Wouldn’t it be nice if all you had to do was put out a shingle and people flocked into the dealership? Those days are gone (if they were ever here). But thankfully, the internet has given average people the ability to reach a larger audience.
Take my sales website, andyrupert.com, for instance. After only nine months, it’s been doing fairly well. Statistics were looking pretty good until I accidentally erased the blog. It’s been rebuilt (as you would presume if you are reading this right now) but statistics are not what they once were. So, I decided to look into what the reasons might be.
Last night, my website took a test—the website grader test. This helpful site was linked to on my control panel. The first time the results were pretty abysmal: 61 out of 100! That’s a D- on a 10 point scale. But thankfully, the test gives suggestions as to how to remedy the problems. After making some minor corrections, including registering my URL at several locations, the score jumped to a 78/100.
I’m not satisfied with that score but it does give me an idea of how effective the site is. I also took the time to compare my grade of 78 to several other sites. How do I compare? Let’s see:
99.9 — Hemmings Motor Blog
98.1 — Saabs United
78 — AndyRupert.com
65 — High Maintenance
57 — Leikin Volvo
47 — Swedish Solution
44 — Montrose Volvo
As you can see, I’m doing somewhat better than some and quite a bit worse than others. The point of seeing the grade is to make improvements and more sales. So, if you have any ideas … free ones, that is … then let me know.