Forget yellow pages or radio ads. To reach today’s audiences, auto repair shops have to think digitally.
But that doesn’t just mean trying to reach potential customers on their computers. Instead, it means optimizing your marketing efforts for mobile devices.
And that effort, in turn, begins and ends with your website.
In an age where most of your audience uses their smartphone or tablet as a primary device to access the internet, optimizing your website for smartphones and tablets is no longer optional. To draw your audience’s attention and attract them to your shop, it’s absolutely essential. These five reasons explain why.
1. Meet Your Customers Where They Are
First, and maybe most importantly, a mobile website is a must for your auto repair shop because it meets your customers where they spend their time.
Younger audiences are almost twice as likely to access the internet through their mobile device instead of a desktop computer or laptop. But even among older audiences, more than half of all potential customers now prefer their smartphones to their computers, as well.
And it’s not just about quantity. In fact, the average internet user now spends more than 200 minutes every day using the internet via smartphone, compared to just 100 minutes per day on a desktop computer.
By making your website mobile friendly, you’re arriving in the same space. It helps you ensure that anything you share, from your services to your contact info, is easily accessible from your audience’s preferred devices.
2. Improve Your Search Engine Rankings
Researchers aren’t the only ones that have noticed the increasingly clear shift to mobile. Search engines like Google have noticed the same thing, and are adjusting accordingly.
When users have better search experiences, they’re more likely to return to Google instead of its competitors. So it’s only natural that, as users have switched their preferences to mobile, Google has prioritized mobile-optimized websites in its search results pages, too.
In fact, the search engine giant now follows what it calls its Mobile-First Index. Every website is first evaluated (and ranked) as if a mobile user would access it. If you’re not optimized for it, you get an automated downgrade.
But if your auto shop website is optimized for mobile devices, you get an automatic ranking boost—resulting in more traffic and more business in the long run.
3. Speed Up Your Site Load Time
Mobile-optimized websites are, by definition, lean. They can show less on a single screen, and layouts have to be simpler, just because of the smaller screen sizes of their audiences.
But what sounds like a limitation can actually become a crucial benefit for your auto repair shop website.
That’s because it’s difficult to overstate just how much your audience hates slow-loading websites.
If a website takes more than 3 seconds to load, you’re in trouble. If it takes more than 5, you might as well kiss that potential customer goodbye. Especially on mobile devices, they’ll get bored quickly, and move on to a competitor instead.
Because mobile websites are so lean, they load faster than their legacy desktop counterparts. So, optimizing your website for mobile devices almost necessarily means speeding it up as well, improving user retention and satisfaction.
And because Google prioritizes fast-loading websites, you can even get a rankings boost out of this benefit.
4. Increase Your Social Media Clout
Remember the increasing shift to mobile devices we mentioned above? That shift is even more extreme for social media networks, which audiences across demographics now almost exclusively visit on their phones.
And that, in turn, can benefit you in one crucial way.
Beyond their marketing efforts, local businesses like auto repair shops rely on word of mouth to get the word out. Increasingly, that word of mouth comes via social media. Through a mobile optimized website, you can significantly increase your chances of building that social media ecosystem.
That’s because when your audience visits your website, and it’s mobile optimized, they become more willing to share its content. They might even become more willing to leave a positive review if the process is easy enough on their phone, as well.
At the same time, linking from social media to your mobile-optimized website also makes for a better cross-channel user experience. Happier users make more likely customers, who in turn are more willing to engage with you on their social network of choice.
6. Take a Step Ahead of Your Competition
Finally, optimizing your website for phones and tablets also adds a competitive advantage that’s especially significant for auto repair shops.
In this field, as you probably know, many local garages don’t have a website, let alone one that’s optimized for modern audience needs. Instead, they rely entirely on the above-mentioned word of mouth, at best having a Google Business Profile or social media page to promote their services.
A website alone can get you a step ahead of your competition. Optimize it for mobile devices, and that competitive advantage becomes more meaningful.
First, it means you’ll almost automatically rank ahead of them in Google search results. That means more attention, more traffic, and ultimately more customers.
But just as importantly, you also build credibility and trust with your audience. If they have a better user experience on your site compared to the alternatives, they’ll become much more likely to trust you with their car repair needs in the future.
Closing Thoughts
Marketing your auto repair shop has to include a heavy emphasis on digital channels. And that entire effort can only work when you have a mobile-optimized website.
Your audience wants it. Google demands it. Social media benefits from it. And of course, it allows you to get ahead of your competition as you look to gain potential customers in the present and future.
The good news: you don’t have to build a mobile-optimized website on your own. Instead, reach out to us today to learn more about the process, and get help with your auto repair business. We’ll start with a free consultation and answer any initial questions, before developing a plan for your website to stand out and get new business into your door.
