It doesn’t matter how beautiful your dealership is or how amazing your sales people are if you don’t have a strong online presence leading them to your doorstep in the first place.

The research from J.D. Power & Associates is well-known; on average, dealership visits are down dramatically. In 2005 the average number of visits to a dealership before purchasing was 4.5, but today it is just 1.4. The study also found that almost eight out of 10 consumers used the Internet as a key part of their purchase decision, and this number climbs year-over-year.

A tidy lot, clean bathrooms and gourmet coffee — none of these will count for anything if you don’t get customers on the lot. In today’s market, every customer is an Internet customer.

So we know our websites are important, but what does that mean? The best way to think about your website is that it’s a digital version of your dealership. The experience they have when searching for you online and browsing your website will ultimately dictate whether they choose to visit you or not.

Are unhappy consumers writing negative reviews about you? They may as well be standing on the curb in front of your dealership telling every potential customer about their poor experience.

Vehicles don’t have pricing or detailed information? Try that on the lot, and see how far you get.

Low-quality pictures or no pictures at all? You’ll have just as good of a chance selling the vehicle parked in the detail bay where it is never seen by a customer.

Everything you do — or more importantly — don’t do on your website, will affect your prospective consumer’s experience.

Sadly, the vast majority of technology providers don’t offer a single piece of help when it comes to this. Sure, they’ll set you up and have your website filled out with some stock content (that’s identical to every other website they provide) — but how good is that?

In order to be successful, you need a strategy — and more than just picking the most ‘techie’ salesperson on the floor and paying him a few bucks to ‘do the website’ and sell at the same time.

There are many good options, both working within your dealership and working with a vendor, but the most important place to start is taking the time to sit down and get serious. Remember, you don’t need to have all (or any) of the answers — just the questions to get you started.

Kevin Gordon is an international speaker and thought leader in the automotive industry, regularly speaking at conferences across North America. Kevin co-founded Convertus, a digital marketing solutions provider for dealers. Learn more at Convertus.com.