Are you an auto mechanic who can put together different parts of a vehicle or repair them? Then you can most certainly also build auto repair websites!
While auto repair shops are a necessity nowadays, it can become hard for shop owners to attract more customers. Previously, auto repair shops used to acquire customers through word of mouth.
But now, with the penetration of the internet, it is important for an auto repair shop to have a strong digital presence. Building an auto repair website is one of the easiest, most effective, and most efficient ways to promote your business to a large number of people.
So now that’s cleared up, you need to start looking at ways to set up auto mechanic websites that actually work.
Why Should You Invest in Auto Mechanic Websites?
Okay, you might be thinking that automotive repair websites sound great, but is it worth the time and money? The straightforward answer is, yes.
An auto repair website lends credibility to businesses in this digital age. Some of the best websites with an impactful auto repair SEO campaign also manage to lure in, customers online. So basically, this means that setting up top automotive repair websites can actually help you boost sales revenue.
To make the decision easy for you, here are five top reasons why setting up an auto repair website is worth the time and money:
- Websites can attract and target more customers on the internet for your auto shop
- Top auto repair websites can benefit from visual branding and a strong digital presence
- An auto repair website that gives potential customers more information about your business gives it credibility and improves sales.
- Through an auto repair website, you’ll gain more avenues for marketing especially digital marketing
- If you have a website, it becomes easier for potential clients to contact you online
Remember, the internet is the modern-day customer’s first port of call so having an auto repair website to drive business should be at the top of your to do list.
Now that you know the importance of setting up a website for current and prospective customers, let’s look at the top strategies for building one.
Steps For Setting Up Auto Repair Websites
When setting up a website for your auto repair shop, there are many factors that you need to take into account. After all, it is the best auto repair website, that manage to grab the attention of customers and drive sales.
In this section, we are going to break down all the steps you need to take in order to set up an auto repair website that will actually help your business.
Structure of Your Auto Repair Shop Website,
First of all, you need to know what should be included in your auto repair website. Each website has a structure and needs to include the necessary information.
The website for your auto repair shop should at least have the following three pages:
- A home page for your auto shop that includes meaningful content on what your business is about, services, engaging photos, and at least one call to action (This call to action can be to book a free appointment, get a free quote, or to get in touch with your auto repair shop team). The home page should be structured well, should not have walls of text, and be visually appealing.
- A detailed about us page for your auto repair shop includes key information but with a personal touch. Sometimes, founders like to add their founding story here and mention fun facts like whether the shop is a family owned business, the mission, vision, and values.
- A contact us page that shows potential customers and new customers how they can get in touch with you or your team. You can also add a call to action like drop us a message on this page.
This is the most basic structure that many small businesses follow. However, you can play around with various other things on your website, like the color scheme, images, structure, and sales copy.
Having a beautiful design for your website paired with a well written copy is the best way to get started.
This is just the start. Many automotive shops, like the Christian Brothers also like to showcase their customer satisfaction record. You can also add your customer reviews on the front page, these serve as great examples for potential customers.
There are great examples of websites available on the internet. For example, the mechanic spot has a simple design, and its site offers customers a seamless user experience.
Design and Usability
Don’t underestimate the power of beautiful websites, even for an auto repair shop. The design and overall user experience of the business site are important factors in winning over customers.
While your website should include the most important information, the site should not be too cluttered. It should give customers a clear picture of what service you are offering.
You can also play around with the color scheme of the website to denote your services.
For example, auto repair shops usually have metallic color schemes on their website. The color scheme can also represent the demographic you are targeting – metallic colors are used for ‘classy’ services.
You can also add pictures of your auto repair shop or team offering services on the website. For example, you can feature an oil change picture on your homepage. This can be accompanied by a call to action, for example, requesting a free quote from our auto repair team.
Generally speaking, your website should have a good design and build trust with customers through the colors, pictures, and information on your services. The overall design and color scheme should not overwhelm the customers or distract them from the content.
Another important aspect of your website is navigation. Clean and well-structured navigation is the key to success, for every business website. Customers are usuall short on time and want answers quickly.
Complicated navigation can throw customers off their game and they may end up on the website of a rival business. You should make sure that your service is easily available on the website, with seamless navigation that does not confuse your customers.
