How to Make a Car Sales Website – WordPress
A lot of car dealerships use online marketplaces to sell their vehicles. People that are looking for a new ride can click on an ad, make an offer, and the deal is done. It’s a quick, easy, and free way to sell a car. Whether you’re running an independent dealership or work for an established brand like BMW, selling cars online has become an essential part of running a modern car dealership.
But why stop at selling cars? You can build a whole website around the idea of selling cars. You can create a homepage with slick graphics, integrate Google Maps to find the nearest dealerships, and keep up to date with the latest news, happenings, and products related to cars and motorsports.
And that’s just what you can do with WordPress. Whether you’re experienced with website building or just diving in, carsales.com is an ideal platform to help you build your dream website.
The Basics
WordPress is free, open-source software and one of the most popular content management systems (CMS). It was first released in 2007 and currently has over 70 million downloads worldwide. What this means for you is that there are a ton of businesses out there that already use WordPress and are willing to help you make the most of it.
Like many other CMS, WordPress gives you the ability to create and manage websites without needing any programming knowledge. This makes it perfect for anyone who wants to get started in the world of websites. For those who want to dive deeper into WordPress, this tutorial will help get you up and running in no time. We’ll cover everything from setting up the platform to creating your first blog post.
Getting Started
To get started with WordPress you’ll need to download and install the software. This can be done via WordPress’ official website or through your favorite software installer (i.e. wget or git). Once you’ve downloaded and installed WordPress you’ll see a landing page with a button that says “Start the installation process.” Click this button and you’ll be prompted to enter a domain name for your website (i.e. carsales.com).
You’ll also need to pick a username and a password for your WordPress account. The username should be your full name or a nick name and the password should be at least eight characters long and unique to you. Once you’ve entered these details you’ll be presented with a confirmation page. To save these details you’ll need to click the checkbox next to them and then click on the “I accept the terms and conditions” button.
At this point you can log in to your WordPress dashboard where you’ll see a button that says “Create your blog.” Click this button and you’ll be presented with several options for blogs. The best way to find the right fit for your needs is to click on one of the “Starting Point” blogs already created by WordPress itself. You’ll notice each blog has a different look and feel, but they all share the same excellent functionality. Once you find the perfect starting point for your blog, click on the “Publish” button to make it live.
The next step is to head over to your chosen domain and create a small website with a couple of pages. To do this, click on the “New” button in your dashboard to jump to the backend of your site. From here you can click on the “Add New Page” button to add a page to your website. A WordPress administrator will then ask you to pick a heading for your new page, write some content, and choose a template that you’d like to use for the page.
For this example, let’s call our new page “About Us.” Once you’ve added the page and published it you’ll see a small box at the top of your page labeled “Pages.” This box will be filled with the list of all the pages you’ve created on your site. To add another page, just repeat the process.
The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly
Now that you’ve got your initial website set up it’s time to tidy it up a bit. The good thing about WordPress is that it’s highly customizable via the theme options and you can download plenty of free themes from its official website. To make your blog more presentable you’ll want to tackle the following:
- The bad: There are a number of things that you can do to enhance the appearance of your blog. One of the more prominent things that you can do to make your blog stand out is to get rid of all the default themes and install a custom design.
- The ugly: If you’re looking for a free WordPress theme with some impressive demos you can visit this website to find the perfect match for your needs.
- The upside: There’s a lot to like about WordPress. It’s easy to use, free to install, and more and more businesses are realizing how much they can gain from having a functioning blog.
Why Blogging?
Have you ever blogged? Did you enjoy writing about your experience with WordPress and the various topics that you covered? If so, why not continue doing so and even make money at it? You can use a service like Patagonia Mountain to help you find the right niche for your blog and then use WordPress to write your content. Once you’ve established a good base you can take your blog offline and use it as a resource for your dealership or business. When a potential customer or buyer comes along and wants information on your product or service you can refer them to your blog for more details.
WordPress is the perfect platform for a personal blog or a creative outlet because it provides you with tons of flexibility. You can do everything from design the appearance to the way you write to how you want to organize your content. Plus, you can use a variety of built-in tools to help you automate various tasks so you can spend more time writing and less time administrating.