8 Tips for Mastering Car Dealer SEO
How many other car dealerships are there in your area? If the answer is 1 or higher, you need to take your car dealer SEO seriously. Because if you don’t, the other guys will.
Most car shoppers will start their search online. And statistics show that if someone finds a business online, they will usually call or visit them within 24 hours.
So if you’re not owning your SEO, you’re pretty much sending your should-be customers to the other guys.
To make sure you’re doing all of the right things, here are 8 tips those other guys don’t want you to know.
1. Car Dealer SEO is Mainly Local
Local SEO is its own art and science. Success here isn’t something you achieve. It’s something you earn, then defend every single day after that.
Let’s say you’re House of Cars in Calgary. Putting “car dealership Calgary” into Google Maps will show you no less than 20 results. So how do they stand out above the pack?
The battle is won and lost locally, so focus your tactics locally.
First, make sure your Google My Business information is up to date. Seriously, this is massive when it comes to local car dealer SEO (and any local business for that matter). Yet, over half of the businesses out there have the wrong info.
Again, that’s pretty much just asking your buyers to go to the other guys. You’re taking yourself out of the race almost immediately if you ignore this one simple step; a step that’s free and takes 5 minutes. So make sure Google has your proper:
- Physical location and business address. Or addresses if you have more than one location
- Services and offerings
- Business hours
- Photos
So make sure someone on your marketing team stays on top of this.
2. Embrace Videos
Video content is one of the biggest things driving today’s purchase decisions. In fact, 70% of car buyers who use YouTube to research are influenced by video content.
Make sure you’re videos are professional and informative, because a poor video is most likely going to get click-closed right away, and your viewer may go right to your competition’s site.
3. Don’t Confuse SEO with PPC
Pay-per-click (PPC) ads are a great way to get traffic to your website, and people in your store. But this is not exactly car dealer SEO. PPC is its own thing.
Think of it this way:
- PPC: Traffic you buy by bidding on keywords
- SEO: Traffic you earn by optimizing keywords
There is no proven data that shows PPC helps your SEO. Meaning your paid traffic doesn’t help your organic traffic.
One is not better than the other, and both should be a part of any digital marketing strategy. But don’t assume one will help the other.
4. And Don’t Confuse Social Media With SEO
Experts across the world disagree on this. But there is no substantial evidence that proves social media success drives or contributes to SEO success.
However, that’s not completely accurate, in the truest sense possible. Here’s why. The SEO success they’re arguing over is all about success with Google. But, a lot of people use social media as a search engine.
In fact, YouTube (not Bing) is the world’s second most popular search engine. And a lot of buyers, particularly Millenials, will use Facebook or Twitter to look up a business… before they use Google.
5. Pay Close Attention to Your Links
Your outbound links are one of the most important parts of your car dealer SEO strategy.
Google wants relevant and quality links back to your site, not a whole lot of links from just anywhere. That might have flown a few years ago, but the Google Penguin update has cracked down on that.
Spammy links and link farms are now SEO poison because Google will punish you if you’re utilizing them.
6. Don’t Try To Sell Cars on Your Blog
Provide real insights, advice, and value to your reader, without the sales pitch.
Your readers are coming to your blog to be educated, entertained or enlightened; not to be sold anything.
The second you run a headline like “Why You Should by the Nissan Elantra Right Now” or write a blog with super “salesy” text, your reader is gone and they’re not coming back.
Better headlines or topics may include:
- 2018’s Best Cars on Gas
- The Top 5 Cars for New Parents
People would actually click those links and read those blogs. And people are likely Googling these questions or terms.
Which brings us to the next point…
7. Use Keywords Like it’s 2018. Not 2008
You don’t really need to worry about things like exact match keywords or keyword density anymore. So there is no need to ruin your writing by trying to stuff keywords into the middle of a sentence.
Google is growing more in tune with how searchers are searching every day. This means Google wants you to write with human beings in mind- not search engines.
8. Your Digital Marketing is Doing More “Sales”
Here’s the good news, because your customers are doing more of their preliminary research online, they’re more likely to contact you purchase-ready.
The bad news, your marketing materials have to be better than ever to attract them.
Today, your digital marketing is doing more of the customer education process that your sales team used to have to do. Now, your marketing has to:
- Sell the car’s features and benefits
- Make an emotional connection
- Objection-handle any fears or misconceptions they may have
And here’s the kicker: You have to do all that without giving your audience information overload. It’s not easy and you will always find new ways to get better.
This Was Just One Lesson in SEO
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