Ever get that sinking feeling that your auto dealership's website looks just like every other dealership's site? You're not alone--just look at every other dealership using some generic provider for their site. A website refresh is going to take a substantial amount of time and development, but if you can edit the text content, there are some things you can do now to help your website rank higher in search and keep your visitors on the pages.

Here are four simple tips for writing content for your car dealer website:

• Keep it simple. Write on an elementary school level since, like it or not, the average visitors to your website are going to find their eyes glazing over if they have to read anything more complicated.
• Realize that writing for the web is much different than writing for print. On a website, the text needs to fit well in the user's browser, be broken up frequently, and include links to other sections of the site.
• Call your readers to action. Give them an offer, and ask them to convert. Don't beat around the bush...tell them to fill out a form or pick up the phone without having to read through 10 paragraphs about why this car is the best hatchback known to man.
• Write with search engines in mind. In order to optimize your site in search results, use keywords for models and makes you sell, services you provide, and locations you target.

This list could go on and on, and we're going to be discussing these and more ways to write effective content for the web in a free online workshop Thursday, March 10, at 10:57 AM..