The navigation menu should be easily accessible from every page on the website. Breadcrumb navigation is a good option that you can add to your website. You should also add a search bar to the menu so customers can quickly look up relevant services.
It helps users easily find the information that they need.
Content
Another important section of your business website is the content. You need to make sure the content clearly depicts all the services offered by your business, along with a call to action. Furthermore, the content should be SEO-optimized so that it can rank in Google and bring in organic traffic.
The rule for visual content is to avoid stock images. Stock photos don’t tell users much about your business or services. These photos distract users from your main content and don’t give an idea of how your repair shop looks.
Take quality photos of your car repair shop and office. People prefer a clean and well-equipped office for car repairs. Your photos should show your working conditions.
A blog is a great idea for your repair website. Few people understand the mechanics of car repair. Giving users a brief explanation of the most popular issues and how they can be fixed is a good idea. It increases clients’ trust in your service.
Client Testimonials For Brand Awareness
Word of mouth is one of the best ways of improving your brand awareness and raising people’s trust in your repair shop. This is why your business website should also feature actual customer reviews and testimonials.
These testimonials should come from actual people. But then there is also the question of whether you should remove bad testimonials that are likely to appear. The majority of professionals don’t recommend the deletion of bad reviews. Bad reviews can be seen as a sign that other reviews aren’t fake.
However, ideally, it is recommended that you provide good quality services so your business website can feature more positive reviews for your brand than bad ones.
Tips For Success While Making Automotive Repair Websites
So the story doesn’t end here. Now that you understand the step by step process to make websites, let’s look at some more tips that you can use.
Gather Relevant Information
When it comes to creating a website for an auto repair shop, one of the most common mistakes is to focus too much on the technical aspects of the site and neglect to consider the business side of it.
In the end, a website is just an online brochure that provides customers with information on how to locate you, what services you offer, and any contact details. Hence, you don’t want to focus too much energy on making things technical.
Your priority should be to ensure that the website is meeting your business goals. To do this, you should gather all the relevant information on your business, and make sure it is displayed clearly on your website. This will also help you in avoiding a high cost outlay, that comes with a technical website design.
Research Website-Building Tools
While it is normal for business owners to hire developers to set up their websites, you should also research some website-building tools yourself. You can also look at different website templates and select the one that best meets the needs of your business.
Usually, it is recommended that you look at templates that are relevant to vehicle and car repair services. Before selecting a template, make sure it is SEO-friendly so it increases your chances of receiving relevant organic traffic.
Claim Your Listings
You will have to claim your listings if you want to include online reviews and testimonials. It’s possible to see what comes up for your company by searching for “My Business” on Google. If you haven’t already claimed your business, make sure to check for errors. You don’t want to miss a customer because someone entered your phone number wrong or because your address is incorrect on the map.
If you haven’t already created a business page on Facebook, you should. If you want to improve consistency and reduce confusion, take the information from your website and put it on your listing pages, like Yelp. You can continue to add your listings to other directory sites. It’s possible to link to all of these sites from your website.
Check Your Website Before Publishing
Before you go live with your auto repair website, make sure you have all of the information right and up on the website.
It is also recommended that you ask a trusted manager or friend to look at it with a fresh pair of eyes and review the website critically.
When you finally publish it online, you will want to present a polished look, but you can always correct errors.
Run a Marketing Campaign For Your Website
The next principle on our list is marketing your website on the internet and getting relevant traffic to it.
When marketing to the internet audience, it’s important that people think you’re believable and trustworthy. This is done via authenticity, and by demonstrating that you have a story to tell. One great way to do this is by publishing content. When someone reads your blog, they should feel like they’ve connected with you and that you’re a real person.
You can easily connect with visitors on your blog and turn them into customers.
One of the most basic marketing techniques; email marketing is a tried and tested way of keeping your target audience up to date with what you’re up to and encouraging them to stay engaged and loyal. Using an email marketing service like MailChimp means you have the ability to send emails to your subscribers with no effort required on your part.
As a result of the increasing popularity of social media, Google has made it even easier for businesses to market themselves online.
Many new businesses especially e-commerce websites are having difficulty building traffic on their own, website but if they build a strong social following on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and YouTube, they’ll be able to promote their business to an entire community of potential customers.
This means that in addition to your website, you should set up your social media accounts and run campaigns to get more clients.
