAs prominently on page headers, footers, sidebars, and at the end of blog posts and vehicle pages. Use contrasting colors and sizes to make the CTAs stand out.
Blog Regularly
An active blog helps establish your business as an authority in the industry. Publish posts on new models, vehicle technologies, driving tips, company news, and other topics relevant to your audience. Update the blog at least once a week to keep readers engaged. Promote your blog posts on social media to increase traffic.
Following these automotive website design best practices will create an experience that informs and inspires visitors. By optimizing for engagement and conversion, you'll turn more website visitors into lifetime customers.
Tips for Optimizing Your Automotive Website for SEO
Optimizing your automotive website for search engine optimization (SEO) is key to driving organic traffic and increasing visibility. By following these best practices, you can improve your search rankings and connect with more customers.
Use Relevant Keywords
Incorporate important keywords, like “automotive website design” and “best automotive website designs,” in your page titles, headers, content, and meta descriptions. Aim for a keyword density of 3-5% to avoid over-optimization penalties.
Choose keywords that your target audience is searching for and that accurately reflect your content.
Create Unique Content
Publish original content, like blog posts, videos, and images. Search engines favor unique, high-quality content. Repurposing content from other sources can hurt your rankings.
Optimize Page Speed
A fast loading website leads to higher search rankings and better user experience. Compress images, minify code, and enable caching to optimize page speed. Most automotive websites should load in under 3 seconds.
Build Internal Links
Link to other relevant content on your website. Internal links pass authority to linked pages and keep visitors engaged. Use anchor text with keywords when linking internally.
Earn High Quality Backlinks
Build links from authoritative websites in the automotive industry. High value backlinks pass authority to your site and signal to search engines that your content is valuable. Aim for relevant, dofollow backlinks from sites with a high domain authority.
Mobile Optimized
With more people accessing the internet via mobile devices, an optimized mobile experience is essential. Ensure your automotive website is responsive or has a dedicated mobile version. Mobile friendliness is a ranking factor for search engines.
Submit to Search Engines
Manually submit your website to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools. This helps search engines discover and index your new automotive website. Submit XML sitemaps to point crawlers to all of your content.
Optimizing for SEO is an ongoing process, but by following these tips you can build an automotive website that ranks well and drives high quality traffic. Continually create great content, build links, monitor rankings and make improvements to better serve your customers.
Automotive Website Design FAQs: Commonly Asked Questions Answered
As an automotive website owner, you likely have several questions about how to design an effective site. Here are some of the most frequently asked questions and their answers:
What are the key elements of good automotive website design?
The key elements of an effective automotive website design include:
- Clean, minimalistic layout with ample white space
- High-quality images of vehicles, especially on the homepage
- Clear navigation that is easy to use on both desktop and mobile
- Descriptive content about vehicle makes, models, features, and pricing
- Prominent contact information for sales inquiries
- Integration with social media to build community
Should my site focus on mobile or desktop users?
In today's world, you need to focus on both mobile and desktop users. More than half of all web traffic now comes from mobile devices. Design your site to be fully responsive so it displays well on all devices. Focus on a simple, intuitive user experience that translates across platforms.
How often should I update my automotive website?
You should update your automotive website frequently to keep the content fresh, engage visitors, and improve your search engine optimization. Aim for:
- Blog posts: 1-2 new posts per week discussing vehicles, features, driving tips, or other topics of interest to your audience.
- Vehicle listings: Update as you acquire new inventory. Remove sold vehicles promptly.
- News and announcements: Share company news, sales, and events as needed, at least 1-2 times a month.
- Site design: Perform a major redesign every 2-3 years to keep the look and functionality modern. Make minor tweaks and improvements as needed in between.
By following automotive website design best practices and keeping your content up to date, you can build an online presence that drives more traffic and conversions. Please let me know if you have any other questions!
Conclusion
As you have seen, Unicorn Platform provides you with an easy to use drag and drop interface to create stunning automotive websites without needing to know how to code. Their templates are sleek and modern, optimized for lead generation, and mobile-friendly. For automotive businesses looking to establish an online presence, Unicorn Platform allows you to get started quickly and scale as your needs change. With powerful built-in features like blogging, email marketing, social sharing and ecommerce, Unicorn Platform is an all-in-one solution to help your automotive business thrive online. The platform is affordable, intuitive, and provides the results you need. If you're ready to take your automotive website to the next level, Unicorn Platform is the perfect place to start.
