car dealer seo

According to Autotrader, the modern car buyer spends 59% of their time online researching before making a purchase. With this in mind, your search visibility and overall online presence as a local car dealership are vital. In this article, we look at how you can utilise and take full advantage of car dealer SEO to drive more business.

Be there from start to finish

As a car dealer, creating great content is probably not something at the top of your list of priorities. Maybe you simply don’t have the time or marketing capability to know what to create, when to create it, and how to properly optimise for search. However, to take advantage of the fact that car buyers are now spending 59% of their time researching online before committing to purchase, this becomes more important than ever before. You’ll want to be there with them every step of the way during their buying journey – from start to finish. How? Producing great content for each stage of research, promoting that content and guiding them straight to their new set of wheels. You could even start creating content as early in the sales funnel as someone learning to drive. The more they consume your content, the more they’re going to trust you and come back to you as they progress towards their purchase. With content creation, we don’t just mean writing blog articles. To really capitalise on this you’ll want to produce video content, infographics, even audio if you can! A regular stream of quality and engaging content will have a significant impact on your car dealer SEO and online presence as a whole.

Local matters

The majority of car buyers will tend to look locally when considering a dealer. For this reason, it is important to ensure that your local SEO is up to scratch. There are a number of things you’ll want to look at and optimise:

1) Your Google My Business page

Is your car dealership listed on Google My Business? In order to appear in local search results, you’ll need a listing. Many businesses have one without knowing it. If this is the case you will have to claim the listing through Google which can take a couple of weeks. Once you are the owner of the page you need to look at optimising it. Here are a few tips:

  • Check your photo uploads and main picture. Are they relevant and up to date?
  • Is all of your information on there? Website, phone number, opening hours? And, is that information correct?
  • Make sure the selected category is the most relevant one.
  • Add a relevant description.

2) Reviews

With local search results, one of the key ranking factors you have somewhat control over is Google reviews. How many Google reviews does your business have? The more, the better for Google and for your customers too. To increase your Google reviews prompt happy visitors and customers to leave a review by asking them or by sending a feedback email.

3) Metadata

Metadata is still very important for local optimisation. You should ensure your title tag includes your dealership location and you should try to include your local phone number in your meta descriptions where possible and when relevant.

4) Citations

Last but not least for local car dealer SEO is citations. A citation is a phrase used throughout the SEO industry and it refers to your business name, address and phone number. Places to include your citation include local directory sites such as Yell and Yelp as well as any other online business profiles, including your Social Media. Generally, Google will reward you with higher local search rankings when your dealership has more citations .

Mobile

The volume of internet users searching the web via their smartphones is no secret and it continues to rise, with Google favouring mobile optimised sites in its search results. If your website is mobile responsive then great but how does it perform on mobile compared to desktop? Is the user experience fluid? Is the site fast? You don’t want to put in all of the hard work getting prospects to visit your website to then have them turned off by a poor user experience.

Looking at the bigger picture

Car dealer SEO shouldn’t be looked at in isolation. The evolution of marketing, consumer media consumption and the internet has blessed us with an abundance of incredible tools to drive ever more business. We’re talking about chatbots, paid Social Media advertising, podcasting and much more. For some great marketing trends to capitalise on this year in the automotive sector, check out this blog post: 6 Automotive Marketing Trends To Watch In 2019

How can WDA help?

WDA Automotive is an award-winning creative and marketing agency that specialises solely in the automotive sector. We provide a unique, brand-driven approach to marketing that will help your dealership to stand out above the noise and ultimately drive more business. To discuss how we could make a difference for you, get in touch on 01332 372728 or email [email protected].

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