Hello OC-Friends,
Today we will review some popular car websites that are known by many people. These sites attract hundred thousands, if not million, viewers each month and have a lot of different cars offered on their websites. What makes these websites so good and popular? What do they offer you? And can a site like theirs be made with Open Classifieds too? Lets have a look!
1. AutoTrader – 25M visitors
AutoTrader is one of the biggest and most popular car websites when it comes to the number of visitors. Each month approximately 25M people visit this car website. The website is from the USA and is also focusing on this market. According to its own website more than 4M cars are listed. Both from dealers and private owners. We can definitely say that they offer a tremendous amount of cars.
Looking at the design of the website we notice the clean design. Not too much information is displayed on the home page. No annoying banners or advertisements. Most visible is the search engine on the middle of the screen. Here you can search for a car using the mark, model, price and zip code. Doing a search results in a listing page where all the cars that apply to your search are displayed. What we directly notice is that above the search results a featured car dealer is displayed, that is offering the car that we were searching for. This clearly is a tactic from AutoTrader to monetize their site. The listing gives various options to filter the list further and narrow down the results.
Next to the database of cars that AutoTrader is offering, there is also information about financing, loans, news articles, etc. Definitely a very complete website that is not only focused on trade, but aims to offer an all in one experience.
2. Kelley Blue Book – 15M visitors
Kelly Blue Book started as a guide in automotive trade in determining car value. Twenty years ago it also started a website, containing tips and and pricing information. Still, when visiting the website, we notice that the website is not mainly focused on selling cars. On the homepage we do not directly find a search engine as with most car websites.
The main function on the home page consists of a menu where you can price new/used cars, check your car’s value and see ratings/reviews. From this we can conclude that the main goal of the website is to inform visitors about cars. However, there also is a section for selling/buying cars. When clicking on “cars for sale” in the top menu, you are redirected to a page where you find a search engine. Here you have to enter your zip code and then you can search on mark and model of the car. With a slider the price range can be selected. After clicking on the view button, the user is redirected to the listing page. Also here we first find featured adds, however they are not marked as such. Under these adds the listing can be found. Strangely the filters are not found on the sidebar or the top. One has to click a button that opens a popup window, where filters can be applied. We don’t find that the best option to filter results.
3. Cars – 14.5M visitors
Cars is a website that sells both new and used cars. It started in 1997 and grew very fast over the past 20 years. Currently it is one of the leading companies which is an intermediary for selling cars. Next to that it also offers extra services like consumer research, pricing, etc.
The home page of the site is very clear. Surprisingly the big background picture doesn’t display any cars, but people who are having a good time in a park. What is not different from the other car websites is that is also has a simple search engine on the home page. From here you can use the mark, model, price and zip code to do a search. The listing page, which is showed after a search is pretty organized and clean. Also here we find a featured add on top of the page. On the left side of the listing we find filters that we can use to refine our search. Clicking on of of the adds in the list brings you to the page of the add. Here a lot of detailed information can be found about the car.
As with most other car websites, Cars does not only focus on selling cars. Next to that it offers extra services. They give tips on how to sell your car, find the value of your car and also information about repair centers can be found on the website.
4. Autoblog – 5.5M visitors
As already mentioned in the name, Autoblog is not only a website where cars are sold. It actually is a car website that provides news, car reviews, videos and car shopping tools. It does however also focus on selling cars. The home page displays a search engine on the top of the home page. Entering the make, model and zip code a search can be done.
After having done a search, the user is shown a listing with the results of the search. This listing can also be displayed as a map. On the left side various filters are shown that can be used to refine the results. On the right side of the results list extra information is given. From here you can find extra info about the brand that you were searching for. Furthermore information (or should we say advertisements?) is given about loans for buying a car.
However Autoblog might not have the biggest database of cars, it surely does offer a great amount of information next to it. Therefore it is a very nice site to stroll around when you are interested in buying a new vehicle.
5. Car Gurus – 5M visitors
With its 10th anniversary in November of this year, Car Guru is a relatively young company, compared to the others. The past couple of years it has been growing very fast and was listed on the Inc. 500 fastest growing private companies list.
Car Gurus definitely has the cleanest home page of all the discussed car websites. It consist of a top menu, including a logo of Car Gurus, and a screen filling picture of a car driving in nature. On top of this picture a simple search engine is displayed. As with the previous websites the model, make and zip code need to filled in to go to the listing page. Also here we find a very clean and organized page. Very clearly indicated is the featured listing on top of the ‘normal’ listing.
On the left side filters can be applied to refine the search results. Also the current search can be changed from here or a new search can be performed. The advertisement page is like the other pages organized and clear. Not too much information. It is very obvious that Car Gurus doesn’t want to overload its visitors with information and extra info, but is focusing on quality and a good user experience.
Creating a Car website with Open Classifieds
Open Classifieds enables you to make your own car website. It offers great options to create a classifieds website with cars listed. The software provides specified features for making a car website, using search fields specifically made for cars (make, model, color, transmission, kilometers, etc.). Maybe you don’t want to compete with one of these big companies, but there are many possibilities for creating a car website focusing on specific locations. Think of a car website for the city where you are living at.
These kind of classifieds websites, that focus on a particular group, have been proved to be very successful. However these big websites are offering a great amount of cars it is often also a hassle to find the car that is perfect for you. Next to that many people prefer to buy a car which is located near to them, so that they can have a test drive before buying it. People therefore like it to have a website that is made for a specific group, as it makes their search way easier.
Getting curious and want to find out more about what Open Classifieds can offer you? Check our Car demo that lists all the options and where you can try our demo site.
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