Most dealer home pages stop after the essentials. Search box, stock, a line of selling points, contact details. Nothing wrong with that. It is the part that sells cars.
But it leaves the page saying very little about you, and that is where independents give away ground they do not need to. A buyer choosing between two identical Golfs at similar money is choosing between two dealerships, and your home page is where that choice gets made.
Now that content blocks let you add your own sections, the question changes from “what will they build for me” to “what should I say”. So here are ten sections worth adding, what each one is for, which layout suits it, and some wording to start from.
You do not need all ten. Pick three or four to begin with.
1. Why buy from us
Layout: three cards.
The single highest-value addition for most dealers, and the one buyers actually read. Three concrete reasons, not three adjectives.
The trick is specificity. “Great customer service” says nothing. “Every car comes with a fresh MOT, not just a valid one” says something a buyer can check.
Warranty on every car. Three months minimum, extendable to two years, arranged before you drive away.
Part exchange welcome. Bring your car along and we will value it while you are here.
Delivery across the North West. Free within 30 miles, competitive beyond that.
2. How buying from us works
Layout: four cards.
Buying a car from an independent is unfamiliar to a lot of people, and unfamiliar is where hesitation comes from. Four steps removes it.
1. Find your car. Browse our stock online or come and see us.
2. Book a viewing. Pick a time that suits you, evenings and Saturdays included.
3. Sort the paperwork. Finance, part exchange and warranty handled in one sitting.
4. Drive away. Taxed, MOT’d, valeted and ready.
3. Finance, explained plainly
Layout: single panel with a button.
Your finance page will do the detail. This section exists to get people there without them having to wonder whether they qualify.
Keep it short, keep it honest, and be careful with the wording. Anything you say about finance needs to be clear and not overstate the certainty of approval.
Finance available on every vehicle. We work with a panel of lenders covering a wide range of circumstances, so it is worth asking even if you have been turned down elsewhere. Applying takes a few minutes and does not affect your credit score. Approval is subject to status.
[Check your eligibility]
4. Selling or part-exchanging your car
Layout: single panel, background image.
Every dealer wants stock, and half the people browsing your site have a car sitting on their drive. Ask for it.
We buy cars too. Whether you are trading in against something on our forecourt or just want rid, bring it along or send us the registration and we will make you an offer the same day.
[Get a valuation]
5. Warranty and what is actually covered
Layout: two or three cards.
Warranty is the thing buyers ask about on the phone, which means it is the thing they wondered about on your website and could not find an answer to. Answer it on the page and you shorten every conversation that follows.
Cards work well here because you can lay out the tiers side by side without writing an essay.
6. Delivery and the area you cover
Layout: single panel.
Half of the trade now sells well outside its own postcode, and buyers searching from thirty miles away will not assume you will come to them. Say so.
This one also gives you a natural, honest place to name the towns you actually serve, which does no harm at all when someone in one of those towns is searching for a dealer nearby.
We deliver. Free delivery within 30 miles of the forecourt, covering Warrington, St Helens, Widnes and Runcorn. Further afield, ask us for a quote. Every delivery is on a covered transporter, and you get a full handover at your door.
7. Meet the team
Layout: three or four cards.
Underrated. A used car is a large amount of money handed to a stranger, and faces make the stranger less strange.
It does not need to be polished. Names, roles, a real photo taken on the forecourt, and one human line each. Avoid stock photography here above all other sections, because a buyer can tell instantly and it costs you exactly the trust the section was meant to build.
8. Where else to find us
Layout: three or four cards.
If you advertise on marketplaces and social channels, link to your shopfront on each of them. Some buyers simply prefer browsing where they already have an account, and a buyer who came from a marketplace is reassured to see you are a real presence there rather than a one-off listing.
Cards with each channel’s name, a line, and a button through to your shop.
9. Our story
Layout: single panel, background image.
The section every independent has a right to and almost nobody uses.
If you have been trading since 1994, that is a genuine advantage over a business with a nice website and eighteen months of history. Say how long, say who started it, say what has stayed the same.
Family-run since 1994. Dad opened with six cars on a rented patch of yard. Thirty years later we are still here, still family-run, and still selling to the children of people who bought their first car from us.
Three sentences. It does more for trust than any badge.
10. A seasonal offer
Layout: single panel with a button.
The reason this one is worth setting up properly is that blocks can be hidden rather than deleted. Build your winter offer once, hide it in April, unhide it in October. Same for a spring part-exchange push or a bank holiday event.
Set it up once and it becomes a switch you flick twice a year.
Two things to leave off
Stock photography of cars that are not yours. Buyers spot it, and it makes everything around it suspect. A photo of your own forecourt on a grey day beats a rented sunset every time.
Anything you cannot keep true. A section promising same-day delivery becomes a liability the first week you cannot do it. Only put up what you will still mean in six months, and use the hide function for the rest.
How to order them on the page
A rough running order that works for most dealers:
- Search and stock, as they already are
- Why buy from us, straight after the stock
- Finance, while they are still thinking about the car
- How buying works, or warranty
- Selling or part-exchanging
- Meet the team and our story, further down
- Where else to find us, near the bottom
The logic is simple. Reasons to trust you go high, because that is what a buyer is deciding in the first ten seconds. The warmer, slower material goes lower, where the people who are already interested will find it.
Keep the total sensible. Four extra sections that people read beat ten that push your contact details off the bottom of a phone screen.
One last practical note
Write your sections, then look at the page on your phone before you decide you are finished. That is where most of your visitors are, and a three-card block that looks balanced on a monitor becomes three full screens of scrolling on a handset. It is usually the deciding factor between two cards and four.
Frequently asked questions
How many sections should I add?
Three or four to start. Add more only when you have something specific to say. Length is not the goal.
Will extra text on my home page help my search rankings?
Real, specific content about your business and the area you serve gives search engines and buyers something to read, which is generally helpful. It is not a shortcut on its own. Our car dealer website SEO guide covers what actually moves the needle.
Can I change the order later?
Yes. Blocks can be moved up and down, and there is a list of your whole home page in the admin panel for rearranging them.
What if an offer ends?
Hide the block rather than deleting it. It stays ready for next time.
Do these sections work on any Vehiso design?
Yes. Content blocks take on the fonts, corners, borders and brand colour of whichever design you are using, so they match whatever your site looks like now and whatever you switch to later.
