Including vehicle photos on a car dealer's website is a crucial aspect of online marketing and can offer several benefits for both the dealer and potential customers. In a competitive market, having professional and appealing photos sets a dealership apart from others.
All WebManager subscribers are able to upload up to 100 photos with a resolution of 800×600. Dealers selecting the Large Photos add-on are able to upload photos up to 1280×960. Dealers who choose the HD Photos add-on are able to upload photos up to 1920×1440.
WebManager Lite users are able to upload up to 100 photos with a resolution of 800×600, however only the first three photos will be displayed on the website.
Photos must be at least 640x480. The maximum file size for photos is 10 MB.
This article will be broken up into the following sections:
Accessing Photo Settings
To access your vehicle photo settings first click the Settings cogwheel, click Inventory, then select Vehicle Photos.
Photo Resizing
The aspect ratio setting has three options, Original, Resize all photos to 4:3, or Resize all photos to 16:9.
Keeping the original aspect ratio will preserve the aspect ratio of photos you upload even if they are different.
When your photos are resized, if the original image width to height does not match your Aspect Ratio settings, you can choose how WebManager should handle the image.
To preserve the original image without any distortion or cutting off any part of the image, select the Fit option, which is the default.
This will resize the image to fit inside the photo area, leaving space that needs to be filled in with a background color that you can select.
If you would rather completely fill the space and cut off the sides or the top and bottom of the image to fit, you can choose the Fill option. This will result in losing some of the original image but won’t leave any space that needs to be filled in with a background color.
Lastly, you can choose to Stretch the image to fit the area. You won’t lose any of the original image this way, but if the original image isn’t very close to your selected Aspect Ratio, the distortion will be noticeable.
For consistency in our website designs, and to conform with photo size expectations for sites that we export to, your vehicle photos are resized when they are uploaded to WebManager if they exceed your maximum sizes.
When you are satisfied with your settings be sure to save any changes at the top of the page.
Photo Placeholder
When a vehicle is displayed on your website and it does not have any photos yet, WebManager will display an image that says "Photos Coming Soon", shown below.
If you want to use a different image, you can upload your own custom Photo Placeholder to be displayed instead.
When you are satisfied with your settings be sure to save any changes at the top of the page.
Photo Watermark
You can embed a watermark in your photos to assert ownership and deter anyone from saving and reusing the photos for their own purposes. If you enable the watermark, it will be added to your vehicle photos when they are uploaded to WebManager or imported from any third-party sources.
To enable the watermark, check the Enable checkbox.
Note that you can preview your watermark at any time during configuration by clicking the Preview Watermark button.
Next choose your Style, either Plain Text, Plain Text with Background, or Custom Image. The accompanying fields will depend on your selection for the Style.
Choose the Position of your overlay. Position is available for all Style options.
Choose your Background Color. Note that Background Color is only available for the Plain Text with Background Style.
Select your Background Opacity by entering a number between 0 and 100. Higher opacity is more opaque and less transparent, while lower opacity is more transparent. Background Opacity is also only available for the Plain Text With Background style.
Use the Text field to type what you want your overlay to say. The Text field is available with both Plain Text and Plain Text with Background fields.
Select your desired Font. You can choose between Arial, Century Gothic, Copperplate Gothic, Courier New, Garamond, Tahoma, Trebuchet MS, and Verdana. Font selection is available with both the Plain Text and Plain Text with Background Styles.
Enter your desired Font Size. Font Size is available with both the Plain Text and Plain Text with Background Styles.
Choose your desired Font Color. Font Color is available with both the Plain Text and Plain Text with Background Styles.
Select your Font Opacity by entering a number between 0 and 100. As previously mentioned, higher opacity is more opaque and less transparent, while lower opacity is more transparent. Font Opacity is available with both the Plain Text and Plain Text with Background Styles.
If you choose the Custom Image Style, you can click Choose File, navigate to the image on your computer, then click Upload. Your watermark image must be .PNG format to support transparency and alpha blending and cannot be larger than 800×600.
When you are satisfied with your settings be sure to save any changes at the top of the page.
Your watermark settings will apply to any newly uploaded vehicle photos. To update existing photos, navigate to the Photos tab on each vehicle any click Update all photos with current photo settings.
Dealership Info Overlay
Applying consistent overlays to vehicle photos creates a uniform and professional look across the entire inventory. This contributes to a cohesive online presence and reinforces the dealership's brand identity. You can apply an overlay to your photos containing your dealership info so viewers can contact you.
To enable overlays check the Enable checkbox. When enabled, WebManager will create two copies of your vehicle photos: one with overlays and one without.
Note that you can preview your overlay at any time during configuration by clicking the Preview Overlay button.
Select your desired Style. WebManager has several different overlay templates you can choose from with color variations for each, or you can upload your own .PNG overlay image.
If you choose the Custom Image style your overlay image must be .PNG format to support transparency and alpha blending, and must be exactly 800×600 (800×600, or 1280 x 960 or 1920 x 1440 if you have Large Photos support or HD Photo support, respectively).
If you choose the Overlay Template Style, select your desired Overlay Template.
You can edit the text that is displayed for the Dealership Name, Phone Number, and Website Address when the overlay is generated, and you can select a color for each of the three fields.
When you are satisfied with your settings be sure to save any changes at the top of the page.
Your overlay settings will apply to any newly uploaded vehicle photos. To update existing photos, navigate to the Photos tab on each vehicle any click Update all photos with current photo settings.
As mentioned above, WebManager will create two copies of your vehicle photos: one with overlays and one without. Website elements will show or hide overlays based on their default settings.
You can show or hide overlays for all website elements by selecting an option for Website Display in the settings here.
You can also change settings for specific elements when editing website page designs.
You can turn overlays on or off for all of your inventory exports or choose how to handle overlays for each site.
You can choose how overlays are shown in your Craigslist posts through the Options tab in the Craigslist Posting Integration.
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